Dog-Sitting: Advice Needed

In My Humble Opinion
1

My grandmother is out of town for a week, so I’m taking care of Maggie, her two-year-old Bichon.

Here’s my problem: Maggie is very reluctant to go outside to eliminate. At home, she has a doggie door which leads to a kennel run. My grandma says that the dog never has accidents indoors.

She doesn’t seem to like my yard. Yesterday, I thought her reluctance was due to the fact that it was raining and cold. I would take her outside on the leash and stand there and wait. It took her about ten minutes before she would even urinate. I waited for another fifteen minutes (in the icy driving rain) hoping she would defecate, but she just wouldn’t go. I could see that she needed to defecate, but all she would do was just stand there, whining. As soon as I gave up, she ran inside and shat on my rug.

This morning, I took her outside, and after about 15 minutes, she urinated and defecated, and later, I was able to get her to urinate again, but after I brought her back inside, I found a pile of tiny turds beside the sofa.

  1. I tried letting her go into the yard by herself, in case having an “audience” was what was bothering her. No dice. She ran to the door and stood there for twenty minutes until I let her back inside.

  2. I praise her mightily when she eliminates outside.

  3. She’s not sick at all, nor does she seem all that disturbed to be in a strange environment. As long as she’s inside the house, she seems perfectly happy, playing with my other dogs. She’s eating and drinking normally, and the two stool samples I have collected from my carpet have been normal.

Help me. I’m at my wit’s end. I’m so irritated, I feel like squeezing it out of her.

2

Just freewheeling here –

After an unsuccessful visit outside, bring her inside and put her in a crate, wait ten minutes and then go back out.
Is there a room in your house with a concrete/linoleum/tile floor? If all else fails, confine her there after she refuses to ‘go’ outside so as to minimize the damage.
It sounds like a separation anxiety/new surroundings problem that probably cannot be resolved behaviorally in a week or less.

3

That’s a weird one Lissa. You say at home she goes in a dog run. Maybe she’s not used to going on grass? Can you take her in the driveway or street? How about if you walk her? I know that’s the last thing you want to do in the rain, but sometimes they seem to go if they get a little exercise.

4

Bingo.

My dog won’t just go crap in the yard - she demands to be walked. If I just throw her out there, she (a) won’t go, and (b) will pee or crap inside later.

The best thing to do is leash the dog up and walk her around a bit until she goes.