by Tonya
(Detroit)
Bella will hold her pee and poop as long as she with someone but once she’s out of our sight she goes.
I’ve tried putting her in her crate at night, it only gets worse. She drools a river and poops in her crate. It’s awful. If I leave her in the room downstairs, she’ll relieve herself even after I’ve taken her out before bed.
She has dinner about 5:00PM. When she sleeps in our room she’ll hold it until we get up.
Please help!
Hi Tonya, from what you’re describing it sounds to me as though your pup’s problems aren’t so much that she can’t control her bladder/bowels normally, but that she has severe separation anxiety and the stress and fear that she feels when you’re out of sight basically forces her to evacuate her bladder and bowels… this is out of her control and similar to what happens to any creature (or person) when they’re terrified.
As she won’t pee/poop when she sleeps in the room with you, if it’s at all possible I’d allow her to do that for now while you work on her separation anxiety issues.
There are natural supplements and products, medications, and behavioral strategies that you can use to help her with this problem. I’d recommend starting out by looking at this page and following the links to other relevant pages… Separation Anxiety In Your Dog
To start off with I’d also suggest buying a pheromone collar for her and a couple of pheromone diffusers to use in the rooms where she spends most of her time.
These work by giving off a natural chemical which has a scent which calms dogs without any side effects or dangers. It will probably not be enough to calm Bella significantly at first as she seems to be very anxious indeed, but it should ‘take the edge off’ a little bit and you can combine it with as many behavioral strategies as you want, and also with natural or medicinal products.
This isn’t a housebreaking issue, it’s a behavioral condition. One that is fairly common and is very manageable once you understand what’s happening. It just takes time, patience and a bit of ‘trial-and-error’ to find out what calms Bella and relieves her fears.
Hope this helps. I wish you both lots of luck! ~ Sue