Strange behavior when defecating
Hello all,
My lovely rescue BT Phoebe has been with me for a little under two months. She's settled in well for the most part, but she's exhibiting really strange behavior when it comes to defecation. Let me explain:
She comes to work with me every day, and gets an early morning walk. Every day, without fail, she will defecate. The result is bagged and tossed, and everyone's happy. She's not at all stressed by it, her fecal matter looks just fine, and she seems to have no problems. Just natural dog behavior, as far as I can see.
However, she also defecates at about 7PM every night, and here's the problem: she fights and fights and fights NOT to go out. It started with her refusing to defecate in the backyard. So I then put her collar and leash on, and took her for a walk. This worked fine for a few days, but now she'll go out reluctantly, have a quick urination, then either try to head home or dig in and refuse to walk any further. She really seems to hate it, which is really strange, because normally she loves walking the neighborhood.
I have begun carrying her away from the house and down the street, and then putting her down. Eventually she will defecate (fecal matter seems identical to morning's, btw) and then we go home.
I want to emphasize that I have always talked to her gently and encouragingly, and praised her lavishly whenever she went, either morning or evening. So I don't think it's my behavior that's changed, just hers. She just seems to hate going out at night for some reason.
Has anyone seen behavior like this before, and can you advise what I should do? I don't want to stress her out anymore than she is, but on the other hand I can't have her soiling the house or hurting her health, either.
Thanks for any thoughts.
My lovely rescue BT Phoebe has been with me for a little under two months. She's settled in well for the most part, but she's exhibiting really strange behavior when it comes to defecation. Let me explain:
She comes to work with me every day, and gets an early morning walk. Every day, without fail, she will defecate. The result is bagged and tossed, and everyone's happy. She's not at all stressed by it, her fecal matter looks just fine, and she seems to have no problems. Just natural dog behavior, as far as I can see.
However, she also defecates at about 7PM every night, and here's the problem: she fights and fights and fights NOT to go out. It started with her refusing to defecate in the backyard. So I then put her collar and leash on, and took her for a walk. This worked fine for a few days, but now she'll go out reluctantly, have a quick urination, then either try to head home or dig in and refuse to walk any further. She really seems to hate it, which is really strange, because normally she loves walking the neighborhood.
I have begun carrying her away from the house and down the street, and then putting her down. Eventually she will defecate (fecal matter seems identical to morning's, btw) and then we go home.
I want to emphasize that I have always talked to her gently and encouragingly, and praised her lavishly whenever she went, either morning or evening. So I don't think it's my behavior that's changed, just hers. She just seems to hate going out at night for some reason.
Has anyone seen behavior like this before, and can you advise what I should do? I don't want to stress her out anymore than she is, but on the other hand I can't have her soiling the house or hurting her health, either.
Thanks for any thoughts.
Comments
Djamila is the same: After dark, she is extra careful outside, easy to scare by any cracking noise and she keeps things very brisk ... out we walk to the other side of the street, she does her business - sometimes I even have to convince her to do her #2 - then straight back home. Not a minute wasted.
When we are on the road, sometimes uit gets even worse and I have a hard time to even get her to make her business at all.
I don't know what it is, but some of them don't like the darkness.
It astonished me in the past, because I somehow thought that animals, as most of them can see far better than humans in the dark, are not afraid of it. Well, I was wrong. And giving it a second thought, I don't find it that astonishing anymore. I don't like the darkness much, either. And that does not make things easier, because my own mood transfers, too.
I didn't think that darkness would account for the issue, because it's
still dark when I walk her a work. But they have a lot of lighting
around the buildings and halls, so it's not nearly as dark as my yard. So I tried a little experiment today, and took her out a few minutes ago, when it was still daylight. After some very minor reluctance (overcome with treats), she trotted out and soon was leaving a present for the neighbor!
She then wanted to continue the walk, and had to be persuaded to come in!. . . What a relief! I hope this is the beginning of a new page for her.
If I am right I just want to hug her and hug her forever... People are crap, Bullies are everything.
It's heartbreaking. I saw it yesterday when I was removing a baking tray from the cupboard, so I called her over and *very gently* showed it to her, and then very gently "bopped" her on the back and head with it, calling her baby names and making "woosh" sounds. I was hoping to over-write her bad memories with something fun.
After a bit she relaxed and didn't cringe, which I think is progress of a sort.
She's a lovely, lovely girl, and she's a real attention-hog. Her favorite place is my lap, which can be a bit of a challenge. She's about 50 lbs and barely fits. We're quite the sight at work, with her flopped on me, and my arms trying to reach the keyboard!
Here it is:
Just took her out, no problems at all. She trotted out behind me and within a minute or two pinched her night-time loaf.
Whew! Now she's resting . . .
That's such a precious photo
I mentioned earlier I'm allowed to take Phoebe to work with me every day, thanks to the kindness of the folks at Florida State University. It's worked out brilliantly for her, because she can't walk 5 paces without hearing someone say "Oooooh, what a precious dog! Can I pet him/her?"
I always say "yes," of course, and grab the opportunity to tell them she's a BT rescue. Meanwhile she's just a little love sponge, absorbing all the strokes and coos with obvious delight. She's known all across the campus now, and even has her favorite spots (like Landis Green and the Starbucks by Dirac Library).
She gets to walk about 4 miles a day, and she just loves it. And so do I, because of all the affection she's getting. She just glows.
When we are on the road and take a break, Djamila hardly takes the time to do her business, not losing any minute of the time she wants to spend on looking around to meet someone, who will admire, praise and pet her. Once she found someone, she is overjoyed.
The other day I was joking around with my husband, stating that EBT's in my opinion would make perfect "emotional support" dogs, because they literally exude the scent of joy.
Phoebe is such an adorable girl, no wonder, everybody loves her!
I know she slept, because when she sleeps she drools a bit. And my shirt is now damp.
Love that girl!
Thanks everyone.
Then a lightbulb finally went on, and I thought - why do I care when she goes, as long as she goes?! Answer: because I would rather she do it when other people aren't around. So it was about me, not her.
So I just stopped caring about it. She wants to, she wants to. She doesn't, she doesn't. It's no biggie, because she's still pretty regular, and now she's much happier not to be under stress. What an idiot I am.
He really isn’t a fan of walking on the lead. He goes from pulling me down street to normal walk then sometimes NO movement. Like said earlier in thread, Eric to seems to not want to move of a night time. Most times in fact he doesn’t move. I have to really encourage him with treats and kneeling down and calling.
Also a few times where he hasn’t gone toilet outside he then comes in and does it. Luckily he goes in the bathroom on a puppy pad so it’s ok. However I have caught him eating his own poo now, if I don’t get to it in time.
As for the poop eating: Some people say that it can be triggered when the dog is missing key nutrients in its food. Although I do not believe that this is the only trigger for poop eating, it is definitely worth to give the look at the nutrition a try.
I have read it’s so they try to clean up as they feel embarrassed
Before the Bully, we had 2 boxers, one male and one female. They ate the same food but the female ate her poop and the male didn't. She would also eat his poop. When out and about she would eat anything, dog poo, cat poo, horse poo, dead lizards, dead birds, also rolling in anything that was dead or was stinky.
I guess.....some do, and some don't.
But if you are picking up after your dog, it should be manageable. It will not prevent the dog from finding "leftovers" of other animals when strolling through the woods off leash. But at least the average potty walk should be possible without this "extra treat".