My fiancé has a 13 year old Italian greyhound and a 4 year old mini Aussie and they’ve been literal menaces since we’ve met 3 years ago.
I’ll get into how we got here and the steps I’ve taken, but here’s the TLDR;
Began caging the iggy because it had a herniated cervical disc and needed strict bed rest, but now that it’s feeling better we want to keep doing this (for reasons below). Despite having an appropriately sized cage and no dietary/GI issues, it is still pooping every night and just laying in it.
Is it separation anxiety (there were poopy marks all over the cage from him pawing at the sides), is it retaliation? Is this behavior we can work on, or is he too old to be introduced to cages at this point?
Timeline and background:
- Me and my finance move in together. I was in anesthesia school and got horrendous sleep because the dogs would just get up, walk around, shake, step on us. The iggy gets up and pees all the time so it has to wear a diaper (can’t tell if it’s senile or just a bad dog at this point). She agreed to them sleeping on dog beds in the room.
- While we were both at work during the day, the dogs were put in the common area with puppy pads, and I assume before we met the dogs were just used to peeing and pooping inside on puppy pads while she was gone because she didn’t really have rugs / mats in the living area.
- In our new apartment, the dogs would poop and pee on our area rug and any carpeted surface overnight or when we were gone, but almost never did when we were home. We had to throw away every carpeted surface in our living area. Eventually had to move them to the living room to sleep because they’d poop and pee inside our bedroom overnight, and I got sick of having to clean the carpet.
- Ended up putting a gate divider between the living area and kitchen. With training, we stopped free feeding and fed them twice a day, a consistent bathroom schedule, and a dog walker while we were both gone, indoor accidents became somewhat uncommon overnight/while we were at work (the iggy still pisses in its diaper whenever it pleases).
- The iggy ended up herniating a cervical disc and needed strict bed rest. We bought two crates and the Aussie has been doing amazing with it to our surprise. The iggy still peed in his diaper but eventually started pooping inside the crate. Initially we thought it was GI upset from the meds because it didn’t happen all the time and stopped for a while once his bowel movements were regular, but he has started consistently doing it overnight. We sized down his crate to the point he can only stand and twirl to lay down, but he still pooped and laid directly in it. He’s no longer on meds that might upset his stomach, he’s not in severe pain, and meals and bowel movements are normal at this point.
He barely pooped inside with the consistent feeding and bathroom schedule, but now with the cage he is pooping every night in the crate. Is this a lost cause? Is he senile and doesn’t care about laying in his own poop? Is it severe anxiety or just retaliation?
I’m pretty defeated and exhausted at this point. The crates initially made life so much easier because I didn’t have to set up a literal fortress every morning and night to prevent the dogs from soiling half the apartment… but now the iggy is making this a short lived relief. Anyone think this is something that can be worked on with training, or should I just give up and accept that the dog is too old and stubborn to be trained at this point?