My dog pees whenever I come into the house!

I adopted Sam, a one year old Chow-Lab mix, from a shelter about a month ago, and bathroom issues were immediately evident, but I was (and am) prepared to work through them. At first the issue was that when I got home from work, she would have pooped in my bedroom. This is no big problem, but I had to correct her so we could work towards a better system. My method has been to take her near the accident, make her look at me, and sternly say "No" once or twice. This must be a bad method, because after a while, though she stopped pooping in the bedroom, when I went into that room upon getting home she would pee on the floor*in fear, I assume. Now it has gotten to the point that whenever I come in the doog she immediately pees on the floor. This has become a vicious cycle because I feel like I still have to scold her for peeing, even if she is peeing because she is afraid of being scolded. I don't want my new friend to be afraid of me, what should I do?

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Originally Posted by Pacmanides

I adopted Sam, a one year old Chow-Lab mix, from a shelter about a month ago, and bathroom issues were immediately evident, but I was (and am) prepared to work through them. At first the issue was that when I got home from work, she would have pooped in my bedroom. This is no big problem, but I had to correct her so we could work towards a better system. My method has been to take her near the accident, make her look at me, and sternly say "No" once or twice. This must be a bad method, because after a while, though she stopped pooping in the bedroom, when I went into that room upon getting home she would pee on the floor*in fear, I assume. Now it has gotten to the point that whenever I come in the doog she immediately pees on the floor. This has become a vicious cycle because I feel like I still have to scold her for peeing, even if she is peeing because she is afraid of being scolded. I don't want my new friend to be afraid of me, what should I do?

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Alright- do this- walk into the house- casually, calmly ( no matter what you find now), walk past the dog- go do something normal- like getting a drink out of the refrigerator, put you belongings up, read the mail, and mindless chatter about nothing quietly so you are not stone quiet.. ( "hello self, well lets see- what can i make for dinner, oh and I guess I need to call mother later or something anyway self.. so... well.. latee dah...) then after a few minutes casually walk to the door, if the dog is following you with wagging tails and you dont have to leash the dog to take out, just let the dog out and go out into the yard and sit down- wait for the dog to come to you. After the dog does- look away really casually= that is dog language for I see nothing to get alarmed about.. If you can leave the dog outside for a minute, go back in the house, clean up if there was a leak, say nothing, wash your hands, go back outside.
If you have to leash the dog to go out, try not to bend over the dog and glance away as you hook the lead to the collar, then casually say " come on- lets go outside..." after the dog walks arounds a little = sit down outside again with the dog.. same talk..
Soon she will get it your arrival is no big deal, and things are just normal and quiet on arrival time. Too many people give their dogs treats right away when they come home.. The dog learns to anticipate your arrival which is nerve wrecking.. sort of like you waiting for kids to come home or a guest to arrive= you are looking constantly out the window.. same thing..

Have you considered crate training or blocking off that room when you aren't home. There really aren't many correctional methods you can use since she does this when you are gone. Maybe she's just not used to holding it that long.

Ah, you found out why that method doesn't work -- it only teaches them to fear you and become ashamed to go potty.

You need to simply clean up the mess and move on as if it wasn't a big deal. Then make a mental promise to NOT leave food out while you're gone during the day and make sure she potties before you leave for work. Feed her at night before bed, and a little in the morning an hour or more before you leave for work. Chances are that she'll poop before you leave for work. Chances are thats she's already afraid to poop in front of you, so you have your work cut out for you.

From all the "yelling" at her (thats what she sees it as) she has concluded that pooping is a big no-no... I know, you were trying to tell her that pooping on the floor inside the house was bad. Here's what she heard: pooping is bad. They edit out the "on the floor inside the house" part. So what do you do when a dog is afraid to poop in front of you? Never let her out of your sight until she finally poops.... then praise her as if she's just walked on water. Do this every time until she's no longer ashamed to poop in front of you, and she realizes pooping is a good thing.

Rule #1 for potty training: correction after the fact doesn't work. Catch her before she has to go potty, while she is trying to go potty, but never after. If she goes potty and you missed the before or during part, chastise yourself for not being there and noticing the signs and clean it up, promising yourself that you'll be there next time. If you can't be there because you're working, then don't let her have access to food, and most imporatnly crate her since dogs won't poop where they sleep

exactly...

^^exactly

get her a crate, your life will be way easier.

my dog used to pee all the time as a knee jerk reaction ( even if i looked at her wrong, lol) but now she knows i am not going to punish her, and if she needs to go all she has to do is let me know.

occasionally there are accidents, like when the mantenance guy came over for the yearly inspection and i grabbed her by the collar real fast to get her in her cage and keep her from running out the door, well lets say she must have had to go poopy, because thats what happened, lol.

basically you have to not make a big deal out of the mess, just make sure that she understands you are home and happy to see her, and aren't concerned about anything, my dog knows when i get home the first thing i am going to do is give her kisses and let her out. :)

I was able to train a neurotic cocker spaniel that i seen maybe for four hours a day twice a week to go outside. She was super submissive. (It didn't help that most of her owners mistreated her.)

She would pee as soon as you went to pet her or if you touched her.

What i did when i'd arrive at the house once i figured this out is i'd ignor her if we were inside. Since she was excited to see me i'd walk with her to the outside and pet her and praise her. She could pee to her heart's content. Then once we were back inside i'd pet her if she wanted me to, but if she started to pee i'd immediately stand up and ignore her. If she still wanted me to pet her we'd go right back outside.

While i was there on a weekly basis this worked. (Well at least with me, but her owners were too stubborn to try it my way and insisted she'd never be housebroke.) Then when i wouldn't be there for months at a time the training went out the window... of course. Her owners didn't use the method and continued to mistreat her.

Remember... praise is the key in training a dog to do just about anything.

You already have mortified your new charge, so i don't know if my usual method would work. ( Taking the dog back and forth between where they are supposed to go and where they aren't a few times and alternating the praise and scolding. ) I think in this case ignoring the bad would be a good idea. At least for now.

Have you made sure that he doesn't have anything like a bladder infection? Soemthing like that would cause him to not be able to hold it. (Not that the fear is a far fetched idea.)

Maybe i missed it, but how many hours are you gone? Is it possible for you to come home during your lunch hour to let the dog out? Do you have someone you would trust with your own life that you could have let the dog out?