You haven't trained her to be happy when left by the sound of it. Take a look at the sticky on separation anxiety.

As for toileting why not slip the lead on and take her in the garden and encourage her to go, then praise her.

It sounds as if she may also be messing because she is stressed, so raising your voice will make things worse.

Why does she have to be shut away when visitors come.

 

You haven't trained her to be happy when left by the sound of it. Take a look at the sticky on separation anxiety.

As for toileting why not slip the lead on and take her in the garden and encourage her to go, then praise her.

It sounds as if she may also be messing because she is stressed, so raising your voice will make things worse.

Why does she have to be shut away when visitors come.

because she wees everywhere

 

The weeing when you raise your voice or nudge her off the rug is called 'submissive urination', it's something that less confident dogs (both sexes) do to signal that they will not offer any resistance to you. It would be better to put her lead on and take her out into the garden, or for a short walk up the road. The weeing and pooing in the conservatory sounds like separation anxiety - read the 'sticky' at the top of the first page of this section of the forum. You may find that putting her in a crate works better, as she's less likely to be happy to foul her bed in it.

She sounds just as unhappy as you.

 

Only use a crate if she is used to one and happy otherwise that will probably freak her out even more!

 

shes never been in a crate and this isnt my first dog however its my first small dog, and how do you train a dog to be happy when left, shes got a huge amount of toys and not left for long

 

Hi i wonder if anyone on here can give me some advice please, i have a shih tzu who will be 3 years old this Christmas and to be honest I've had enough. where do i start, i'm home all day with her but go out occasionally, when she is left i always let her out in the garden to do a wee, and then leave her in my conservatory while i'm out, when i return she may have either done another wee or even poo'd and jumped in it and then proceeds to jump at my windows, this could be after only 30 mins. Another occasion will be before i go to bed i'll ask her to get up to go in the garden to do a wee and she will refuse to get off the rug, i'll give her a nudge and she will get up and go by the sofa and wee. If she goes in the garden she will play and then stand by the door crying to come back in or if i have visitors and i need to pop her in the conservatory she run and jump at the doors continuously for upto 2hours. if you raise your voice she lays there and wees and doesn't seem to care i feel she is ruling me
help needed!!!!!!!!

The problem may be that because you are there all day and so much and I assume she has constant access to you when you are in except in the situations you have mentioned it sounds like there is a possibility that she has become over dependant, clingy and cant cope on her own when you go out or shes separated from you.
Inappropriate toileting can be a symptom of separation anxiety and not coping.

With the night time issue, I'm assuming she is left overnight? Dogs get very clever at reading cues and learning routines, so if shes left at night she quite possibly knows whats coming, last wee and your off to bed and shes going to be left alone so she doesn't want to move and when you make her she wees. Same with the crying to come back in, and the popping her in the conservatory when visitors come that's why she may be throwing herself against the doors.
The laying there and weeing when you raise your voice or she is told off sounds like submissive urination to be honest, does she ever roll on her back and lift a back leg exposing belly and genitals when she does it or do things like averting her gaze turning her head away, and things like lip licking too? All these and submissive urination are usually signs of an unconfident anxious or fearful dog.

We of course cant see her and the situations and exactly what she does, we can only go by whats in your post and things based on general dog behaviour, but from what you have said it seems possible that you have an unconfident anxious dog who cant cope alone or with being excluded. She doesn't sound like she is ruling you, peeing out of spite, or knows what she is doing/ doing it on purpose or to get at you, as you might think. It sounds more like you have a misunderstanding.

What you will need to do is some separation/alone training, and a rethink how you do things. It wont be an overnight process but if you are willing to try and put the effort in you can resolve it and we can give you some hints and tips that will often work. Aside from that it would mean getting in a behaviourist to assess her properly and give you a tailor made management programme to help, with back up and follow up visits. Is that something you would consider?

 

Based on your two answers so far, and the fact that she wees everywhere, first thing I would do is go back to complete basics with the toilet training like you would a puppy and start over again to re-enforce the right and only place is outside, but more importantly make it a positive thing rather then a negative thing, she is going to get told off over. Take her out regularly and after eating playing and sleeping, when she starts use a word of choice in a happy encouraging voice, she will associated that word eventually with toileting and you should later be able to use it as a toilet cue word. When shes finished lots of praise and a couple of treats.
If she has an accident don't tell her off, don't get angry or stressed she will pick up on your tone of voice and body language even if you don't tell her off. Any accidents just clean up with a special pet stain odour remover.

I would also start to give her wind down activities and periods away from you when you are in. Have you somewhere to do this other then the conservatory that has easy clean floors as she may well have a bad association with the conservatory and be better elsewhere. If you can use the kitchen, I would use a baby gate to separate her,
dogs sometimes do better with a baby or dog control gate as its not so isolating as having a solid closed door shut on them.
The best time to start is after she has had a good walk or play session when usually they are more tired and ready to settle. I know she has toys and lots of them, but a pile of inanimate toys just left laying around soon become boring and are no substitute for the access and company they crave and cant do without.
Does she ever have chews or kongs. Kongs are hard rubber hollow toys the kong classic you can fill with wet food and all manner of things the wobbler you can fill with kibble. These are interactive and rewarding and those or chews are a good thing to start leaving them with when you begin the training.
Other things that can help stressed anxious dogs are putting an old t shirt or jumper in their beds so they still have your smell, some like a soft toy too, leaving a radio on can help rather then leaving them in silence on a talking station as the sounds of voices can be comforting. It may be worth investing in an adaptil plug in diffuser what these are and how they can help are on the link.

http://www.adaptil.com/uk

Stressed anxious dogs are usually not to receptive to retraining so something like zyklene or kalm aid may help too again details on the links.

http://www.zylkenepet.co.uk/

https://nutri-science.net/kalmaid-for-small-animals/

Ideas for kong fillings to are on the link below
http://www.kongstuffing.com/

What you need to do is start when you are in, and after a walk or play session, take her to the area, and leave her with a kong or chew, it provides self amusement and also makes a good association with being left. No good byes no fuss just leave. You will need to return before she starts to get really stressed. Even if its for literally minutes let her out but ignore her for a further minute or two then call her and give her lots or praise and a fuss. You then build up these times in very small increments of time while you are in and make it normal by doing so. You then start to keep the same routine when you do go out or visitors come.

There are other things you can do but its likely not a good idea to give you too much to do at once. Other suggestions would be to crate train which again will take time and work
but may help. You will also have to work on her behaviour when visitors are coming too to get her over the issues that causes.

 

 

thank you so much, yur advice has given me food for thought, i'll go out tomorrow annd buy a kong and will try your ideas, i really appreciate it thank you xx

 

See how you go with those ideas and then maybe if you do get an improvement and she starts to be a lot better which she hopefully will, then you can maybe start to tackle and work on the other issues, like visitors coming so that she doesn't need to be excluded in future.

 

shes never been in a crate and this isnt my first dog however its my first small dog, and how do you train a dog to be happy when left, shes got a huge amount of toys and not left for long

The sticky has lots of tips to try

 

As always there has been a lot of great advice on here.

I had to get a behaviourist in for my Husky, who I rescued just before his second birthday. I was his fourth home and the majority of his life, prior to coming to live with me, had been spent at Battersea or locked up in flats.

Needless to say, when I brought him home he was a mess. I called in the behaviourist after he destroyed my carpet and curtains in the lounge and bedroom curtains. He had also peed all down the stair Capet and had frequent bouts of diarrhoea on the hall carpet (he never had diarrhoea any other time). The behaviourist explained to me that he was so insecure that any confidence he had was drawn directly from me. So if I was out of sight, he just started melting down.

He told me that I had to do quick 5 minute bursts of training with him, just on one command at a time, with lots of treats and hugely over the top praise and cuddles every time he did it. In his head he started thinking "I can do this" and very, very slowly his confidence started to build. I was also told the Kong trick - give it to him at random times, so he doesn't associate it with having just done something, or just about to do something. Then, after a few times, quietly and with no fuss go into the garden and leave him to it. Come back in a minute later as if it's the most normal thing in the world, so don't acknowledge to him that you've been anywhere. Then start building up the time away, but always remaining relaxed about it.

Unfortunately I made the mistake of letting him see my frustration a couple of times, and that set the recovery right back, as it knocked his confidence badly. It really is so, so difficult to remain cheery when confronted with a carpet ripped to shreds.

Now though, 6 months down the line, I don't think he cares where I am, just so long as I don't forget his supper

Good luck, I really hope it works out for both of you.