We are visiting our relatives for Thanksgiving, and brought Barkley (year old lab mix) along... He had an 8 hour car ride to get her and refused to go to the bathroom the whole day. (We let him out 4 times at rest stops in an 8 hour period, and gave him water) Is this normal?

Additionally, he has peed twice and pooped once in our family's home... he has never done that before at home except for the time he peed directly in front of a visiting friend. (See previous post). Is this a case of confusion?


Lastly, I have a general question... whenever Barkley eats something that tickles his throat or gets stuck, i.e. a piece of fuzz or thread off the floor or whatnot, he begins to lick the carpet if we are inside or eat grass if we are outside. This can go on for several hours! One evening, he ate something when I wasn't looking (no idea what it was), then proceeded to lick the carpet from 8-10 pm (we couldn't get him to stop!), then eat grass for almost the whole time on his evening walk at 10:00 before bed. We put him in the crate and he seemed to settle down and go to sleep, but I awoke at 3 am to the sounds of him eating his blanket! I got up in the morning and discovered he'd eaten 4-5 large holes in it! Needless to say, it was not pretty over the next few days... he had bowel movements and there would be pieces of blanket in his poop, and at one point, he pooped out JUST a piece of blanket! Pretty gross.

Is this licking the carpet continuously normal? Or is he fixated? It's very odd. Also, why the heck would he want to eat his blanket?

Occasionally a dog seems to feel they they should only eliminate in their own relief area and refuse to go away from home. I guess later he decided in your family's house was good enough. In the other thread I promised more help if you needed it. You need to think about what was happening. He doesn't have his regular door to go to. Even if he did go to a door, everybody may have been too busy to notice. Or it could be intentional, either a ploy to get the attention you normally give him, or deciding he needed to claim the house as his. As long as you are absolutely sure he had a good chance to go out, you can take drastic measures.

Catching him in the act of marking calls for stronger corrections than the
Otherwise effective "Bad dog!". When it misbehaves, throw it on its back, and
Growl "Bad dog!" right in its face. Hold it down until it lifts one back leg
To show submission. You can pick him up with your hands behind his front
Shoulders and hold him up with his back to you. Keeping him far enough away
To keep his head from smashing into your face, hold him until he stops
Struggling and relaxes. With a larger dog like Barkley, just hold up the front paws, leaving his weight on the back ones. Others like the squirt bottle. Fill it with water and a little vinegar or lemon juice. Give it a squirt in the face as soon as it misbehaves. Dogs hate that.

If nothing else, it will convince your host you consider it a serious problem and are doing something about it.

I vaguely remember my dog licking and licking the carpet some time recently, maybe Sheba before she went away to school. I don't have a good answer to that. I would take the blanket out of the crate. My dogs don't have bedding in their crates. Two month Nita is sleeping on a wire rack for now. With no accidents in the crate in the 2 weeks we have had her, I may remove it and leave her on the bare crate floor. As messy as the last blanket incident was, the next time he could choke to death or have an obstructed bowel. Dogs do fine without bedding, and it is too dangerous to trust chewers with it.

Not sure what to say about the throat trickle. Best thing is to not let him eat stuff like that. That is very difficult. If that seems to be the problem, maybe let him out and eat a little grass. Give him enough time outside so that it is out there if he does spit stiff up.

Why did he eat the blanket? I really don't know what goes on in those furry little heads at times, and don't trust those that claim to.

My dogs will start to eat grass after they have been running. They do this because they are thirsty. Its OK for a dog to eat grass. I wouldn't let the dog eat his bed though & if one of my dogs were to do that I would take the bed away.

Don't let your dog lick the carpet or chew on stuff in your house. If he does tell him "bad dog" and put him in his puppy pen as soon as he does it. Do it every time he licks the carpet, no hesitation. This will correct this behaviour.

If your dog poops or pees in your house. Rub his nose in it real good. Add a lot of "bad dog!" yells in there too, with a real stern voice. Then put him in his puppy pen and put the blanket over it so he can't see out and you can't see him.

Um yeah... I would definitely NOT listen to the round of advice given to you about placing your dog in his pen as punishment. If you do that, his destructive behaviors inside of the pen are far more likely to increase. A dog's crate should be their home away from home, and a refuge when they need it. You should absolutely NOT do anything to help them associate their crate with punishment, because they will eventually give you a difficult time about even entering their crate to begin with. That could be a problem if you crate them on a daily basis. I would say that the squirt bottle idea sounds relatively effective, as dogs do usually hate being squirted with water. I might hold off on the lemon juice or vinegar until it seems clear that it is needed in the case of your dog. You might want to install a dog door if at all possible, so your dog can let itself out as needed. They work wonders for dogs and are a HUGE relief for families too!

Um. This thread is 5 years old.