I have a 13 yr Lab, fixed female and she is in great health. She does have arthritis, however she finished up a shot regimen a few months ago at the vet's to help improve her movements and it helped tremendously. So here's the deal, she started pooping in the house, out of the blue. Nothing has changed in her life, same food, same everything. Woke up to it Sat & Sun morn, skipped a few days and woke up to it Thurs morn. She is a rather lazy dog and will go straight from the house to garage without peeing/pooping like our other 13 yr old dog. Granted it is cold outside and she loves to be inside, but this is not acceptable. We put up with her weekly "water pukes" and she is destroying the floors with everything. Is it possible it's because she's getting old? It's just so hard to tell because she IS lazy. The only action she has ever been eager about it eating (of which we have to restrict because she is also over indulgent about food) and excitement when we get home. If she could, she would lay down to eat and never get up.. even lazy when she was much younger. We can't accept this as a part of her laziness. When we let her outside she instantly turns around and tries to come back in or she turns around and stands at the gate waiting to be let back in. It's as if she is choosing not to go to the bathroom in the one little possibility that we will immediately let her right back in. Sometimes I can stand there and yell at her until she goes, but I don't like that and mostly no matter how much I try and get her to go she just stands there and looks towards the house. We're getting to wits end about this. Any suggestions? We are going to stop offering her the comfort of the garage when she is outside in hopes it will force her to go poop, but that will also force her out in the cold until we can be sure she has gone. We cannot walk her so don't offer that. We have a huge back yard and it has never been an issue before.

I have a 15 year old spaniel mix with the same problem. If she has a clean bill of health from her vet, then it probably is age related.

I am sure the cold weather isn't helping her poor old joints either. You do need to enforce her staying out until she goes to the bathroom. With mine, we have to make certain that we aren't where she can see or hear us before she will go out and potty.

However, even when we have her out every couple of hours and watch her potty, accidents happen. Part of it is that they get to a place where they don't always realize they need to potty or they just can't hold it as long as they used to (just like humans, age takes its toll). Being thorough in your clean up and understanding of her age are about all you can do.

That's what I was fearing. All these years I have been praised by the vet for her health and quality of life. I'm not looking forward to the age old age for her because I know it will be difficult for her.. I'll be it, a lazy difficulty! Thanks again and I'm glad I found this site. Wish I had had it when I had my puppies :)

It is difficult watching them age as quickly as they do. Loving them and trying to ease their discomforts just doesn't seem like enough.

Hopefully, she will still have many more good days ahead and memories to make. :)