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why doesn't my dog want to use the bathroom?

My dog will not go out and use the bathroom on her own accord. When we let her out she won't go off the deck (she has sometimes squatted on the deck to pee and not because she had to go super bad) I have to literally push her off the deck or use her correction collar (on the beep setting). Once she is off the deck she stands on the side walk and stares at me. I then have to force her to go off the sidewalk and out into the yard. once she is out there she usually pees and poops so obviously she had to go. I use the same commands every time and praise her when she does this but it doesn't help. she is 7 years old. I have checked her paws and the grass to see if something could be causing her pain and there's nothing. she can go stand in the yard for 10 minutes and do nothing yet come back inside and submissive/excited pee what looks like an entire bladder full of pee.

She has a lot of other issues but we get so frustrated with the fact that she won't just run out and use the bathroom. she has no problems going in the grass when we walk her.

2 Answers

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I'm not sure of the reason why, but my guess is that she doesn't want to leave her perception of safety from the deck (and pushing her off it and using a correction collar likely doesn't help in that regard). With walking, nature usually takes its' course. My suggestion would be to simply leash walk with her (even if it's a brief walk/bathroom stop to a grassy area) instead.

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I have a poodle that behaved similarly. He didn’t want to go out in my backyard. Then I found he would prompt me to go to the frontyard. My dogs had a flea problem.

Long story short, he had decided that he was picking up the fleas from the backyard. When flea problems solved, he went out in the backyard happily.

It is possible your dog has made a similar determination (about something, not necessarily fleas). Observe her closely, can you take another route? Does she respond differently then? Watching her nuances may help determine the underlying cause and lead to a solution. Good luck.