Question:

My husband is an Army reservist and has been on active duty for the last several months. Luckily, he has been stateside and can come home every few weeks for the weekend. Our dog, an almost three year old boxer male, defecates in his crate the morning after my husband leaves. It happens like clockwork. This is the only time he messes his crate and he is a great dog otherwise. Is this some kind of separation anxiety and what can we do to stop this behavior? Please redact my name. Thank you!!

ANSWER:

Hi there,

Glad your husband is on friendly soil – good news! But not good news about how your dog is acting out when he leaves!

It is hard to say exactly what is going on and I would almost bet that it is a combination of things that are causing this behavior.

First would be routine – I can only imagine that the weekends your husband is home, the household schedule is thrown out the window and I can’t/won’t blame you one bit if that is the case. Why wouldn’t it be?!? However, dogs are creatures of habit and any change to their routine can cause their digestive and eliminatory system to suffer a bit of irregularity. Try as best you can to keep your dog on his regular schedule when your husband is at home, even if it means getting up to feed and toilet your dog and then going back to bed.

Next could be a bit of possessiveness on his part too. I have not really discussed this with a behaviorist before and I am curious if our readers have ever had a similar or heard of a similar situation but I think dogs are possessive of their people. Twice I have had two different male dogs defecate on my bed when the sleeping arrangements have changed. Not fun waking up to an odd smell and a pile on the bed to say the least!

Does your dog normally sleep in his crate or only when your husband is home? Do you give him less attention when your husband is home? Does your husband give your dog ample affection? I am not sure how best to address/change this odd possessiveness behavior or even if there is such a thing. My best advice would be to try and keep everything as close to ‘normal’ for your dog as possible. Has anyone else experienced something similar?

Lastly, there could be some separation anxiety going on as well although I am not entirely sure of this. Next time your husband comes home, have him spend lot’s of time with the dog on the first day and then wean him off the following day. When your husband leaves, tell him not to make a fuss but instead to just leave. You could also take the dog for a walk around the block when your husband leaves so that when you come home, the house is empty – no long drawn out good-byes that may stress the dog out.

My only other suggestion would be to cut back a bit on his meal the night your husband leaves and then take him for a good long walk so that he has a chance to really empty out.

Hopefully this all helps. Let us know how it goes!

Ann