Jack is a 5 yr old, neutered, lab mix. He rarely poops on walks. As soon as we go out he'll pee. After that he's constantly stopping and staring at...anything (and sometimes nothing). He and my other dog poop in the back corner of the yard, so I'll take him there and walk him back and forth. This means that I'm trying to walk him and he's stopping every five seconds to stare at whatever. The first walk in the morning usually only lasts 20 minutes. The later walks last anywhere from 20 minutes to 45. It doesn't matter what time of day or how long we walk, he gets so distracted staring at things (it's pretty rare that there are any dogs, wildlife, or people visible or audible to me) he won't poop. Recently I've started putting him in his crate when we get in, then a few minutes later take him out again. Never works. The other dog has a cue to get on with things ("Hurry up") and I'm trying to use that for Jack as well but I don't often get the opportunity. On the rare occasions that he does poop he gets lots of praise and we do something fun outside (so he doesn't associate pooping with having to go inside immediately).I have no idea where the poop is going. He's not going on the floor, so unless he's eating it during the day, I have no idea. He checked out fine at the vet so he's not constipated. He gets fed twice a day. Once at 3:30 am and once at 5 pm and he's walked around 3 am, 4:40 am, 6:30 am, 11 am, 3 pm, 5:30 pm, 7 pm, and 9:30 pm.
How can I get his attention on the business at hand?
Our dog used to do the same thing. We take him out and he'd run left, right, roll in the grass etc. etc. Everything but poop. So what we started doing was taking him to the area where we wanted him to go and then we'd just stay in that one area, letting him sniff to his heart's content. After a few minutes of sniffing every nook and cranny, he'd finally go. When we'd walk him around, he'd be too busy looking around and everything and he wouldn't go. But once we got him in his area and he sniffed out everything there, he was able to get to the business at hand and go. Then, we'd finish the rest of the walk.
The next day he wouldn't poop. The day after he did. Yesterday he wouldn't go. He got to the point where he just laid down (I guess he got tired of just standing there). That was at 9:30 pm. At 11:00 pm he pooped on the floor right in front of my husband. Took him outside immediately and we're back to the whole staring off into the distance, not wanting to do anything else. I'm going to keep going with the long lead and try to wait until his attention comes back to the business at hand, but I'm going to have to start crating him at night if he doesn't poop because I really don't want cleanup duty at 11 pm when I have to get up at 2.
