Question by Becky M: My 12 yr old Grt Pyrenees dog has stopped wanting to go out in the back yard. Can I retrain her at this age?
Ever since her last visit to the groomer about 3 months ago, my dog (Belle – 12 yrs old), acts as if she’s afraid to go out in the back yard. She does have hip dysplasia pretty bad, but is still able to walk on her own. At first she would just barely go out far enough to potty and then come right back in the breeze way (we leave the door open for her to go in and out). Now she has decided she can go #2 both in the breeze way and the house. So far any piddling done inside has truly been an accident, but this problem is not. It’s not a problem with being able to control herself, this is being purposely done. We’ve tried going out in back with her and she just acts very timid and rushes back in as soon as she can. We’ve also put her outside and closed the breezeway door. She just lays right up against the door until we let her back in. None of it makes any sense. She always loved her back yard, was a great protector and not afraid of anything. To our knowledge, nothing traumatic has happened in the yard. What does the groomer have to do with going out in the back yard? Has anyone faced anything like this and what have you done to correct it? Can I retrain her to go outside again at this age?

Best answer:

Answer by got1bigdog
I’m on my second Great Pyrenees and neither of them has been particularly reliable about potty training if left to go out by themselves (or ask to be let out, in our case). The previous one got much worse about it in old age. In both cases, the only way we have been able to keep them from soiling in the house has been to walk them several times a day and keep them out until all functions have been performed – a nuisance in bad weather or when we’re busy, but less trouble than shampooing the rugs! And hey, Pyrs are worth it! Good luck with your old girl. Walking her may be a problem with the hip dysplasia, but more frequent shorter walks might do it. Other than that, you might try putting newspaper down in the breezeway, although to have enough newspaper for a Pyr you’d have to be a true news freak!

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