Hello and welcome! What is your little poodle's name? Is he having accidents when you're home with him despite going outdoors to potty or are his accidents when he's home alone? Is it just pee accidents or scat as well?

 

Elco is his name. Just pee. When he is home alone snd at night. I cant leave doggie door open at night because we live in a rural area afraid of the other animals at night. Tried pee pads but he doesn’t go on them

thank you for responding

 

Adding to the questions above, how does his anxiety express itself? Does he seem reluctant to go outdoors at all? If so, does he pee when he's outside, or does he just tuck tail and head for the door as soon as possible? Has he had a vet exam to rule out any medical reason for this change: hormones out of whack, pain from bad joints or spinal issues, tooth issues, that sort of thing?

 

No he goes outdoors fine. Just a lot of barking and jumping on me when I have to leave or when I return. Gets snappy with visitors

 

Welcome!

One of the challenges with doggy doors is you may miss when Elco potties outside, which is a missed opportunity to generously reward him. You want to be right there to feed him something extremely yummy (little bits of boiled chicken breast work great!) so he builds a strongly positive association with outdoor elimination.

 

Welcome to PF 🐩

Has he been going out alone, without supervision? If so, yes to the potential for danger and to the lost opportunity for reinforcing the behavior wanted.

Are you noting that this is late at night, sleeping time only or anytime after dark?

If he's been alone outside, it's quite possible that something scared him. My boy, Remo, went through a phase where he just would not go in the backyard at night. I'm always either out with him or watching from the door. I never saw what might have changed his behavior but finally got the bright idea to leash him and go to the front where we start our walks and there are trees, trees that the p-mail is on. That worked! It took a few weeks, iirc, but I kept trying the backyard with him and eventually it became acceptable again.

Also, what form does his anxiety take and what are the triggers?

 

Dogs can be trained to go outside at any age, so don’t despair. You need to treat him like a puppy. Restrain freedom and use a crate when you can’t watch him. Take him outside a lot and stay with him until he goes, then praise, praise, praise.

Teach him to go on command; this will make your life so much easier. While he is peeing or pooping, just keep saying your command. Do that for a whole month every time he goes and then he should understand.

 

I have a standard poodle and a cockapoo. Neither one of them will go outside without someone watching them. At night, I need a flashlight to scan the yard to make sure there is nothing out there. Our fence keeps most things out, but I know we have foxes, bobcats, coyotes, racoons and owls in the area at night. During the day there are large birds that might be willing to try for a small dog. Mine are large enough they just sit and watch them. A previous dog was afraid of squirrels for years because one got to close when he was little.
Your dog may just be afraid of creatures outside.