[llincoln]

I have a 10 month old min pin and we are still struggling with house training. He seems to know that he needs to pee outside, he even holds it through the night and when we are not home however, there is an occasional marking incident or times when he seems to be upset with us and he will pee inside right in front of us, but the main issue we are having is that he will not poop outside. We try to take him out every half an hour to hour when we are home, every time he sniffs around and pees like 5 times but will not poop, then as soon as we get back inside he sneaks off and poops, and it's always in the same spot. He is like a ninja! I watch him so closely, and I have caught him in the act a couple of times and rushed him outside telling him it's ok to poop and he still won't go. I have read up on the subject and I'm pretty sure I'm to blame here, he is ashamed to poop in front of me, but how can I ever reward and praise him for good behavior if he won't ever go in front of me?
I love my dog so much and feel so bad that I created anxiety in him. I am having a baby in five months and I really need to correct this problem before it comes. I cannot have dog poop laying around my house with a baby crawling around! If anyone has some tips or knows a great resource for this kind of thing I would really appreciate any help I can get! Thanks in advance

 

[llincoln]

Thanks so much for your response. I really like your suggestion about a feeding schedule, as of now we do not have him on a feeding schedule, I just fill up his bowl and let him eat when he wants, I guess I didn't realize this was a problem, we always free fed our dogs that I had as a kid. He kind of picks at it all day, he has such a short attention span he gets distracted easy and because he was still growing I wanted to make sure he was getting enough food. I'm pretty sure he is at his full grown size now, so if I do put him on a schedule, how do I know how much to give him and for how long to leave it out? How long would it take for him to need to poop after eating?
I do take him out on a leash every time, and I will try your suggestion of leaving him on the leash inside for 5 minutes and taking him back out. I have tried taking his poop outside and showing him but he refuses to look at it! I can tell that pooping has become a very shameful thing for him. I have also tried putting up a baby gate blocking his spot, he wined and cried for like 2 hours, never going all the times we took him outside, and then as soon as we had our eye off him for a second he pooped right in front of the baby gate. I'm telling you this dog is a ninja pooper! lol I really do watch him close but he is also very smart and sneaky! (part of the reason I love him so much, he really has fun personality ) Well, sorry to go on and on I was so happy to have a response and now some new things to try, thanks so much!