It is pretty unusual that a dog will poop where he sleeps. Sometimes male dogs will mark with urine around the house, but not poop. (also, remove the rug, hard floors don't hold the odor and are less attractive to dogs for their bathroom needs). Or maybe he is sick, has some stomach problems, can't tolerated the type of food he's getting or the like. Maybe a trip to the vet to get him checked out would be a good idea.

Also sounds like he's still adjusting to a new home.
If he was kept in a laundry room at night in his previous home, then keeping him in a routine he's familiar with should help prevent the 'surprises'.

Besides keeping an eye on the loose stools, and having him vet checked, you might consider changing his feeding schedule in the evenings if he's eating late. Walking him after the evening feed and again right before bedtime should help him adjust. Try not to feed him right before bedtime..............

Have you made any changes in his diet recently?

My thought....he's "mad" and forcing the poop out, my dogs do that. I finally had to kennel then when we're not around so they stop doing that. We'd had a lot of changes...kids had moved out within a month of each other, so it's "us" and "them", we moved bedrooms around, etc. Since they won't poop in their kennel, it was the best thing (I was getting too upset with them, and even though I knew I couldn't dicipline them, I wanted to and so it was best solution).

Vickey-MN

Try taking your dog for a walk for thirty minutes as late as you possibly can each evening before retiring. I suggest too that you take the dog in for a check up since what you write is that this is not an every night occurance. There could be any number of medical reasons including a bad back which might be the cause. It may not be behavioral at all. Please post back with an update on how you and your pooch are doing

Something no one mentioned.....Praise him like crazy when he goes potty outside, to the point your neighbors will think you've gone bonkers.
Also, you didn't mention the size of your laudry room. You may need to keep him in an even smaller area or crate until he breaks the habit.
Good luck and congratulations.

Update: There have been no more accidents since Tuesday morning, and he seems to be back to normal. I'm thinking that there may have been two possible causes: DH gave the dog a piece of lamb cooked in tomato sauce on Sunday night ( I avoid giving him table scraps ), and also my son had a hockey tournament last weekend, so the dog was alone more than usual. I personally think it was a behaviour issue, since his previous owner told me he started doing this when things changed in her home.

I do praise him a lot when he goes outside. Generally he gets a short walk first thing in the morning, a long walk around 9, another walk around 1 when my daughter comes home from school, and then another walk around the block in the evening. Also, I let him out a few times during the day when I think he has to pee. He won't poop in our yard- he usually goes after walking for 5 minutes or so.

He had a doggie door in his old house, but I didn't get one because we have a lot of lizards outside, and I don't want them coming in the house, especially now that it is getting colder out. I know other people with doggie doors who have problems with lizards coming in the house. I am home during the day, so I can let him out often.

He had a self feeder with his previous owner, but I put his food out in the morning. He usually eats a bit first thing, and then he eats when we are sitting at the table, a bit more at lunch, and then at dinner. Unfortunately, sometimes that is later in the evening, since my two sons have hockey practice 4 nights a week. I don't give him too many treats, but he loves carrots, and the vet told me he could have as many as he wants.

I'm hoping this was just an isolated incident. We have another hockey tournament next weekend, so we'll see if it happens again. I don't make a habit of leaving him alone for long periods of time, but sometimes it can't be avoided. It is never more than 2-3 hours, and I try to walk him just before I leave so he will be ready for a nap while I'm gone.

He really is a great dog, and I just love him so much.

Sounds like you are doing all the right things.
When we adopted our second dog we had some similar problems. The first one was that he was scared and he was scared to spend time outside. He wanted to be with us and the noises outside would scare him. So he would go out and piddle but didn't spend enough time to poo. My husband was in the living room and he saw him start to squat and was able to usher him out the door in time. I knew what the problem was because I could tell he was scared to be outside. He didn't want to take walks much either because I think he was scared of being given away again!

then a couple weeks later I woke up to poo three days in a row. The foster would wake up at 5 every morning and we don't wake up that early so I think he was having trouble adjusting to our schedule. I make more of an effort to wake up earlier and to make sure he went poo everyday. Our other dog we just let out and he loves being outside laying around so we never had to make sure he did his stuff. Our new boy hates being outside! every morning before work we let them both out and play and he will do his thing and then walk up to the door and sit there waiting until we are done playing with our other dog and are ready to come in.

I don't think your dog is mad, I am not sure if they do that. I would think he is scared and nervous and this would affect him and could cause his digestive system to get out of wack also.

and YES! table scraps really bother your dog's digestive system. Reminds me of last year at thanksgiving. All our relatives were feeding our dog under the table and when I brought him out he had diarreah. I felt aweful!! Even a small amount of table scraps can really bother a dog.

he sounds like a good dog, he just needs some time to adjust. Have you tried a crate also? Then he could sleep in the bedroom with you. Our one dog lies in his crate often. He can see us go about our daily business from it, but he still feels comfortable and protected. We threw a blanket over it so it is dark also.