Almost 1-year-old potty training question

[erin_ohagan]

Dublin will turn 1 at the end of the month.

 

Yesterday, I gave her a new bone at about 3:15PM. She chewed away on it for almost 2 hours, taking breaks to drink some water. This is pretty common for her when she gets a new bone. She gets REALLY into it and it makes her pretty thirsty. At about 5:30 I let her out to potty and then she fell asleep. I work from home a couple of evenings a week and last night I had a shift from 6:30 until 10PM. I let her out again at 10PM.

 

When I woke up this morning there was a large puddle in the kitchen. I'm not sure when she had the accident. It could have been last evening or even last night. Dublin's potty alert is really subtle. She just goes over and stands by the door. It can be easy to miss, which apparently I did last night/evening.

 

How normal is it for an almost 1-year-old dog who has been potty trained to have an accident again? Or, am I making a bigger deal out of this than I need to (pretty common thing for me ((smile))).

 

Because of Dublin's history (she was rescued at 5 months from a dog hoarder who kept her in an outdoor kennel with 18 other dogs), when I first adopted her at 6 months we worked really hard at potty training and I would let her out almost every time she alerted. As a result she has not had an accident in the house since September. However, I have been weaning her off of this because many times when she alerted to go out, what she really wanted to do was a perimeter check of the yard, or to sniff around or something else other than going potty. I have been trying to train her that alerting is for potty only.

 

Additionally, on days when I have to go into work, I have been having a friend let her out in the middle of the day. Is the fact that she's not been asked to hold it longer than 5-6 hours other than overnight backfiring on me? That is, should I be weaning her off of mid-day potty break so that she can learn to hold it longer? How can I start to do this?

 

Thanks for the input everyone. She's my first dog as an adult and sometimes I feel like I REALLY big rookie!!

 

She sure is fun though....here's a picture of Dublin, aka Double Stuff, Double Stuff Oreo Cookie, Double Trouble, Dubs, Double Mint Gum, Double Dutch and finally Sweet Pea.

[GentleLake]

Some people don't consider that a dog is reliably house trained until they're a year old. You're kind of on the cusp of that age.

 

That said, I suspect the accident yesterday is more a factor of her drinking more water than usual -- perhaps for some reason even more than she usually does when she gets a new bone -- and she just couldn't hold it.

 

You said you let her out at 10:00 p.m. When did you actually go to bed? I always let my dogs out for a potty break last thing before I go to be to make it easier on them.

 

My only suggestion -- other than making sure she's let out last thing before going to bed (if you didn't already do that) -- would be to give her her bone earlier in the day so she can be finished with it and all the extra water drinking that accompanies it earlier. If you've given her the bone earlier, you could even consider taking her water up at a certain time in the evening so she's not still loading up with water.

 

I used to have dogs who would wake me up in the middle of the night if they had to go. My ~16 y.o. was one of those dogs. For some reason, she stopped doing it 4-5 years back, and now if she has to go at night she won't wake me up, but has an accident instead. She's crated now at night, and will whine if she has to go out, which is rare. Go figure.

 

I'm not sure if it's coincidence or not, but my other 2 younger dogs don't usually wake me up at night either. It doesn't happen often, but I will occasionally wake up to find a mess. So I've adjusted their feeding schedule to earlier in the day, which has helped considerably.

 

Their potty alerts are often very subtle, too. Well, Tansy will scratch at the door, which is not so subtle, and went through the same phase of asking to go out all the time when she really didn't have to potty but just wanted to go out. We worked through it, and now on the rare occasion she scratches at the door, I know she has to go.

 

I've often wondered, though, how much of the generally-not asking-to-go-out that all of my current dogs do has to do with the fact that I'm rarely gone from home any more for more than a few hours at a time and tend to let them out regularly, mostly because of the older dog's growing age related incontinence, and that they rarely get to the point where they feel the need to ask. And I wonder if that may have something to do with the fact that they don't seem to know to ask during the night.

 

I know it's hijacking this thread a bit, but I'd be interested to hear others' thoughts or observations on this.

 

ETA: Dublin sure is a beautiful sweet pea!

[erin_ohagan]

Good questions, Gentle Lake.

 

I let her out at 10PM and then, other than brushing my teeth/putting on PJs, I was pretty much in bed right after she got back inside from going.

 

Also, I do pull her water from her every night at about 7-7:30PM. She doesn't get any additional after that. She also gets fed at about 5PM.

 

I wondered about the extra water intake too. I'll definitely work on giving her new bones earlier in the day, OR making sure I don't give them to her quite so late on evenings when I work and can pay more attention to her potty alerts.

 

I'd love any other feedback/thoughts others may have.

[G. Festerling]

I would not think too terribly much about it if it was an isolated incident.

Stuff happens. Pee does too. A little change of routine, extra water...who knows. If for some reason she does it again, may want to check for an uti.

 

I used to not give my dogs water over night. But their night starts at 9 or later in the evening. Up to then they have all the access to water they want. Just recently, I have started supplying water over night in their crates as well. Most of mine are now older and have learned to hold it. The ones that are loose in the house have access to water 24/7.

 

At a year old, I think she still gets the right to have an accident.

[erin_ohagan]

One other question....she has been scooting along the floor and I suspect some anal glands that need to be expressed....could this affect her ability to hold it?

[GentleLake]

I wouldn't think so.

[Gloria Atwater]

If it's a one-time thing, I wouldn't worry about it. That's an iffy age, where they are potty trained mostly but sometimes they just "forget." A friend of mine had her housebroken 1 year old suddenly pee in the house SEVERAL times over the holidays ... because they brought in a Christmas tree. Apparently bringing "outside" inside confused the little gal!

Given your girl's circumstances before the oops, I'd say it was only an oops. I give my dogs bones early in the day, preferably in the morning, so that they can get any excess pottying and water drinking out of the way.

If this doesn't happen again or become a habit, I'd just chalk it up to teenaged puppiness.

~ Gloria

[GentleLake]

A friend of mine had her housebroken 1 year old suddenly pee in the house SEVERAL times over the holidays ... because they brought in a Christmas tree. Apparently bringing "outside" inside confused the little gal!

 

I'll bet there was a lot more going on in that home in prep for the holidays than just a tree coming in. I'll bet the dog was stressed by the whole holiday hullabaloo. I find it upsetting; why not a dog?

[Gloria Atwater]

I'll bet there was a lot more going on in that home in prep for the holidays than just a tree coming in. I'll bet the dog was stressed by the whole holiday hullabaloo. I find it upsetting; why not a dog?

 

Oh, definitely! First it was the tree, and the youngster peed several times over that. Then it was a new sofa and easy chair. Then a few days later, the relatives came to visit. Glad my house was nice and quiet!

 

~ Gloria

[highway61]

I have a 9 month, intact male that has recently relapsed also. The two things that have occurred recently is he's had a playmate in our house every afternoon (3-4 month Beagal) that isn't yet potty trained. It's my son's girlfriend's puppy and although I adore her, have restricted the pup from my house until she's fully potty trained. The other change was the Christmas tree that will (finally!) go this weekend. He's peed near it a couple of times. It's been sporatic, and just a few times nothing consistent.

 

My wife is now nagging me to have him neutered... like now. She's convinced this is the reason for the relapse, that maybe the puppy bitch has aroused him, yet I've seen no humping of any kind (yet). I've never had any intention of breeding my BC and he will get neutered but was hoping to hold out until he's 1 1/2 to 2 years old. Do neutered males have less tendency to break the house broke rules over intact males?

[GentleLake]

Do neutered males have less tendency to break the house broke rules over intact males?

 

No, unless it's marking behavior, and then even not when fully trained.

 

It's possible (though I doubt probable) that it's a result of his hormones starting to kick in and it's marking behavior. But he wasn't aroused by the beagle puppy unless she's coming into heat, which, at her age is pretty unlikely. Dogs just aren't aroused by bitches in their anestrous periods.

 

It's more likely that he just got overexcited during the holiday activities and made some mistakes. At 9 months old, he shouldn't be considered reliably house trained anyway. He's just too young to be counted on never to have an accident.

 

So, tell your wife to chill -- diplomatically, of course -- and allow him to grow up enough to have reasonable expectations of him. Think of human toddlers. Even when they're well out diapers they tend to have the occasional lapse.

 

And, imo, you're absolutely right to wait until he's older to have him neutered. Wait till those growth plates have closed..

[Gloria Atwater]

I have a 9 month, intact male that has recently relapsed also. ...

 

My wife is now nagging me to have him neutered... like now. She's convinced this is the reason for the relapse, that maybe the puppy bitch has aroused him, yet I've seen no humping of any kind (yet). I've never had any intention of breeding my BC and he will get neutered but was hoping to hold out until he's 1 1/2 to 2 years old. Do neutered males have less tendency to break the house broke rules over intact males?

 

 

Nope .What Gentlelake said. He's a baby and at 9 months old, a dog is not going to be 100% house trained. Having an un-housebroken younger puppy in the house is absolutely a recipe for regression. I've seen 1 year old seemingly house trained dogs notice baby puppies peeing in their puppy pen, and walk over to pee right beside it. Why? Because they're barely more than a puppy, themselves.

 

Neutering your boy won't change a thing about him peeing accidentally in the house. He's still a baby and he just backslid in a very exciting holiday season. Go back to the beginning, restart his potty training and he'll shape back up just fine. I don't consider a young dog completely, reliably house trained until they are about 18 months old.

 

Once we had a dog who, at 3 years old, remembered she had peed in a couple motels when she was a puppy. This time we were on a vacation and the minute we walked into our motel room - she peed! And that was a 3 year old.

 

~ Gloria

[highway61]

^ ^ ^

Great advise and much appreciated! I will put Sammy's vet visit to get "tutored" on hold (as planned)