[Dopeygirl]

We have a 10 month old dog who we got when she was 12 weeks old. The person we bought her from said that she was virtually house trained and we found that this was mainly the case apart from the odd accident in the first month or two which we expected because she was just young however she seems to have taken a backward step and during the day does not let us know she wants out and just goes on the carpet in the dining room. I know that she can hold her bladder because we never have any problems during the night and she always waits until we get up in the morning. She has had her first heat at Christmas but has not been spayed because the vet said we had to wait for a few months after her heat to do this - would this cause any problems although I thought only male dogs marked their territory.

We have had no problems with our other dog who is 3 years old - I was worried that she would start following our youngests bad example!!

Any advice would be appreciated on how I can save my carpets!!!

[opossum]

She goes in there because she thinks it's okay. You will need to do some more housetraining. Do you use a crate with her at all? Can you keep her out of that room for now?

[briteday]

I would try to put up a gate or something to keep her in safer areas, like th kitchen or a room that is not carpeted, until she earns your trust again.

Females will also mark territory especially if not spayed. I volunteer at a shelter and every animal, as young as 3 months old is spayed/neutered before they leave the shelter. I would get the dog spayed as soon as possible. However, because she has been allowed to have the hormone thing going and had a heat cycle, my experience has been that she will be harder to housetrain. We adopted a dog that wasn't spayed until a year old and she can be a pistol about peeing in the house, especially during the day when she is not in her crate.

Good luck with your dog. Try to have her spayed soon and then work on the housetraining again.