[misscandypop]

I dont know what to do.
I have a 4 year old Papillon who was toilet trained at 6 months.
He gets let into the garden regularly, gets a long walk every day but yet i still find patches of wee up against beds, door frames, chair legs in every bedroom regularly.
When he is left alone he is shut in the kitchen so its when we are home that he must be sneaking off, but why?!
And how on earth can i train him to stop doing it?
I dont want to just shut all the doors because he shouldnt be doing this!
Please help.
Hes such a good little boy other than this and so clever and i trained him from day 1 and he gets plenty of exercise, is with someone for almost the entire day every day so why would he do this?

Thanks

 

[hamandeggs]

OK, so if he's peeing in your bedrooms then he is not toilet trained, i.e. he doesn't understand that indoor peeing is not on the agenda. Sure he shouldn't be doing this, but he doesn't understand that it's not allowed. He thinks it's fine, so that's why he does it.

You should go back to housetraining basics. Keep him close to you at all times and don't allow him the opportunity to sneak off and pee. You can tether him to you or shut the doors, but you cannot allow him unsupervised access to the rooms where he's been peeing. If you allow him to have accidents, it reinforces the behavior you don't want. You should reward him for doing his business outdoors and not allow him the chance to go indoors.

Also, what have you been using to clean up his messes? It should be an enzymatic cleaner like Nature's Miracle (not sure what the brand names in the UK are). If you just use a normal cleaner, it can leave a scent that causes the dog to want to go there again.

 

[misscandypop]

the thing is, is that he was toilet trained and never used to do this but i dont know how long he has been for as we used to find the odd patch and think it was a one off but today realised all 4 rooms were covered.

we have been using normal cleaning products but i plan on looking into something that would deter him in future.
i guess il try taking treats to give him if he goes outside like you say.

its weird, theres no reason he should be anxious hes well looked after and not left alone all day like some dogs.

 

[hamandeggs]

I don't think this is anxiety. I think he probably just has missed or forgotten the memo about not peeing inside and needs a reminder. The fact that you've been finding odd patches all along says to me that he probably never understood 100%. You should take this opportunity to get him to 100%.

What do you do when you find an accident? Do you punish him or react in any way?

That said, if you think this really is a new behavior or a dramatic change, you should take him to see the vet. Sudden housetraining problems in a dog that was previously housetrained can be a sign of health problems.

 

[misscandypop]

well its not like hes having accidents because he goes up to the bedrooms and does it up against beds or table legs so i cant see t being because he has a health issue that he cant hold it or it would just be wherever he was surely?

i dont punish him for anything, we have never seen him actually do it.

its impossible really to treat him every time he does it outside as on his walk he will pee up against every bush or plant he passes pretty much and throughout the day hes just let into the garden and goes out has a sniff about and does a few wees before waiting by the door.
i just cant work it out.

 

[doxiemommy]

I have to agree with hamandeggs. I know you thought you had him potty trained, but, if you are now finding out that it wasn't just "one off day" and that all four rooms have been soiled, then it really could have been going on for quite some time. You can't really be sure, right?

Sometimes, dogs can have setbacks in their potty training, for any number of reasons. Sometimes, they can have setbacks due to going through a developmental fear stage, or when they're teething, or if there have been changes in routine or environment (no matter how minor you think the change is), or if they have had an infection, surgery, illness, or injury. Sometimes they also have setbacks when they are going through the dog version of adolescence.

If these setbacks aren't obvious, as in you don't realize they've occured, then you can't really put him on the right track again, right? That is my first guess: he's had a setback sometime ago, but you didn't realize it until now, so you haven't had the chance to put him back on track.

As hamandeggs said, I would go back to the basics of potty training. To me, this means, take him out on a very strict schedule, every 2 hours or so. I know that seems crazy, in a way, because at four years old, he should be able to hold it longer than 2 hour. But, the point, right now, is to give him more opportunities to potty outside than usual.
The second part of going back to basics is prevention. And, the way to prevent is to keep him in your sight. He should get no freedom to roam in the house until he proves to you that he is 100% potty trained. If he's allowed freedom, he will sneak off and pee/poop somewhere you can't see right away, as he's doing now.

You mention that if it was bladder control issues, wouldn't he just do it wherever he happened to be when he needed to go? The thing is, some dogs prefer certain surfaces, some dogs prefer to have a bit of privacy, and some dogs like to have their pee/poop in an out of the way area, so that they don't have to see it or be around it. So, he may just be wandering off to an area of the house, doing his business, and then coming back.

It would still be a great idea to get a vet check, to rule out any health issues.

 

[Bordermom]

I agree with the others. First thing to do is get a black light, Walmart has the bulbs and you can just put it in a small lamp and start looking for signs of pee - if you want to spend a few hours in the bathroom cleaning go look with the blacklight! EEK!

Anyhow get it all cleaned up. Then start walking him and taking him out more often. Assuming it's not a health thing it's likely him marking his turf, so give him lots of time outside to do that. When he's in, watch him, watch him, watch him. You may want to have a long string/line on him so if he starts to sniff you can take him outside. Or use a 'marking belt' which goes around his belly and well..... catches any pee. Usually wearing that helps curb the habit, but also keep him busy and active so he's too tired to partake in lifting his leg on everything.

If you can't watch him, then put him in a crate so he's not wandering off and marking anything, the less he gets to do it the sooner he'll give up on it.