[Chestnutmutt]

Hi all, I have two dogs, an 11 year old golden shelter and an 18 month old mix. Both are rescues. I'm here because my mix (half staffordshire terrier, the rest boxer, collie, shepherd, chow - as mutty as you can get) is a challenge to housetrain. We got her at 4 months, untrained. She struggled to get with the program at first, but with creating and trainibg, we were able to housetrain her. Or so I thought. At the beginning of summer, after 3 months with no incidents, we started letting her sleep on a dog bed on the floor of our room along with our older dog. All was cool until a week ago when she got up in the middle of the night and peed on my daughter's rug. I steam cleaned the rug, doused it with nature's miracle and thought it was a blip. Last night, we heard her in the hallway and sure enough, she peed on the rug again.

The crate is coming back out, but I am not able to put it back in the living room.like it had been, because we reno-ed our house over the summer and there is just not space for it now. I'm writing to get thoughts an opinions on crating her in the basement. Before this dog, I've never crated dogs and my dogs were always housetrained without accidents, so though we crated this dog for about 9-10 months, I really am not a crating guru. Will it damage my dog's trust to crate her in the basement? I am also feeling very frustrated with this dog, and don't want my frustration to be coloring my decision-making, but I refuse to live in a house where my kids step in dog pee.

 

[Francl27]

Can you close your room at night? About your question, I'm not sure, it would really depend on your basement. Also, does she have to pee more during the day? I would have her checked for a UTI.

 

[Chestnutmutt]

No, she doesn't pee more than I'd expect a dog to pee during the day. And even on days she didn't pee in the house overnight, she never ran downstairs and to the door in the morning - I'd have to tell her to go out to pee. For the time being, I set up her crate in the living room, but once it gets cold and we start using the woodstove, she can't stay in the living room because the only place her crate fits now is right next to the stove and she'd be way too hot.

Wondering how well diapers would work on this feral beast...

 

[WesselGordon]

The fact that there was a reasonable gap between the dog being potty trained and the sudden "accidents" would have me a little worried.

Have the dog thoroughly checked by a vet before crating it. You might be dealing with a physical issue and not a behavioral one.