Maxx has really turned a corner in the past few weeks and is now allowed free-run of the upstairs of the house. Downstairs is still being renovated so we block the stairs but anyway the only room down there is our bedroom. Maxx wee'd in the kitchen a day or two after we removed the baby gates and I put it down to loving the new freedom and being worried that if he asked to go out we wouldn't let him back in. Last night I came home from work and he brought a smelly old bone into the lounge and onto the mat where he plays, snoozes etc. It's a good mat so I didn't want the bone to get all over it. So I patiently took the bone out, brought him in several times until he understood that he couldn't bring it in. Instead he chewed it just outside the back door looking at us a bit balefully Then. He ran inside and went to his favourite corner of the mat and did a big wee while looking at us looking at him in horror. We were just about to serve dinner so we dragged the mat out and I hosed it while hubby finished dinner. We made him stay outside while we ate and he barked and whined which is unusual. Sorry, long post, getting to the point now! When we let him back in he went right back to the same spot and wee'd again! This time on the floorboards. I don't know whether he is just cranky that I wouldn't let him in with his bone or if it is something else. Any ideas? I'm WFH today so taking him out to the wee patch and treating him and he hasn't had any accidents...but I haven't really given him the chance to. Also, he was really well behaved at the dog park this morning and came back TWICE with dogs in the area. He has never done that before. Is he sorry? I feel we have done something wrong but no idea what!
My first thought (the weeing inside) is that it's too much freedom, too soon. I'd restrict access again and try it again in a couple of months.
I don’t know how old Maxx is, but Ashima is 5 mos. I too have removed baby gates and she is ok but I keep her within sight at all times or she’s in the kennel. She did the same thing a few times and I realized I thought she was farther along then she is. I pay attention to how much water she’s had and make sure to take her out accordingly on a lead. Looking back I think she was telling me she had to go and I had it in my mind that she should be fine based on our last potty break.
Hi @Maxx's Mum , sorry you're having these hiccups. First thing, what are you using to clean the area where he has wee'd? It's best to use a cleaner that means there's no residue of ammonia left, otherwise they can smell the urine and think it's the right place. Also, how old is he? When Cassie was about 5 months she went through a phase of weeing in the house, after being good from 12 weeks, and would only poo on the doorstep! It turned out that something had frightened her in the garden and I didn't find out what for a couple of weeks. Maybe too he needs to be a bit more restricted for a while, as suggested. Does he know to go to his mat? When Cass was younger if she had a bone or Kong she had to chew it on her blanket. It was a good thing to teach I find -- now at just turned 2 if she has one she will wonder round looking for her blanket if it isn't already on the floor/sofa before she settles down with it!
He is 6 1/2 months old and same as Cassie, hasn't had any accidents for about 3 months. It's puzzling for sure but we will watch him for any signs of stress or anxiety. He has been an angel today of course but that could be fleeting We have put baby gates up again - not as restricting as before but about half of what we had for full freedom. I think you are right @Xena Dog Princess and @Anomaly, too much too soon!
Dogs have to learn that their "den" extends to the whole house. The easiest way to do this is to incrementally increase the freedom the puppy has as he becomes "safe" in one area. So at first, he'll probably be safe in his sleeping area (unless you have a weirdo like Squidge). Then maybe the kitchen that the crate is in. Then maybe the kitchen and hallway. If you make it too big too soon, as others have said, you run the risk of the puppy assuming that "this new bit over here is far enough away from my living area that it's fine to wee here". As @selina27 said, you need to ensure you're cleaning effectively, too. That means using an enzymatic cleaner like Simple Solution. This gets rid of the traces of smells that we mere humans can't detect, but scream to your dog "this is the place to toilet". Many regular household cleaners use ammonia which, to a dog's nose, can smell enough like wee that they can encourage the dog to go there again. Simple Solution is effective and smells nice, to boot I just wanted to address these points, as it appears you're anthropomorphising a bit. Which is sometimes just fun to do (see the "random humans by our dogs" thread ) but can get us into some worrying ways of thinking, so we have to keep tabs on it. Firstly, some dogs like to look at their owners when they are going to the toilet. I've heard suggestions that it may be a safety thing - when a dog is toileting, their back is exposed to potential predators. By looking at you, you can look behind him to keep him safe. It might be a load of tosh, but it's an interesting hypothesis, for sure. What we silly humans tend to do is interpret it as "he looked me right in the eye, defying me! He knew what he was doing was wrong!". Errr, nope. He's having a wee. No more, no less. Puppies wee in the house. It happens. Sometimes they regress. He's not defying you, he's not making a point. He's just having a wee. Similarly with the "is he just cranky?". Well, for sure, dogs can get cranky. They have complex brains that can have a multitude of emotions, just like us. If enough bad things happen in a day, they can "trigger stack", the same as us, which can make them more likely to be irritable, just like us. But what we're pretty sure dogs don't do is attribute that crankiness to anything. They are simply experiencing a physiological response to the stresses they are dealing with throughout their day. That is, the stress hormones are building up and making him feel more on edge. Now, weeing can be used as a way of calming a situation in social interactions if they feel it's getting too intense. But, that tends to be accompanied by other body language to that end, which would include turning away and averting a gaze. It certainly wouldn't include looking at you while weeing. Nope, if your puppy is calmly looking at you as he's weeing, he's very likely just weeing. No more, no less. And finally, is he sorry? Nope. There is no evidence that dogs feel guilt or shame, and certainly not at a time long after the event for which you think he should be sorry for. Firstly, why should he be sorry for weeing anyway? He doesn't find that shameful or wrong. He's just weeing. The behaviours we humans attribute to dogs looking guilty or acting sorry are generally appeasement behaviours, trying to calm us down, because they are interpreting something in our body language that makes them feel uneasy. You come home and see your bin has been ripped apart and spread all over your floor. Your dog looks guilty, but that's not guilt. That's him seeing how upset you are (even if you try to hide it) and he's trying to calm you down so that it doesn't escalate. The more often you act irrationally (to him), the more you'll see these "guilty" looks. In your case, you're just reading too much into it. Environments change all the time, dogs change all the time. There are too many variables at play to say why he came back to you. All we can say for sure is that it definitely wasn't because he'd previously weed on your carpet
