I went upstairs to put my child to bed, was only gone about 10 mins, came down and jack had wee'd on the carpet. grr, however the door had been open the whole time for him to go out. He normally comes and goes as he wishes although ive recently started taking him out and waiting for him to wee, using the comand word toilet and praising but this is early days. So why do you think he didnt go out in the dark to wee but choose to do it on the carpet? i had recently cleaned the area too with a special from the pet shop cleaner to kill the smell of previous visits, he did it next to that spot!
Re: could jack be scared of the dark? Oh dear - I guess he hasn't quite got to grips with all this house training nonsense yet Got to have eyes in the back of your head.
Re: could jack be scared of the dark? How annoying for you, this must be a pain, constant clearing up. Such a trying time, and probably a bit harder than normal with a slightly older dog. He perhaps didn't go outside because his motivation to go outside isn't very strong? Just a tiny deterrent and he goes inside? I've only experience of 2 pups, and one was a long time ago, but it seems to me that it takes a lot of positive reinforcement with praise and rewards to get it into a dog's head that there is only one place to go - outside. Other more experienced people might have better advice, but I would do toilet breaks plus a deterrent to going between breaks (confinement), and take him out to praise and reward. Otherwise, what is he going to do when faced with a closed door when the weather gets cold? It might be unlikely that he will suddenly start holding it until the door is opened for a toilet break?
Re: could jack be scared of the dark? You really need to train him just like you would a very young puppy. That means taking him out as often as you possibly can, especially after meal times and when he has just woken up from a nap. Just leaving the door open is not going to teach him to only toilet outside. You will also need to find a way to confine him in a crate or pen for those periods when you can't supervise him like today when you put your child to bed. This will take a little bit of patience and time.
Re: could jack be scared of the dark? I agree - treat him like he's 8 weeks old. Dogs don't have a fear of the dark like people tend to do. I think that he just doesn't fully understand yet that weeing inside is not the done thing. Consequently he does not try very hard to hold on or make the trip out. We got Obi at 9 months and he was not house trained, having been an outside dog. He had not learned to hold it in either, because he used to be able to wee anytime he liked. We had to be really vigilant and take him out at least every hour for a couple of weeks, gradually extending it so he built up 'holding' capacity. Lots of food rewards for weeing, and he went out on lead too so we were sure he'd wee'ed and could be rewarded immediately. After about 4 weeks he could last a few daytime hours and had started to 'tell' us (by whining) that he needed to go out. He was crated when not supervised for the first 4-5 months that we had him. Now he is great and can last all day if he has to. It's certainly frustrating and also terribly unpleasant to be cleaning up wee and poo A high level of surveillance for a while will pay off.
Re: could jack be scared of the dark? My dog is about the same age and he has a pee spot in the back yard. If he is choosing to pee in the same please it has not sank in that he cannot do it in the house yet. It sounds like that's his pee spot. Most dogs will choose a patch of yard and potty and stay in that area. I would continue with retraining his housetraining. I would REALLY recommend you lock him in the crate when you cannot supervise him. Even just nipping upstairs. I would also start locking the door to his crate at night. Crating him will speed the process up by weeks believe me! He will howl, bark, whine the works for about 2 weeks at best, he may squeal all night long but don't let him out until he stops. But then you have the next ten years of him safe in his crate.
