Ziggy (19 months) has developed some difficult behaviour recently. He will no longer go to the toilet in our back garden (which is a small yard so I understand why it not as appealing as a big grassy garden). This means unless he is taken out on his lead at bedtime he doesn't have a chance to pee. However this has developed now to peeing on the kitchen floor overnight anyway. I have taken him out a couple of cold late nights despite (me) having a raging cold/cough but still come down to a yellow puddle. I know he can hold his bladder overnight as he's been fine since about when he's slept elsewhere (e.g. he's slept on the bed when husband was away and he didn't do it at my parents house) Is he testing boundaries? How can I fix this? A crate is not an option - we don't have the space for a adult crate and he was housetrained as a puppy without a crate so not keen to cage him overnight even if we had room. Should I scold him when I find a puddle? Thanks labbies!
Scolding will do nothing at all - just confuse him, he will have no idea why you are cross. Take him out for a final wee every single night to break the habit. Clean up any wees with bio cleaner like Simple Solution. Restrict where he can be at night. You'll soon crack it ...
He's not testing boundaries - dogs just don't think like that (although I fully appreciate that sometimes it seems like they do!). And, as Mags said, scolding is not going to do anything except confuse and upset him. Try making the area he's in smaller, so around the size a crate would be. You can use a pen for this, or rearrange your furniture to make it. Make it cosy, with his bed in it, and he should choose not to soil it overnight. If he does, it's probably still too large. Once he's been clean in it at that size for a few nights, slowly increase the size of the area he has. This, combined with a late-night "emptying", should work for you. Good luck!
Thanks all. He had a late walk with a tasty reward for each leg-cock and was enclosed in the kitchen last night but woke me up at 4am crying because he was next to a sea of pee. Hopefully the start of a lesson and we'll continue with this until he learns to hold it in again. Snowbunny OMG Luna is just gorgeous!
