Advice needed, Winnie is 6 months and is mostly doing great. We've clearly just hit teenage years with a move to some destruction if left. She jumped the baby gate last night, helped herself to a bag of dog treats and pooed in the lounge! The issue is we've recently had a number of pooing accidents at night. She never tells you she wants to go out, we always take her out before bed and sometimes she just sits and looks at you and other times she goes. Any advice on how we can get her to let us know? As we got her in May and the weather has been good the back door has been left open. Now it's closed she doesn't have that freedom, clearly we take her out often to see if she wants to go but she just looks at you! Any advice anyone?
I think you need to go back to basics with toilet training. You have hit the nail on the head in terms of it being the door. As you've had the door open she has been able to take herself out without letting you know, but now the door is shut she doesn't know what to do. You need to teach her to let you know. Some people have small bells by the door which they ring every time they go out, and encourage the dog to do the same which will help teach them to let you know.
Yes, as Ternaya said, this is a real problem with leaving the door open all the time; the pup doesn't really get toilet trained. So you need to go back to the start now, which is more difficult because she can hold on longer than she could when she was little. Does she have a pen or a crate at night? Restricting her to a small area like this will make her not want to soil it, as she'll see it as her den, and she'll probably vocalise if she needs to go out.
