toilet training regression

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windy

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Blithe is now almost one year old and had been successfully trained to take himself outside via the dog door. He had no accidents for months. Then. . . he started pooping inside, not each time, but often enough that I started to get concerned. Then one day he peed inside which he has never, ever done (to my knowledge). I might add that he is shameless, and just jumps around and gets excited when I try to make him realize that he's been bad. Also, I've rarely been able to catch him when he's make these mistakes, and when I have I immediately take him outside, and unless I go out with him he would just run back in the dog door. He does not go back to the same spots inside where he has pooped before. I might add that he has not yet been neutered, which I plan to do in several months. He is NOT afraid of the dog door and will go in and out at random times on his own.

I have started going out with him at key potty times, with a treat in my pocket, and he has responded quite well. But. . . he will stand on the patio with me and wait, and won't go near the grass, a distance of about 6 or 8 feet, until I walk out to the edge of the grass with him, and won't stay outside without me. (It's been rainy quite a bit here and I found out he's afraid of the umbrella!) He's now reliable to this point.

How do I get him back to using the dog door? Why do you think he regressed with the toilet training? I'm the only one in the house, so he usually sticks to me
like glue. I live in a garden home and I'm afraid if I trick him by closing the doggie door, and going out with him and then running inside quickly without him, he'll bark and wake the neighbors who are quite close to my house.
 
This issue has come up quite a few times - you are not alone. Both mine went through this phase. Blithe has hit adolescence and it's common for dogs to soil inside again at that age. The good news is it doesn't last long, the bad news is you should go back to puppy toilet basics. Take him out regularly and when you can't keep an eye on him keep him confined or his access to the house restricted.
 
Sorry to have brought up an issue that has been rehashed several times, but I did try to search for pertinent threads but came up with nothing that was of help to me.

I realized a week ago that I would have to go back to basic toilet training and restricting him in the house. We've been at that point for a week now.

My problem is how to get him back to using the dog door since he won't go outside now without me. (See my original post) It would seem that will be a lot harder now, and when do you think it is safe to once again try to get him to use the dog door? I was giving him treats to reinforce his pottying outside, and am now to the point where I have withdrawn them, just giving a verbal reinforcement.
 
Laddie was doing great for awhile, now, he has decided that the living room floor is where he want to poo, not all the time, but more than before. He was very hard to housebreak, but all of sudden, he seemed to get the idea and even told me when he had to go out, now, he does not tell me and I just find the little "gifts", so, I guess it is back to square one, oh well, he is only 7 months old, but still, this is disappointing to say the least.
 
I'm getting this with Dickens and he still isn't quite over it. Perhaps it's the heat? He loved being outdoors when the temperature was below 80, but now that it's hot he doesn't want to leave the back porch. When you put him out he turns around and wants to come right back in. He's decided that the living room carpet is his private loo (only #2, thank heaven, and it's solid). When it's blocked off he's perfectly fine, but take the gate away and he regresses. In all other regards he's a perfect pup.

I'm going to start living in that room (it's generally unused) and either see if I can catch him in the act, or get him to understand that the living room is part of his personal space!
 
As Caro predicted, Blithe is now almost all the way back to his former training and will again use his dog door. It just sort of happened spontaneously. I'm quite thankful as the heat and humidity have reached their summertime highs, and the bugs loved it when I had to go out with Blithe.

I've been amazed at the length of time this dog can last without going. It made me think surely he was doing something in the house that I wasn't able to find. In the evening he's fed between 6 and 7, would go out less than an hour later, and never, ever would do anything when I would take him out before bedtime, even though he usually has a chewie of some sort that he mostly devours in one night. He had no problem lasting until 8 a.m. and probablay wouldn't go then unless I urge him, and this was true from the time he was a young pup. He'll be a year old on August 1. He is crated at night. I did think for a while that he was afraid of the dark.
 
Hugo is a week off 7 months old and has just started peeing inside again after no accidents since he was 4 months. He also has a doggy door which he happily uses. This morning I managed to catch him in the act. He had been lying down on the landing carpet and just got up and started peeing. Normally he would trot downstairs, out through the doggy door and do his business there, but not today.

There was also an accident yesterday near the same place as today that we missed him doing as our conservatory was currently flooding due to the storms we have been having lately - so we were a little preoccupied taking care of that and missed him messing inside! So two days in a row now... not sure if the storms have spooked him so much to change his toilet behaviour or its normal adolescence or even a uti. I will just confine him for now and keep an eye on him. After I shooed him outside today when I caught him in the act he carried on peeing outside so I praised him. So he's not scared to go outside thank goodness!
 
I have a suspicion it has something to do with the heat, particularly on the east coast of the U.S. and the unusual hot weather in the UK. The dogs prefer the cooler temperatures indoors, and neglect their business when outside. When nature takes its course, they look for the most likely indoor spot to do it, and if they're not caught and corrected, decide that it's perfectly legitimate.

I was in my office the other day with Dickens and noticed that he kept going to the closet door and nosing his leash and martingale, which are hanging from the knob. After doing this for several times he left the room and went to lie down right beside the baby gate that I've placed across the living room area to keep him away from his favorite indoor potty place. It occurred to me then that he was using the dangling leash the same way he uses the bells on the back door and was actually signaling that he needed to go out. But instead of going to the back door, he went to the place as close to the living room as he could get. That tells me, first, that anything dangling from a door is considered a signaling device, and second, that he's come to believe that the living room is the equivalent of outdoors!
 
My fiancé just caught Hugo having a wee on the landing again :no:. That's his forth accident inside in 2 weeks now. After his second we confined him and went back to basics and he was only given his freedom back a few days ago. Obviously we have given it back way too quickly, back to confinement and basics again.

How long do you reckon this will last? I'm also concerned that he never learnt how to ask us to go outside to potty, he would just go. Now we have a doggy door so he never needs to ask but I locked it once and left him in the kitchen for a minute and came back to a huge puddle. I know he wouldn't be house trained at anyone else's house as there wouldn't be a dog door and he doesn't ever ask to be let out. I need to address this problem now, any ideas?
 
I've found that even though I thought Blithe was back to normal dog door use after his regression, he still seems to need me to accompany him outside first thing in the morning, and since he seems to be capable of holding functions forever, I will go out with him at least one more time during the day. So is he trained, or am I? I know he IS using the dog door during the day for whatever purpose I don't know. He may just be surveying his kingdom.

When my son was here visiting, back when he (the dog, not the so) was first again using the dog door but not regularly, my several times my son sort of hoisted him out through the dog, and Blithe seemed okay with that. He may have just been looking for that extra bit of encouragement, as after those few times, he seemed to be much more agreeable to using it.

The whole process from the first sign of regression till now has taken maybe six weeks. As I would tell my then very young son, 'patience is a virtue'. (That fact that he then interpreted it as 'patient will hurt you' meant I needed a little more patience.:smile2:
 
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