I'm quite worried really. Our dog keeps having irregular accidents in our house. He doesn't do them every day but usually every week he does something. When we first bought him home he was fine. First 2 weeks there was no accidents. But then he started to do them. At first we thought they were a one off and did the normal thing (let him out, praise him for doing it outside) but we realized it was happening more than normal (this is a predicted 1 and a half year old dog) The thing that really gets me is that we always end up spending time with him (walking him out side, playing with him in the garden) which I love but it seems as if we send ALL our time on the dog.
Sometimes we find something in the house after 30 minutes of him being out! It just gets frustrating because he's weed on so much now it ends up costing us a lot to dry clean. Could he have a problem? I'm sure he knows its wrong because, if he didn't, it would be happening a lot more than it is and we let him out every hour now to make sure he doesn't wee but this just means he expects to be let out all the time and makes him more active and a pain indoors. Could he still be adjusting to the house? And does anyone know how to stop him doing this? The thing is we usually find the wee way after he's done it (a few hours) so we cant take him out straight after.  Also he does 5 poo's a day! We dont mind picking it up but surely this cant be healthy? Weve tryed cutting his food but its just the same.
I hope someone can help. Sorry for all the disgusting talk but its really getting me and my family down :(

Being delicate about how I word this but how much comes out of him depends on how much goes in! How much he needs depends on how good his body is at converting it into energy. An efficient conversion means that no so much food is needed. Less food needed and less comes out the other end! Simple really!

Some dogs are always going to be better converters than others but first off I would be looking at diet. Some foods are converted into energy rather better than others. There could of course be a medical reason why the food is not being converted efficiently but that is less likely that the food.

I've never seen a dog produce less than my Anna. One movement a day at best! Bethany, on the same food always needed more and could quite easily produce 2 or 3 movements in a day.

Best wishes, John

We had this with our rescue dog who was 6 months when he came to us and was an ANGEL for the first month, seemed to be housetrained and then backslid. Hes fantastic now BTW.  When clearing up use a solution of biological washing powder ( test on a hidden piece of fabric if you usually dry clean) as this will remove his smell and make weeing on it less likely. Dont say anything to him at all just clean it. He may look guilty but in fact is trying to appease your irritation as dogs cant link what they did a while ago with your anger. If hes doing it in the house after being out with you, could it be that he associates his toilet with people getting cross? It may not be you, it could be a previous owner so youll need to count to 100 stay matter of fact and just clean up. Until he gets the hang of housetraining can you restrict his access to the house using baby gates so your furniture is safe  and you can keep an eye on him. Letting him out frequently is a good thing - we did it until our dog was reliable although it was tiring - you can stay out with him till he does it then praise him to the skies/ play with him, so his expectations are reversed.

At this point in your relationship putting a lot of time in playing, training and exercising him is an investment for the future and it does take a lot more time than people realise. Just make sure the attention is on your terms - call him and play when you make a cup of tea for instance but dont always respond to his overtures, and teach him to settle down with you. I used a comfy chair for me, good book, his cushion a long lead and a chewy for him and just sat reading the book, ignoring him once I said settle, no matter what he did until he was quiet then it was " Good Lad" in a happy voice and a wee tit bit. Is he fed the same diet as he had in rescue? If its been changed suddenly this happens, or maybe the new food disagrees? You could get back to rescue and ask for advice.

Dont panic, it will all pay off as you settle together. HTH :)

Thanks Lorelei. He was on the diet from the home and then we changed him as we couldn't find the food but now hes back on it as we ordered it. The thing is he is the same both feeds. We tried him on some special dog food for his tummy (he sometimes gets diorea) but that just made the poor baby worse!! Again thanks for the advice... its nice to know somebody else had the same problems!