I have a one year old puppy who is very well toilet trained (in that he has been taught to do his business outside). There is of course the very rare occasion when he will still wee. He was in a crate overnight, and whilst I was at work up until 2 weeks ago. He never has an accident in his crate. I presume this is because he would not like to sleep in a wet bed!!! Also he is extremely capable of holding his bladder all night. I have 2 queries:

1) Since getting rid of the crate (he now has the run of the kitchen/dining room at night/whilst i am at work) he has started to have a wee during the night/whilst I am at work. I will say it is not all of the time, He did it each night at the weekend and Monday night, then he was fine during the night and day on Tues, Wed and Thurs daytime. Yet last night he weed - even though he was taken out at 1am (on the night), then 8am this morning - a gap of only 7 hrs.

2) I have also started to let him go up the stairs now that he is a bit older - he has weed on the landing carpet at least 5 times in the last 2 weeks. The other day he had been out for a wee only 15 mins beforehand.

Can anyone shed some light as to why he has started doing this - and more importantly, any suggestions on how to stop it. Obviously I am not there when he does it, therefore cannot point out to him that it is not ok to do.

I would appreciate replies to the message board as I am work until 5pm and unable to check my email.

Thanks for the help,

Sam
sam.henderson@ukonline.co.uk

I would put him back in his crate as it sounds like it may be excitement when he is let loose! Also he is growing up so could be marking the territory. Crate him and try him again in a couple of weeks or so.

Hi Sam,

I would think that some of the problem could be due to the fact that he is a young male dog 'marking' new territory (eg up the stairs).  Is there a reason that you particularly wanted him to have a free range in the house? You will find that quite a lot of people continue to crate their dogs as adults, and as long as he's not in there for too long at a time, he will be perfectly happy with a filled 'kong' or a ragger to chew on. If you want to get rid of the crate, then I suggest that you do this as the first step, without also letting him go upstairs - it may be that its just too much excitement for him to take all at once:)  If after a short while, this seems to be working, then you can introduce the stairs.  IMHO, I would rather not let my dogs up stairs at all, I like the humans in the house to be the only ones who have all the space, but of course, this is my personal choice and I completely understand that other people have other house rules.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do:)

Ali :)

I wouldnt bring the crate back,i detest those things! I would also say that he is marking his territory,are you planning on having him neutered?If so i would book him in a.s.a.p before the habit becomes ingrained.I used to leave my dogs in the kitchen/dining room when i went out,before they were housetrained,i just wiped up the puddles or picked up the poop,easy peasy!
Now they have the run of the house.
I would also take him to the vet just incase he has a bladder infection.
Do you have a doggy door?Those things are a godsend,i'm sure we would have had many more accidents in the house if my dogs couldnt go out and pee when they wanted.

christine