HELP! Dog is not peeing like she used to.
 

Hello everyone, first off I'm a new member and hopefully the community can help us solve this issue with our 7 years old Maltese.

I used to live with my family with a house full of people and my Maltese (Noodles) was trained to pee on a piece of pee pee pad and/or newspaper which is placed inside a stand up shower. She does this consistently. She is also allowed to roam throughout the home unsupervised because she knows how to pee/poo inside the shower.

I recently got married and we moved into our brand new home, since we're used to having Noodles roam around the house we decided to do the same thing and have her pee/poo on a pee pee pad inside a shower which is similar to our old set up. we restrict her to the lower level of our home when unsupervised.

So far she has a success rate of about 15%.

Currently she loves to release herself when unsupervised in the following places.

- on the carpet in front of the TV
- on the carpet in front of the fire place
- on the carpet in general

(We clean the carpet with vinegar mixture and oxy clean it, we also use "pet block" to try and deter her from urinating on the carpeted areas)

I've scolded her when she pee'd in the wrong place (carpet) and praised her when she pee's in the right place. It's not like she doesn't know where we want her to pee. But right now she pees on our carpet way more than the designated area.

After scolding her for peeing in the carpet she got the idea that "Peeing is wrong" instead of "peeing on the carpet is wrong but on the pee pee pad is good!" so she ends up holding it in until we leave the house and then goes about her business on the carpet.

I'm running out of ideas and help is greatly appreciated! Thank You!

Eddie@Edmonton

Well it's been a long time since I've had to deal with training issues, but the stress of the move has probably upset your pup. She obviously cannot be given free run of the house when she is alone. If she is crate trained she should go in her crate when left alone, or you could use baby gates to confine her to one room, a basement playroom maybe, with a solid floor. In that room give her a pee pad area to use if that's what you want to do. I would far rather just train her to go outside though. Good luck to you.

Dog Dancer has offered you some very good advice.

She is correct in saying that your dog should be restricted to a crate to ensure accidents do not happen when you're not home.

Also, by having the dog pee on a pad, you are encouraging the dog to pee inside your house. Which very well could be confusing the dog, even it she had it down pat at your previous place.

How did you go about "Scolding" her for peeing inside the house? Did you just yell at her and expect her to [I]know[/I] what she did wrong? My roommate had the same problem when he first had his rescue. He would scold her for pottying in the house, however failed to show her where he wanted her to go. She simply stopped pottying for him, so I had to take her outside for him and so on.

It is important when correcting behaviours to show the dog the appropriate behaviour as well.

If this is the first time anything like this (accidents on the carpet) has happened with your 7 year old dog - you might want to consider a quick trip to the vet to rule out a urinary tract infection.