Year old puppy having potty accidents/help!

[winediva]

We are still having problems with our year old Aust. Shep. mix urinating in the house. We have hung bells and she usually uses them to let us know she needs to go out, but she goes through spurts where she goes in the house on the carpet. We use Natures Miracle to clean the area and have steam cleaned the carpets several times. Any suggestions? Is she still not old enough to be completely housetrained?

[PetFriendly]

She's old enough and big enough in my opinion. Since it doesn't always happen I'd take her to the vet to rule out some sort of infection or medical reason.

[tenderfoot]

Some times even a year old pup can have problems. Typically when people have a year old dog they slack off the training and the dog is in more recess and then the missing links in the training start to show up. It just means that you have to keep treating her like a young puppy. You have to monitor her better, manage her feeding/water better and keep training. She'll get it with your persistence and patience.

[winediva]

Thanks for the replies. We have had her urine tested in the past, but will do so again. When we are home we try to put her outside at least every 2, 2 1/2 hours and coach her to go - my concern with this is that she won't learn to hold her bladder for several hours. We also make sure we get extremely excited for her and give her a treat.

[StaceyB]

When in the day and how often are these accidents. The answers may hold a clue as to why this is happening.
Does she free feed, how much freedom does she have in the home, was she ever trained or has she always had accidents. These are just a few questions.
Pick up a black light and check your home to see if there are still spots. The area will glow. When you use a steam cleaner to clean up you sometimes make a small spot much larger and miss some of it in the process.
You may need to back up and start from scratch as if she were an 8 wk old puppy.

[winediva]

No, she isn't free fed. We feed in the mornings and evenings. Yes, she has been trained and for the most part does o.k., but will then go on spree for a few days and have accidents. I will try the black light. I just recently tried the vinegar and that seems to be helping. Another problem we're having is because she is used to the bells and when we go to someone else's house she doesn't really know how to tell us. Do you think we'll always have to use the bells?
Thanks to everyone for all of the input!