Dog thinks basement is outside

[Vmar]

For some weird reason my dog(1 yr old cockapoo) thinks he can pee and poop in the basement. Heis a year old and was very slow to house train. We had him kept in the kitchen ,office,family room and mainfloor laundry for months then when we had him opened up to the livingroom and dining room and he peed and pooped in there for a few months untill he got it. He was always scared to go down the basement stairs untill recently and now if we accidently leave the door open he will dash down and leave a deposit. Outside he pees and poops only on grass or in the garden-never on a hard surface yet he will on the concrete basement floor. How would you all suggest I train him in an area we rarely go in???
This koo koo dog is adorable but driving us koo koo ourselves.

[StaceyB]

It sounds as iff you are having a lot of difficulty with teaching household manners. Have you ever taken your dog to training classes? If not I would get set up into some.
In regards to the house training you need to go back to the basics. Start off from step 1 again. Before you do this you will need to purchase some enzyme cleaner and a black light. The light will help you to find all the spots that exist in your home. You will then need to clean the area with enzyme cleaner. Household cleaners will not get rid of the scent. If there were ever any pets in the home before you got this one either by yourself or prior owners there may be many other areas that will need to be cleaned.
Once all the spots have been cleaned and smells removed I would suggest crate training your dog as well as limiting the spaces that your dog can use. He should be supervised at all times and if you are not able to he should be in a crate or safe room. This will allow you to control the accidents. Use the times of day that you know that your dog has to go to your advantage. If he doesn't go and it should have been a time where he should have bring him back inside, place in crate and repeat in 20 min. Continue to do this until you have success.
Make sure that you are not free feeding your dog. If so this will affect all areas of training that you do with your dog. He should be fed atleast twice a day and given 20 min to eat at each feeding. Always give your dog enough exercise otherwise you may have issues with behaviour.
This is a just a few details, if you need more just let me know.
Stacey

[Vmar]

Hi Stacey,
Im sorry, I must not have made myself clear. Lucky is completly trained in the rest of the house except for the basement for some reason. The house is brand new so there are no other pet scents. Lucky has had training but this is a weird situation that was not an issue when he was trained. He just recently got enough nerve to go down the stairs.

[StaceyB]

I'm sorry, I had assumed from your post that you had an ongoing problem with housetraining and that this was just a new space being used for the accidents.
How long was he housetrained before he ventured downstairs? I wouldn't allow access to the basement unless he is with you. Sometimes there are products used in building that may attract them to go. Amonia based products are the most common.
There are many possible reasons for having housetraining trouble. You had mentioned that you had a hard time with the length of time it took you to housetrain upstairs. Why do you think you had so much trouble? The answer may also help you with this new trouble. In helping my students deal with the same issue I ask them a bunch of questions to find out as much information as possible to determine exactly where the problem was and to deal with it. If your dog didn't have access to the downstairs what would he do? Does he have a special way of telling you or do you just guess when he needs to go outside? What is his daily routine/ feeding, walks, washroom? When was his last accident prior to this new issue? How long had he gone accident free? What do you do when you notice that he had an accident? Is he fixed? As dogs go through their adolescence they go through changes and many dogs that were housetrained for a period of time prior revert back to having accidents in the home. All the things that you thought had been dealt with in puppyhood all come back. Your dog seems to be a little old for this to be the issue but it is possible.