My young dog has started peeing in the house, why?

[pinkbraces]

Can any of you very knowledgable dog owners please help me.

My dog is 13 months old, she has been house trained since she was about four months old but recently she has started going to the toilet in the house, without even barking or indicating to go out. This doenst happen when we are out, she never has an accident then. It only happens when we are in and not paying her attention. For example if Im in the kitchen cooking and she wants to play but I cant, she may do it then, or if we are upstairs. She doesnt do it when we are with her in the same riim, either playing with her or just watching tv.

She gets lots of walks and fun.

We have always given her lots of attention, she is our fourth baby :) but Im wondering if its possible we have given her to much attention and she is now getting annoyed when we dont. We have also recently started letting her on the sofa, which we never did before.

How do I get her to stop doing this?

'but Im wondering if its possible we have given her to much attention and she is now getting annoyed when we dont.'

Dogs don't think like that - humans do

Two possibilities spring instantly to mind - she may have a urine infection, or she may have been told off previously for having an accident and is now stressed that she may be told off again.

We were told when she was a pup never to tell her off if she has an accident in the house as it was counter productive and we have stuck to this. I also take her out of the room when cleaning it up, I think I read this somewhere but not sure of the reasoning.

Urine infection was my first thought, we have taken her to the vet to be checked and it was negative. She only seems to do this when on her own in the downstairs rooms, and always the rooms with carpet not the wooden floor!

If we are playing with her and she needs to go she will bark or go to the back door, do her wee then come back to play.

Is there anything we can do?

Well, the reason they pee on carpet is that no dog likes being splashedby urine when they pee on a hard surface

Could she have learned that this is a sure fire way to get attention? She sounds very bright.

It depends also on what you are cleaning with. If the smell of the urine is not removed fully, then dogs will go back and pee on it again, and some cleaning products do smell like urine to a dog, just to complicate things. I'd make sure the carpet is steam cleaned thoroughly.

Take her out the garden every hour, and go with her. If she wees, give her lots and lots of praise and perhaps a toy/chew/game - she needs to associate rewards and attention with peeing outside.

she is very bright, probably doenst like going out in the rain :) Perhaps we are giving her attention when she does it, I try not to but even "oh no" whats this is still attention.

We do use a spray called Get Off which is supposed to remove the spray, maybe it isnt very good.

We have been giving her lots of praise and treats when she goes outside, similar to when she was a puppy.

Does anyone think its worth trying a dog behaviour person?

Could you confine her to an area with a hard floor (e.g. kitchen) during those times you can't be with her? To try to break the cycle?

I think thats what we will do, I just feel very mean not letting her access all areas. We are also changing the carpet to wooden flooring in one of the rooms and I will have the carpet in the other room professionally cleaned and treated which will hopefully get rid of any lingering urine smell.

Hopefully this will work.

Perhaps we could just teach her to use the loo, think how great that would be in the winter time :)

lol - yes