My eight month old pup is regressing and having accidents

[FibonacciSeries]

I thought I had it figured out...and now, at eight months old, he's started having accidents of the brown variety in the house when we leave him alone. The last one was this morning while I was running errands, and I'd only left him alone for an hour, sleeping.

What can I do other than resuming the crate training, which seems a bit cruel at this point, or go back to having to be in the house all the time, letting him out to the garden often? He never does this when I'm around so I can't catch him in the act and I was finally feeling relieved to be able to go out for a couple of hours and not worry about him.

Anything that happens out of the blue requires a vet check to rule out any medical issues before you look at a training or behavioural route.

Thanks Lilcamper, as it happens we've been in and out of the vet for a skin problem, so I will mention it next week when we go in again.