Year old dog still peeing inside - with pics (of dog not pee [grin])!

[Ettie]

Hi all, we have a lovely 12 month old (spitz mix) and he still pees inside every night. We did not crate train and he sleeps in the kitchen. He always poops outside and pees/scent marks on walks. Would love some advice about how to break this habit. He has loads of company (wfh) and is taken on two long walks per day. He has free access to a fenced in garden all day/evening. In the early months, we rewarded him (attention/treat) every time he peed in the garden and he understood this. But he's in the kitchen alone from about 11pm to about 5.30am and I don't know how to teach him to "hold on" in this time! Would love some advice please. Thanks.

Would he pee indoors during the day if he couldn’t get to the garden or would he ask to go out ?

He would ask to go out but if no one was gone he just pees.

We had the same. You might not want to do this, but we found having our dog sleep in our room at night meant everytime she whined, we would take her out for a wee (in the night). No fuss, no talking to - just out-wee-bed. (with a treat to begin with) This meant that she knew it was always outside where she should wee and we could hear her straight away, so it was less fuss. She now holds it in, if she does stir or whine in the night and we go to take her out, she curls up and closes her eyes - almost saying that she doesn't want to go out in that cold/wet and therefore keeps it in all night. She also always gets taken out for a wee last thing! I presume you have checked with vet no UTI or anything??

In that case you need to go back to basics as your dog is not properly housetrained . You need to shut off the access to outside and go back to taking him out regularly and praising him for going outside , also add in a command word if you’ve not already got one . Our dog goes on command to ‘go quick’ so I always know he’s had a wee before I go out . This is one of the problems that can arise if people leave doors open and let dogs wander in and out when they are not fully housetrained . Good luck , it shouldn’t take long to retrain him as he is a bit older and has half got it already .

Lovely dog BTW .

We had this with ddog. She would be playing outside then run into the kitchen, pee on the floor and then run out again.
We were told to clean everywhere with biological washing powder and hot water to get rid of previous scent marks and then go back to basics with toilet training.

I'm in the same boat op. Rescue dog now 16 months. Will still wee inside at night or when I'm out or if I don't let her out immediately. Really tricky. Done everything possible to get her to go on command but won't. Really tricky

My dog was reliable indoors when left but I moved the new place had a dog flap. He loved that!

Lots of people fall into the trap of leaving doors open in the summer - don't! It blurs the boundaries between indoors and outdoors and they don't understand why they can pee in the garden but not a metre away in the house. A closed door (with bells for them to ring) creates a physical boundary so they understand the difference.

I suspect your dog could hold it, but because he doesn't understand that he shouldn't pee in the kitchen, he sees no reason to wait

So, back to basics. Doors to outside shut at all times and teach him to ring doggy door bells each time he wants to go out. Soon, he'll ring the bells to get out to go to the toilet - as he's older it shouldn't take too much repetition!

I would also make sure you use a proper pet enzyme spray (I like simple solution) to clean up any accidents. Good luck!

The only way I broke the habit of my dog needing a wee over night was by introducing a quick 15 min wee walk at around 9pm.

Can I just say what a beautiful dog 😍

Is he neutered?

I would crate train your dog and teach them to sleep in it overnight as a first step. The crate should be big enough for her to stand and lay in but not big enough to give her a sleeping area and a peeing area. This will go a long way to helping her stop.

She is super cute by the way!

Sorry, for some reason I though he was a she and wrote she through my post.

With male dogs it makes a difference if they are neutered or not. Mine isn't and he marks his territory

Thanks a million all. Since I posted we went away for 3 nights, and doggie was dry for all of them! I guess due to more walks / evening time outside, and also one of the kids slept in the room with him - not sure if this helped also as he did not ask to pee in the night. Then we came home, and we made sure he was outside loads in the evening (waiting with him, waiting for long pee etc) and he was dry one night and accident one night. Anyway, timing being what it is he has been neutered today (poor thing) so that will send everything pear-shaped again I am sure!

Hope the poor boy doesn’t feel too bad tonight , he obviously wants to share a bedroom .