Boy do I need help!

Please only for an experienced animal expert.

Here is my situation.
I have had my dog for about 6 months now.
House training has been especially difficult and frustrating. He get's
it for a while, but then he loses it, and pee's in the house. He's
pee'd every weekend for the past month or two.
He is 11 months old, and will be neutered next week.
He is my dog and whenever I leave the house, I put him in my room. He
has never pee'd inside of my room. I am usually gone from Friday
night, until Sunday morning. He doesn't go out of my room, except when
other people living in the house bring him out. THAT IS WHEN HE PEES!
ONLY WHEN I AM NOT HOME!!! *on the exception of rare occasions*. They
say that they let him out to pee, but when I am not home he prefer's
to pee inside. Is it possible that he thinks of my room as his
"dwelling" and he thinks of the rest of the house as sort of the
"entrance way to the cave"? Like I said earlier, he has never peed in
my room. Is it ok, for him to be in my room for three days with the
exception of being let out to run in the grass for approx. 40 minutes
a day? He has very little relationship to anyone in the house but me.
We are very loyal to each other, and he can never be found more than 6
feet from me. Even when I run downstairs for a drink. He follows me to
the tv, computer, fridge, even bathroom. When I leave home, he is very
sad.
Now to the real question:
What can I do to fix this problem?
What happened to make him become "untrained"
What are the absolute necessary steps to housetraining this dog?

My housemates are particularly frustrated at this problem, as am I.
Please include what kind of expertise you have in the field.
Not to question your authority, but so they can know it is coming from
a trusting source.
It can be anything from a lifelong vet, to an experienced mother of
dogs. Please just include. Thank you very much.

I have set the price low, due to bad experiences using Google Answers.
If I feel that a qualified pet expert has appropriately answered my
question, I will leave a reasonable tip, according to my satisfaction
to their answer.

Thank you very much for taking the time to help me with this.
I am really lost without your help.

Sincerely,
Will Stein

Hi willstein,

I think, before I begin, I will give you a brief rundown of my
experience so that YOU know that I know what I'm talking about.

I have worked with dogs (and other animals) my whole life. I spent 8
years as a veterinary technician in an extremely busy veterinary
practice. I have raised and trained house dogs in manners and
obedience and working retrievers for hunting. My degree is in Zoology
with a focus on Ethology. In short, animal behavior has been my
lifelong study. ( See the end of this answer for other dog behavior
questions I have worked on.

Second, please understand that I (and most other researchers) don't
normally answer questions on "speculation" -- that is on the promise
of a tip, because frankly, that promise is not often fulfilled. You
can normally expect, if you post a $10 question, you will receive a
$10 answer:

[  http://answers.google.com/answers/pricing.html  ] . 


However, I have personal interest in your question (and owe thanks to
another researcher who pointed me to it this morning!), so you will be
getting more than your money's worth here. I'm glad to have the chance
to write this!


So, that said, let's get to your pup's problem.

First the basics –

1 – Young dogs and puppies have to urinate often during the day
(sometimes even hourly!) and so must be taken out frequently to avoid
accidents. Frequency depends on the age of the dog, the amount of
water intake, and their excitement/ activity level.

2 – Dogs will try to avoid urinating in their "den" or in close
proximity to where their pack (in this case humans) lives.  However,
the dog's definition of his den may be different from yours. For
example, he may think that your living room is "out" compared to being
in your bedroom.

3 – Dogs are creatures of habit. They need consistency in their
training and in their lives. When many people are giving them mixed
signals and managing them with different schedules, it confuses them
and they can't possible do the right thing at the right time and in
the right place.

4 – Every time a dog has an "accident" in the house and gets scolded
for it, he becomes more confused. He is doing something that comes
naturally to him and he's getting scolded for it, but he has no idea
how to avoid the scolding. He can't relate the two behaviors.

A confused dog is not a happy dog. 

Try to imagine if every day, out of the blue, some random person at
work (not even your boss) came in and yelled at you but didn't tell
you what you had done wrong, just that you had been bad and that you
might be fired if you messed up again.  You'd be a nervous wreck by
the end of the week.  That's how your poor dog is going to start to
feel if we don't get this sorted out.


5 – Dogs urinate for three main reasons – 
     a) because they just have to go. 
     b) to mark territory
     c) out of fear or nervousness


My suspicion, based on what you said, is that your dog is urinating in
the house when you aren't there because the people who are watching
him on the weekend are not aware of his needs and don't watch him as
closely as you do.

You and your dog are obviously very close. You know him well and he
trusts you. You're probably really good at noticing when he starts to
act fidgety like he wants to go out. Maybe with you he gets extra
trips outside because he walks with you to get the mail or sits with
you in the yard. And probably when he's in your room with you, he's
sleeping quietly, not all wound up with new people to play with and
new rooms to be explored.

But I imagine it's not like this when you aren't home. Your housemates
aren't keeping such close track of him. He's not their dog and they
just aren't as attentive as you. First of all, he's cooped up most of
the time. Then, it could be that they are expecting him to "ask" to go
out. Maybe they don't realize that if he is free in the house and
drinking water ad lib, then they need take him out every hour or so.
(Pretty much every time he wakes up from a nap!)  They probably let
him out of your room figuring he could use some time to play, but then
don't really keep track of him .. until he has an accident!

In order for your dog to understand what is expected of him, you are
going to need to either engage the full cooperation of your housemates
on the days that you are gone, or you are going to have to make other
arrangements for the dog on the weekends -- like take him with you or
board him someplace.

So, what kind of schedule would your housemates be willing to work
with? That's going to be up to them, but let's see what works best for
the dog and hope that they are willing to comply.

First of all, 40 minutes once a day is NOT enough time for a dog his
age to be let out of your room. He needs more than that, both for
biological reasons (urinating and defecating) and for social reasons
(he IS a pack animal after all).

Here's an ideal schedule for the dog for the days you are not home –

First thing in the morning – take him directly outside! Do not stop
anywhere in the house first. From the minute he leaves your room he's
looking for a place to urinate because he really has to go!  Once
outside, let him take all the time he needs to do everything he has to
do. As soon as he urinates, give him a little treat right then and
there – a biscuit or something as a reward. Then, bring him in, feed
him his breakfast and give him water.

Now let him play in the house and be with people for an hour or so
after he eats, then take him out and again give him a reward for
urinating outside. As soon as he has gone, bring him in and put him in
his "den" (your room) with the door closed. Dogs, if left quietly,
will sleep most of the day, so he will probably settle down quickly.

NOTE:  Unless for some reason it is really really hot (in which case
that's a bad place for him), there is no need to give him water when
he's in your room. Certainly not at night, and not during the day
either as long as you let him out regularly.


Midday – after about 4 hours repeat the morning ritual but without the
meal. Take him directly out, reward him for urinating outside, bring
him in and give him water, let him play for about an hour (either in
or out), put him out again and after he urinates once last time, put
him back in his den.

The key is giving him two chances to urinate about an hour apart. This
is to make sure the last of the water has had time to run through him
and be eliminated before putting him back in his den. It may take more
or less than an hour. Someone needs to be keeping track!

Evening – around dinner time repeat the above and feed him his dinner,
just like you did in the morning – between the first out and the
second one. Then put him back in his den.

Before bed – let him out one last time just to urinate. No play time
and certainly no drinks before bed!

If you get the cooperation of your housemates and stick to this
schedule, I am sure your puppy puddles will come to a quick end.
Schedules and consistency are the keys to success!

The main point I'm trying to get across here is that the fault does
not lie with the dog. He's not bad or untrained. Just mixed up and
unable to communicate his needs. The fault lies with the people caring
for the dog. The easiest way to prove that? Offer one of your
housemates a $20 reward if he/she can get the dog through the weekend
without an accident. I bet you'll have to pay up!  :-)

A couple of final notes on other causes of indoor urination –

Male dogs do mark territory by urinating, although normally not
indoors unless a) there is another dog present or b) they have no
outdoor territory to mark.  In either case, if this is even partially
the cause, once he is neutered, you may find his indoor urination
decreases.

Dogs may urinate out of fear. If your housemates are yelling at the
dog, scaring him, chasing him out of rooms or doing anything else that
causes a severe fear reaction, he will urinate right then and there.

A dog may be triggered to urinate indoors by the smell of the spot
where he previously went. If he is going in the same place repeatedly,
then you should prevent him from getting anywhere near that spot and
you should clean it with a good odor neutralizer. This is just an
example of one odor neutralizer, but every vet carries one brand or
another –

Pet Odor/Stain Removers Un-Duz-It
http://www.redhotcarpetcleaning.com/en-us/dept_3.html
 

Please take the time to review the below website. It will tell you
everything you need to know about dog housebreaking and other dog
behavioral issues. I have read many many sites on training dogs and
this is BY FAR the most realistic and useful site I have ever been to.
This lady really knows her stuff!

  
THE CANINE BEHAVIOR SERIES
By Kathy Diamond Davis -  Author and Trainer  
 * Housetraining Basics
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1089&S=1&SourceID=47




===========================================
DOG  BEHAVIOR QUESTIONS I HAVE ANSWERED
============================================

Q: dogs agressive behavior
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=196864


Q: Severe Pain in My Dog's Tail
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=156419


Thanks so much for your interesting question! If anything I've
explained is unclear, please feel free to ask for a clarification.

Best of luck with your dog!

-K~

Thank you very much. Your answer was very helpful. You are highly
recommended to anyone using google answers. Thank you.

I don't think that it's helpful leaving your dog by itself for long
periods.

Whenever I go out for more than 4 hours, I ask someone to come in and
to take Daisy for a walk.

Unless she is ill, she always pees outside.

At first, she needed training: she was chastised when she peed inside;
and made a big fuss of when she did it outside. She soon got the
message. It was all done by tone of voice, there was never any need to
wallop her.

Now, she has a routine. She's let out fist thing in the morning and
last thing at night and also whenever she asks to be let out.

Even now (she was 13 last week), she still gets congratulated when she
asks to go out.

Sure, she took A LOT of work initially but it's paid off.

I suggest you start training your dog to operate round a routine and
that whenever you are not available, make sure that he can continue
with his routine.

Keep at it!

They are worth the effort.

>Is it possible that he thinks of my room as his 
>"dwelling" and he thinks of the rest of the house 
>as sort of the "entrance way to the cave"? <

Willstein --

There are quite a few researchers who own dogs; I hope that one feels
competent enough to answer this question.  Most of us are amateurs
trying to learn more, even if we've owned 4 or 5 dogs.

The "nest" or "dwelling" concept is behind the popular use of
"crating" in puppy training.  An excellent reference with multiple
links is this site:
http://www.wonderpuppy.net/canwehelp/crate.htm

You may also find some of the "Do's and Don'ts" from Midwest Homes for
Pets, a crate manufacturer, helpful in correcting the behavior outside
your room:
http://www.midwesthomes4pets.com/DoDont/dodont.htm

Correcting bad behavior is very labor intensive.  We've found that the
place that "accidents" happen in the house is often repeatedly used. 
But once the behavior is corrected, it's a joy to have communicated
with the pet.

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA