Puppy regression

[Arron (Shadow)]

Hey folks,

 

Desperately looking for some house potty training advice.  Things were progressing well with our 3 month old Shadow.  We are bell training her and she was ringing the bell to go outside to go to the bathroom.  We hadn't had any accidents for a few days and we were thinking we were on the home stretch.  We had a couple of busy days where she spent a little more time in her kennel and had an accident in there and now it seems like she has regressed.

She isn't ringing her bell any more to go out.  She has had multiple accidents in the house and today she peed in the house while looking my wife in the eye.  She got put outside while the mess was cleaned up.  My wife brought her back in, and was playing with her when she squatted and peed again right there.  What is up?  Why might she be going the wrong way?

 

any tips/suggestions are greatly appreciated!!

[Adina P]

My 1st thought is possible UTI? Worth taking a pee sample to the vet. Collect with a ladle and put in clean container.

[Arron (Shadow)]

I'm all good with some accidents in the house still, but only peeing IN the house after being so good about going outside has me concerned that we unwittingly did something to reprogram her the wrong way!  If that is the case, we want to re-re-program her ASAP  :)

I'll see if I can get a good pee sample.  Is there a smell to the urine associated with UTI? Her eliminations do seem the same as usual.

[Adina P]

I try my best to NOT smell it ever--LOL--so I can't tell you.  It doesn't necessarily look different though.  And it might NOT be a UTI but at least at my vet it's pretty inexpensive to check.  Sometimes dogs need to pee a couple times before they empty so she may just need to be out longer.  I took Rosco out for potty every 15-20  min (dont rely on bells at this age) whether he needed to pee or not.  Might try that too for a while just to be sure.

[Arron (Shadow)]

She gets taken out very regularly.  I don't believe that is the issue.  As I mentioned, she was doing very well but seems to have started going in the house on purpose.  I don't think that is the case but at the very least she seems to have forgotten that the great outdoors is her potty spot.

[Ricki and Tara (doodle)]

UTI was my first thought too! Causes uncontrollable bladder spasms and can definitely mess up house training!! I would recommend having her checked for that first!

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

UTI - rule that out before worrying way too much.  And I agree with Caitlin - you are going to still have some messes - 3 months old is still sooooo little!

[Jennifer and Jack]

Two things I can think of, UTI like everyone else said, That is what happen with Jack, he was completly house trained for months and months and they walaa he started peeing in the house. I took him in and he had some kidney issues going on.

I can always tell now when his PH is off in his urine because he can't hold it. Little girls are more prone to UTI infections that boys. Make sure the hair in her private area is cut short and not matted or that can cause an infection.

 

Also, once the puppy goes potty in her crate the smell is very hard to get rid of so what my trainer told another puppy mom to do is take all cushions and pads out. wash it really well, and only put a tiny towel in there for her to lay on. I would go back to strict potty training,  As soon as you take her out of the crate she goes potty, I would teather her to your belt or jeans and not let her out of your sight.

Make sure you clean really well the spots on the carpet where she went with some type of urine stain remover so she can not smell it there. I would also restrict her from that area.

 

She is still little though, just a baby, so accidents are going to happen.

 

Hang in there, this potty training will be over before you know it

[Bonnie and Kona]

I agree with all of this. That many accidents are worth a vet visit just to be sure she isn't sick.

 

When I saw the title I thought of Owen going backwards in his potty training around that age, but it was only two or three times, I think. We immediately reduced the size of the area he was allowed in to about 5X7 feet and took him outside every 20 minutes. Within a few days he was doing well again. He was not trustworthy until 4 months (he is crate trained so doesn't have free reign when alone).

[Deanna & Desi & Cori]

Don't really have much of an answer to offer, except to say that Sedona's potty training was a three steps forward, one step back kind of thing.  Just about the time we were saying, "Wow, this is going well", we'd have a couple of days in a row of accidents.  Then, she'd get back on track.  I think in actuality it was mostly that as she'd get better, we'd get less vigilant.

[cheryl & oliver]

Well I think that she is still a little one, so accidents will happen, BUT I would take her to the vet and see if she has a uti.  It is not usual for them to go like that right after they have just gone outside.  I would definately have her checked.  She is still very young, and accidents will happen, but this is not her usual way, so it doesn't hurt to have her checked.  My vet has used a small catheter on my guy when I brought him in once for poss. uti, he wanted a sterile specimen, so they did it there...

[Chelsea and Bailey]

Like everyone said get checked for UTI- yes like everyone said she's still young and can't be reliable but the same thing happened with bailey at 3 months where she was doing good and then all of a sudden it was 10x or more accidents in the house!!! And that was on a weeknight. On the weekend when we were around her for the whole day we kept track of her pees and it was 20x outside! Even the vet was like that's excessive. Anyways my point is she is young but she also was getting a routine so when she starts acting out of sorts I would think to get her checked out forsure.

Just a note we eneded up having to add water to all baileys kibble and bought the honest kichen dehydrated food to mix at nights as she has stones in urine and the vet said that if they have UTI when young then they most likely will be prone to having one later. Anyways, so far the wet food has worked and she is accident free at 15 weeks!

[Arron (Shadow)]

Good info - thanks!  and thank you to everyone else.

We have a vet appt later this week but we have also gone back to being more vigilant / rigid with her.  We were starting to trust her but I guess it is just too early for that kind of trust.  She seems to be doing better now that we are setting the times and not waiting for her to tell us.

Just seemed odd that she was so good trained on the bells and has now decided that she doesn't want to use them...