Regression in potty training? Having a bad day.

[HeatherA]

Okay, I know that sometimes with kids when you have a new baby.. a toddler that is potty trained will regress and suddenly want to wear diapers again, or start having accidents.

We have a 14 month old Goldendoodle who has been reliably potty trained to hit the bell for over 7 months, fairly consistent since the age of 3 months.  We added a second Doodle to our family less then two weeks ago.

Today we let them out of their crates and straight outside to walk.  10 minutes later BOTH dogs had done #2 inside.  I blamed my husband being in a rush (he walked out with them that morning), recently having switched foods causing lose bowels (our older Doodle has been super gassy), and just a bad morning.   Now it's not even lunch time and I have personally walked the girls outside at least 4 times... I went to get myself a drink and BOTH girls again have now peed inside.  *bangs head on counter*   What is going on?

Any tips for this?  My confidence is really slipping here.  Is this normal?  Have other multiple dog owners seen some regression when a new puppy is brought on the scene?

I don't believe this is malicious acting out.  I'm a stay at home Mom.. so lots of time with both girls.  We've increased our time spent with Veruca to help the adjustment - my husband has been taking her on his runs, I bought them both new toys (not just new toys for the new puppy), some new chews.  We make sure we have time alone with each dog every day.  Veruca loves her playtime with Violet and vice versa... they get along like two peas in a pod.  They are both crate trained.

Any advice or support is appreciated.. just having a little doodle Mom failure moment.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

It also happened to us when Murph came home. Murphy wasn't fully housebroken when we got him, and Guinness regressed for a while. It didn't last very long, but it was a little frustrating. We had to revert with Guinness who was used to having free reign in the house. We kept them both pretty well confined during this period. I think Guinness would see Murph "go" and think....wow, I can do that too. It really only took a few weeks before they both understood where they needed to do their "business". Good luck!

[HeatherA]

Yep -- I am headed out tonight to get new baby gates tonight. I was avoiding using the ones I have - the plastic stoppers have hardened and they were damaging my door frames. Definitely need to reel it in and give them both less freedom.

Thanks for the reminder that accidents happen and it won't last forever... just a trying day :)

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

It happened to my SIX YEAR OLD chihuahua when we brought Peri home. He was pissed off for a few weeks and left nice presents for us when we came home. He also peed inside once. He got over it. It will get better just train them both together :)

[HeatherA]

Oh geesh, they really are like children.

I am definitely using this time to reinforce Veruca's training.

Tell me -- did you find that taking the dogs out together causes too much distraction? I wonder if they are interrupting each other.. and if we should be taking them each out alone for a while until they get the hang of just getting business done when they are outside.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Initially we took our two out together, but it was too distracting. We had better luck taking them separately to potty. We go for our regular walks together, but when it's potty time...one by one.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

We took them outside together when Taquito needed to go (which was not every 20 minutes like Peri in the beginning). So we did find ourselves alone with Peri and doing the big "pee pee time" followed by "yay, good girl, YES!" and a treat. She figured it out soon. Honestly, Taquito new EXACTLY what he was doing. He was pissed off and was not really regressing...just my opinion.