Peeing/pooping at visitor's houses

[DeeDee and Sheila]

Ok, Sheila is now 19 mos old and has decent potty habits.  She was not fully trained until she was 7 mos. old.  She also has not topped 10 lbs yet, so she does have a small bladder.  But, this . . . . Is this a variation of excited pee syndrome or a marking behavior do you think?  It is the first time, one time it was a pee and one time a poop.  Both were houses that had dogs.  And would she do it on the mostly wood floors.  Oh no, she does it right on the carpeting. 

My big dogs never did this.  Sheila is a little bit fearful of strangers/new situations. So I have worked and worked at taking her places.  I've at least stopped it at Lowe's, pet stores, hotels etc.  Now it's just at other people's houses. Chrarming, huh?  She sometimes gets invited to my mahjongg games to play w/ their dogs.  Now I'm leery of taking her, the little pee pee girl.  And I can be looking right at her.  Is she saying, mom, I'm scared?  Or do girls mark over boys pee?  Both were male dogs.

Should I hold her for awhile until she gets comfortable?  Her invites are dwindling, needless to say. 

[Sandra Griffith]

I cannot be certain as to the exact reasons for Sheila's unfortunate potty habits while out, but it is not uncommon for dogs to be thoroughly housetrained at home and not at new places.  Dogs are not good generalizers, meaning that they do not always understand that just because they are housetrained at home does not mean that they automatically understand that other people's homes are not suitable public restrooms.  To complicate matters further, if she smells any kind of lingering odour from past mistakes that might have occured (remember dogs have incredibly sensitive noses) this may tell her that this is an appropriate toileting spot.  Carpets are harder substrates from which to remove every trace of these odours (at least to a dog's nose) and as such are more likely to be used for this purpose. 

If this is what is causing Sheila's poor housetraining issues at other people's houses I would revert to basic housetraining procedures whilest at other people's homes.  This means constant supervision (tethering or crating) and frequent potty trips to appropriate venue as you did when housetraining her at home.  You've done this before, but should you have further questions as to how to housetrain (including at your friend's domiciles) please feel free to ask further.

[DeeDee and Sheila]

That makes alot of sense Sandra.  I'll tether, then take her out frequently.