Pee Pee Problem

[Sandy]

Toby is 11 months old now - obviously fully house trained. We have one recurring issue that we cannot seem to resolve. When he was a little puppy, we kept him on the main floor of the house, because then he could be on linoleum or ceramic floors, and accident clean ups were easy. As he became trained he was allowed access to the rest of the house. The living room on the main floor, carpeted, he's fine. Upstairs, all carpet, he's fine. The rec room, in the basement, all carpeted, not so fine. For some reason, nine times out of ten when he goes down there he pees!!!! It's getting very old and very frustrating. We have cleaned the carpet, so it's not because of old smells. It's also not always in the same spot. I have put some "special" toys down there, so he might come down and relax with us. I don't know what to do. We have a little t.v. upstairs that I watch, but in the rec room we have a fireplace, bigger t.v., etc., and I would like to go back down there someday!!! Any thoughts? Anything at all? I just don't know what to do.....

[Sandy]

1) Yes, he ONLY goes when someone else is down there too,and 2) he is not sneaking down to pee.

We don't see him go. The area is sectioned off with a couch. He tends to pee over near the stairs. I wish, just for 5 minutes, he could talk, and tell me why he feels he needs to/wants to pee down there!

[Chris & Boys]

Unbelievable. The only spot in my house Fozzy, who is 8 mos., has accidents, is in our basement, in front of the sliding glass door. It smells so bad, and is so stained, just this a.m. I put a whole 34 oz bottle of Nature's Miracle on the spot hoping to get it clean. I don't know about you, but suddenly I notice Fozzy is not around, and I run downstairs, and in most cases, he has already finished. He may do it once a month. He may do it twice a week. No pattern, except that when we are busy, we don't take him out often enough. He does not let us know any other way that he needs to go out other than by going downstairs and peeing.

[Sandy]

Yeah - no rhyme or reason to it. Toby goes outside from the main level, not the basement, so he's not looking for a way to go out. It's not a lot, so he doesn't desparately have to go. I use "Out!' and clean the spot thoroughly. I don't see him doing it. I am stymied.

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

We have the same problem with Harlow. She has 2 favorite spots, the kitchen rug under the table and the entry way between our bedroom and sitting room. She doesn't give us any warning. Bedroom spot is if I haven't noticed she is not around. Kitchen carpet seems to be when the pack is play tag (running the kitchen, family room, foyer, dining room circuit), she will suddenly break away from the boys, run under the table and squat before I have a chance to run open the back door.

I am going to try the tethering thing upstairs as I am usually not paying attention (cause I am surfing DK :o} ) when she heads to our bedroom.

[Debbie and Thomas]

Just caught up with this post Sandy. This is going to sound crazy but there is something about basements that makes dogs want to go. My neighbour has a 10 year old cockapoo who has NEVER had an accident in their home-but if he goes into the basement( it is unfinished) he will pee or even poop there. Same thing with our late dog Buddy. He would never even think about going anywhere in the house- but if he went to the basement- he would always find a spot and pee. A few months ago, our doodle did the same thing down there and he had just peed outside. Again, our basement is just a concrete slab floor. Then, several weeks ago he did it again. Do they smell someting underground or something?? What is this??

[Sandy]

Our basement is carpeted, to be used as a large family living space. I will be sad if Toby can't share it with us. Now it's not bad, but in the winter I would want to go down and turn on the fireplace. I've got to figure this out!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

My suggestion would be to take him out to go potty before going down to watch TV and then take him up every half hour (at the commercial of course) to go out. My son's dog picked our dining room as his spot when he had his accidents. He was consistent with the spot so we finally put a chair over it and he stopped having accidents in the house!

[Zoe, Benny and Tyler]

Could it be a marking issue? Is Toby neutered already? We had something similar with Benny before he was neutered. He used to lift his leg at the dining table in the wintergarden ggggrrrrrrrrr every now and then although he was fully housetrained already. After he got neutered he never did that again. I discussed it also with our dogtrainer and she said that is was definitely marking as our cats sleep a lot in the wintergarden on the dining table chairs and Benny obviously wanted to show them that it is his territory.
As Toby is kind of "new" to rec room could it be that he wants to show you that this room is his now as well?
Or maybe he still doesn't consider this room belonging to his living space and therefore he uses it as a toilet because dogs want to keep clean their living space and prefer to pee outside of this area.
I am just thinking around a bit to give you some ideas.
But to me it sounds like going into these directions.....

[Sandy]

Yes, he is already neutered. He was neutered 5 months ago. I'm sure part of it IS that this is a new area to him, and he's not sure how to act. I just need to figure out how to tell him that THIS is not the proper way to act.

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

What a pain in the neck. For the basement you need to go back to square one. First Toby cannot go down there unless he is on a lead and tied to someone responsible ( I say that because in my house my DH would not notice a puppy going pee unless he peed in his lap!) Second Toby must go outside and go pee before he can go downstairs. Then he can go down on the lead and stay close to you. Probably take about three months, less if you are lucky. You will know he understands if when you say basement?, Toby dashes out the door to pee first, even if he doesn't really have to pee.