I know it's not unusual for a new dog to have an accident in the house when they first arrive, and that it's a combination of stress and confusion. However, after the first accident or two, would you talk to the owner about their dog being housebroken and let them know of repeated accidents in the house?
Marking is often confused with a housetraining accidents. Most dogs and even cats, will attempt to mark in a new place. It's a dominance behavior. A perfectly housetrained dog will still try to mark. They want to make the new area theirs. A host home must be as free as possible of other dog's accident/marking scents. That's why carpets are preferred pee spots. It's harder to completely remove the scent. It's there even if the human nose can't smell it. Carpets and rugs need to be deep cleaned often with a pet odor eliminator as well as any other spots that seem to be pee magnets.
A car ride usually jangles a dog around enough to have to eliminate as soon as they arrive so dogs immediately go outside. The owner will be in the middle of telling me, " oh they went out right before we left" and the dog starts pooping.
I do not allow dogs that are untrained unless they are puppies and I do not allow potty pads. A dog that sneak pees or poos in the middle of the night or while I'm not looking would be crated for sleep or while I showered if it happened more than once and I would tell the owner. Face it, we cannot have our floors and carpets professionally cleaned between every guest. They need to know what their dogs do when they aren't around. I explain to them that it is perfectly natural for pets to exhibit unusual behavior when not in their care. I go over all of those things during the meet and greet or in messages if it is an out of town client.
Neutered dogs don't mark as much as unneutered dogs so I don't accept un neutered dogs. The biggest complaint I hear from new clients about why they didn't return to a past sitter is bad smells in the home so we really have to keep up on that at all times. I always have a mop and bucket ready for immediate clean ups and a hot water carpet cleaner to run once a week.
If this stay is continuing, you may want to consider more frequent outings, restricting space, and trying belly bands.
If it's an extended stay, you may want to nicely let them know what's going on. Something like I've been giving Rover walks/potty breaks every (number of hours), but Rover is having frequent accidents indoors. Sometimes this can be due to stress. Is there anything you can suggest that might make him more comfortable during his stay?
If the stay will end soon, I'd still mention upon their return, just in case this is not stress related, but may have medical basis.
Here are a couple threads discussing some of this:
https://www.rover.com/community/quest... https://www.rover.com/community/quest...
I'd say easily half of new clients have at least one indoor accident, and I do not accept dogs who are not house trained. But I do know that house training, like every other behavior, is first learned very situationally. You have to work on it in a lot of different places with a lot of floor types and different activities before the behavior is generalized to include novel indoor spaces (and even then, a new house with entirely new people and lots of new dog smells is a pretty different environment than usual).
My normal routine is to take the dogs out for a walk within minutes of being dropped off. This prevents a lot of indoor accidents as new dogs are just overcome by all the changes and the new space. I make a big deal about them pottying outside so they get some immediate reinforcement for going in the right place. For many dogs (especially dogs who have spent a lot of time in different locations) this is all it takes. Some are harder. Either they haven't had much experience in different locations (and thus haven't reached the point where they generalize their house training to new places) or they experience more stress than others. I tend to see the most accidents overnight when I'm sleeping. If it happens more than a couple times, I consider mentioning it to the owners, just as a heads up, and always with the caveat that it's not uncommon in a new environment, especially one with lots of other dog smells. If I had any reason to believe it might be a medical issue (such as if the dog had discolored or strongly odored urine), I would let them know immediately.
Did you discuss the dog being housebroken at the M&G? I would let them know about the repeated peeing on the rug when they come to pick up the dog. It might be something that they are unaware of. Be tactful and pro-active about it, saying something like, "I don't know if it was the stress of being away from you or being in a new house, but your dog [name] had repeated accidents in the house during their stay." Ask them if they have boarded the dog elsewhere before and if this happened before.
Thanks for your answer Cari. I always discuss this at the meet and greets. I will add your suggestions to my conversations in the future, about boarding elsewhere and whether it happened then. It's just nice to know in advance if I need to watch the dog like a hawk when it's running around in my house. I do that anyway at first, but tend to relax after the first day or two. In any case, this is a dog I won't take again.
I watch every first time costumer like a hawk. Accidents are quite normal the first day, by the second day if they are potty trained accident shouldn't occur. The first floor of my house has hardwood floor but I have area rugs. I roll up the rugs anytime a dog I am unfamiliar with comes over. Rugs are a magnet for pee, they much rather pee on the rug than the floor. If my house had carpet all around I would not be able to host dogs just because it is normal for them to have accidents there. At the meet and greet I ask all costumers about bathroom breaks, potty training and how will their dog let me know if they need to go out. I would tell the costumer the dog had a few accidents. Mention it casually and not accusatory and see what she/he says. I recommend you invest in diapers and belly bands. I have some in stock from a bad experience I had once. I haven't had to use it since then, but its nice to know I have them on hand in case I need them.
I've also considered buying belly bands for dogs that had an unreasonable number of accidents despite walks every 2-4 hours. Then I found another solution rather than buying, washing, and storing belly bands -- if you search online, there's tutorial to make disposable ones.
Deb I found them on ebay for a pack of 3 (small, medium, large) for less than $20.
That's certainly inexpensive. I used to walk a dog that constantly saturated his belly band every couple hours and I hand washed b.b. each visit. As a result of that experience, I'm not inclined to buy, wash, & store at my home for visitors. I rather make a disposable one real quick if needed.