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My 9 month old rescue pees in the house more when we're home than when we're away. Why?

Dani P.'s profile image

My partner and I rescued a 9 month old dog less than 3 weeks ago. Both of us work full time, which generally means we have to leave her alone for between 8-9 hours each weekday, except when one of us can work from home, which is probably once or twice every couple of weeks.

Anyways, we're working on setting up a dog walker to come take her for a mid-day walk, but honestly she's been pretty good home alone (not crated) for the whole day. Sometimes she has no accidents at all, other times she'll have a small pee somewhere in the house, which I don't blame her for.

I noticed recently, though, that when we're home and sitting in the living room with her, she'll get up OFTEN (every hour) and squat to pee. When I catch her in the act, I yell "No!" and she usually stops mid-stream, at which point I take her outside (though sometimes she won't even finish peeing when we go out after that happens despite being very good about peeing and pooping when we take her on her 4 regular daily walks). Today, for example, while working for home, I took her out for a walk around 1pm--she peed on that walk. Within 10 minutes of coming back inside, she squatted and started to pee again! Then when I took her out to relieve herself, she didn't go. What could this POSSIBLY be about and how do I help her learn?

Comments

Are you Sure she's not going when you're not home? Although puppies do go more often, she is old enough to hold it all usually. Make sure she doesn't have any kind infection. Bladder? Also is she going in the same spot inside?

Sue C.'s profile image Sue C.

2 Answers

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Laura R.'s profile image

Puppies do need to go much more frequently than adult dogs. It's pretty incredible she's holding it for 9 hours frequently. That said, if she hasn't developed a clear 'tell' she may believe that you should just know when she needs to go. When you're not home, obviously you can't let her out, so she holds it as long as she can. When you're there, she may be thinking "I need to pee. They aren't taking me. Oh well. Here works for me if it works for you."

Go back to house training basics with her and while you're providing extra supervision and rewards for going in the right place, also reward behavior that lets you know she needs to pee, whether it's going to the door, ringing a bell, whining, etc. If you train her to tell you when she needs to go out (and then you take her immediately when she tells you) you should see improvement.

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Evelyn M.'s profile image

Set up an alarm, hourly if necesary, and take the dog out on the dot. REWARD the dog heavily for going outside.

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