# Puppy peeing again in house; bored with food?



## Sanderling (Sep 21, 2008)

Our 6 month old puppy, who has been reliably housebroken for the last 3 months, has just this week started peeing in the house again. She's done it half a dozen times in the last four days or so. She only pees on carpets or area rugs, never the bare floor, and a couple nights ago she peed on the bed, and the night before that on the blanket in her crate.

For the last month or so, since the onset of snow and cold weather, we've been just letting her out into the backyard when she has to go, so there's no one praising her when she pees anymore. She was still good, though, until this week. And she continues to go to the door and ask to be let out to poop. When we were housebreaking her, all her training took place downstairs on the bare floor, and she's only the last month or so been allowed upstairs where there's carpet.

Could she be put off by the cold and snow outside, and figure that she was never trained not to pee on the carpet? Or could it be because the positive reinforcement of going outside has stopped? Is there another reason she might be doing this?

Should we just go back to square one with potty training? We're always in the other room when she pees, so haven't caught her in the act. We could keep her close to us for a while, but if she's peeing specifically because we're not there that doesn't help. How can we train her that just because we're not in the room and she doesn't get disciplined doesn't mean it's okay to pee inside?

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A separate question, our puppy was absolutely crazy for food for the first few months after we got her, mealtime was her favourite time of the day. When she started teething she started to appear more reluctant to eat, so we would soften her food with water. 

She's grown all her teeth out now, but hasn't regained that enthusiasm for food. At mealtimes we'll put her dry food down and she'll come over and sniff it, maybe take a mouthful, but then walk away. If we wet it down she'll usually eat it, but hardly with the gusto she used to.

She seems perfectly healthy, lots of energy, will still come running for treats if you call (though she doesn't get very many, perhaps half a dozen thumbnail-sized treats over the course of a day, for good behaviour or tricks). When we tried giving her a sample of dry kibble we got from the vet's office she gobbled it down dry. She's a very smart dog (lab/border collie cross), is she simply bored with her kibble?


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## TooneyDogs (Aug 6, 2007)

Dogs relapse on the potty training and it's no big deal. Just go back to the basics. A few refresher lessons should quickly fix it. The same food day in and day out can get really boring. I try to add something to their kibble every other day. Maybe some applesauce, bananas, chicken, broth (they got Au Jus yesterday and today), cottage cheese, hamburger.....pretty much anything but, it's usually only 1/4 'other' and 3/4 kibble.


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## 4paws-up (Jan 6, 2009)

Have you made sure there is no UTI- reason I say is because even though my dog had no "normal" symptoms she did have one.........just to be sure I would check it.

Maybe time for a new food- took me many free samples of food and wasted money to find a food they still eat years later!


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## Sanderling (Sep 21, 2008)

Thanks for the suggestions. We went back to the start where we'd reward her for going outside, and it seems to have corrected the problem - now hopefully it stays that way!

I guess we'll have to experiment with her food and see if we can find one she takes to, or otherwise mix things up for her regularly. I've taken to just moistening her food with water, which creates a sort of gravy that she likes, but my husband doesn't like the extra step and feels she should eat what's put in front of her, so the challenge is to find something to put in front of her that she'll eat.


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## pattymac (Oct 11, 2008)

Hey Sanderling, couldn't help noticing a local person here! Well pretty well local, I'm in Seeleys Bay.


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## Sanderling (Sep 21, 2008)

Interesting to run into someone on such a wide-reaching forum who's from your corner of the world! I have my location down as Kingston, but we're actually on the west side of Frontenac Park.

I keep a blog, if you're interested in swinging by; puppy appears on it from time to time. http://themarvelousinnature.wordpress.com/


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## pugmom (Sep 10, 2008)

Sanderling said:


> Interesting to run into someone on such a wide-reaching forum who's from your corner of the world! I have my location down as Kingston, but we're actually on the west side of Frontenac Park.
> 
> I keep a blog, if you're interested in swinging by; puppy appears on it from time to time. http://themarvelousinnature.wordpress.com/


Haha ...sorry this is a little off topic...but when I fist browsed this post I though you asked if the other person was interested in _swinging_.....LOL


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## pattymac (Oct 11, 2008)

Beautiful pictures and I like your writing style. I'm going to check it out again.


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## libbyanddarci (Jan 2, 2009)

Have you taken her to the vet or called them? I have heard that if they all of the sudden start peeing in the house after being house broken they might have a urinary tract infection or something else.


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## Sanderling (Sep 21, 2008)

Thanks, pattymac. It's a little off-topic for a dog forum, but the pup does get face time occasionally. 

Libbyanddarci, she was actually in to the vet for her spay a couple days ago, and I didn't think to mention it.

We're actually wondering if it's just that we're not noticing her go to the door and she gets impatient.


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