# Housetrained Dog Won't Pee on Wet Ground



## giapet (Jan 14, 2012)

A couple of days ago it poured down rain, and the ground outside has remained moist. Now our 2-year-old pom mix suddenly can't stand to walk on the damp ground and won't pee outside, favoring our bedroom carpet instead. She's always been wary of peeing outside when it's raining, but she would do it on some loose dirt that's under the balcony (i.e. dry). Now she won't even do that...although it's not completely dry either. There are also some dry areas under a little bit of overhang right along the wall, and she won't pee there either. We've got some puppy pee pads and she won't use those, neither a clean one nor one I rubbed on a spot she'd peed on before, though she's never especially been trained to. I've sat outside with her for 15-minute periods hoping she would take the hint and pee but to no avail. Her command doesn't work. 

The reason why we're pretty confident that it's a wetness problem is because when we walked her to our landlord's office and back, any time we walked on the dirt she had to practically be dragged until we got close to another set of pavement. It was pretty clear.

I'm at my wit's end and I think she senses my irritation, which isn't helping. (Naturally I'm not punishing her when she pees indoors.) Does anyone have some ideas? Can I go get some planter box at Home Depot and fill it with dry dirt and put it somewhere as a dog "litter box" or something? It's about the only thing left I can think of.


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## hamandeggs (Aug 11, 2011)

My dog is like this too, but to a lesser degree. She's very fussy about where she'll go when it's raining, but she'll still go outside. I think it has to do with the ground being wet, but also with the usual smells being washed away.

What this says to me is your pup doesn't 100% understand that housetraining applies even when she doesn't love the outside options. So, when it's wet outside, you should go back to housetraining basics during that time, keep her close to you so she doesn't have a chance to sneak off to your bedroom (or anywhere else) and have an accident. If you give her no other options, she will eventually relent and do her business outside, and then you should reward her just like you did when you were housetraining her. Obviously don't punish her accidents, but do prevent and interrupt them. 

My other suggestion is to find other surfaces outside. Biscuit seems to particularly prefer surfaces with good drainage when it's raining, and I guess I don't blame her. She'll go on surfaces like mulch (the bigger the size of the mulch pieces the better) and storm drain grates in the sidewalk, or even on the pavement. Maybe you could try putting some mulch in the area under your balcony?


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## titiaamor (Nov 17, 2011)

I agree that you have to go back to Housetraining 101 but especially second the other surfaces idea. My dogs go to this sandy area we have whenever it rains.




hamandeggs said:


> My other suggestion is to find other surfaces outside. Biscuit seems to particularly prefer surfaces with good drainage when it's raining, and I guess I don't blame her. She'll go on surfaces like mulch (the bigger the size of the mulch pieces the better) and storm drain grates in the sidewalk, or even on the pavement. Maybe you could try putting some mulch in the area under your balcony?


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## giapet (Jan 14, 2012)

Thanks for the advice guys! It's nice to know I'm not totally alone  I'll see what the garden store has and make sure the boyfriend knows we're back to basics!


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