New potty problem

Other than the odd accident in the house we thought our 5 month old cocker spaniel was pretty house trained.... until now!

We have been keeping him in a crate since we got him(about 2 months) and no matter what we did, he just didn't seem to take to the crate. He would cry for half an hour every night before going to sleep. Sometimes he would wake in the middle of the night and start crying again. But, whatever he did, he never messed his crate and was able to hold it all night till we took him out in the morning.

So, about a week ago, we decided to let him sleep outside the crate, since we thought he was quite potty trained. This is when the problem began. The first couple of nights he was fine. Then he started doing his potty at night near his bed, not on it. He has been doing this for the past 4 nights now. Every night.

The thing is that he does not have accidents during the day and he used to be able to hold it all night in the crate. How do I stop him from him doing this? Do I put him back in the crate. I don't really want to do this as it upsets him. Do I wake up in the night and take him out once? I think the problem is that once he did it, he thinks it is ok to do it. How do i break his habit?

How large is the area your dog is aloud free to roam? I'd say that it needs to be resricted to one small room until he's more dependable.
The spot where he's went repeatedly needs to be cleaned thoroughly to rid it of its scent that your puppy can still detect. There's a lot of products out there, I think Nature's Miricle is what I use.
Scrub it really really well, and then move the bed over the spot and see if that helps. I think you're right on the money here

It is a pretty small area. And yes we have scrubbed over the spot. But, he is continuing to do it. Yesterday, I took him out at around 10:30 before putting him to bed and he did his job. But, then again he has messed up that area over night.

Anybody have any ideas on how I can get him to break this habit?

First things first, if your dog was able to hold it through the night and is suddenly having accidents have a vet check and rule out the possibility of any health conditions that may be causing this to occur..if you have already done so or if everything checks out then it's time to start training again from step one..

This is where you have to ask yourself if you want to use the crate again..personally if used correctly I think the crate is a wonderful training tool and if you want to go back to the crate the question to ask yourself is if you used it properly?


The crate is very easy to misuse...one of the biggest mistakes I see people making in crate training is they act very excited when the pup or dog is let out of the crate, this teaches the animal the crate is a bad thing.

If you choose not to crate then consider the space you are using..are you giving the pup a small room and how much space does he have? What looks like a little space to you or me could in actuality be a huge space for a pup...the simple act of adding a few baby gates may be all you need to help curb the behavior...after a short time expand the space...if not using the crate you want to start the pup off with a very small space...about the same amount of space his crate will allow..gradually expand..if an accident happens take a step back and make the space smaller again once a few days pass with no accidents expand the space again.

If you have not done so already then it may help if you put your pup on a feeding schedule.. remember the key to housebreaking is consistancy and a ton of patience.

We haven't done that yet. The reason being that he doesn't seem to have accidents during the day because we take him out regularly. Every 3 or 4 hours. A couple of other factors, we are considering is that he might not have been getting enough exercise during the day. Two days he didn't get any exercise at all, only to do his job and come back in. The other days, he has been getting maybe 20 to 30 mins a day. The problem is that if it is raining he refuses to go out. The same thing if it is too cold. He just whimpers and sits down.. will not walk. Maybe he is not able to digest his food properly? Also, another variable is his food, we have moved him to Innova the last couple of weeks and he might be having a problem with that. I have tried giving him pumpkin for a couple of days but it doesnt seem to have helped yet.

It is not much bigger than what he has in the crate. A place for his bed and a little space outside. Maybe we should make it even smaller and expand his bed and make the bed cover the whole of the area?

Yes, he is on a feeding schedule. But, his potty schedule does not seem to follow his feeding schedule. It is totally out of whack. There is no consistency in it as far as I can tell.

Thanks for your help!

I would still advise in having the vet check still to air on the safe side of things...whenever there is a sudden change in the norm for a dog its always best to rule out health concerns firs.

Well the option of increasing exercise never can hurt..it's good for everyone involved...

There is always the option of a dog sweater if he seems sensitive to cold weather, also how you react in going out in poor weather may be sending signals to your pup...if he senses rain and cold makes you uncomfortable then he may consider these weather conditions "bad or unsafe"

I am glad you mentioned this, how long before the diet switch did your pup having accidents occur? Innova tends to be a very rich food and it could simply be that you are feeding too much for him to handle...The addition of pumpkin to a dogs diet is for two reasons..it helps with both diarrhea and constipation..from your post I am not sure what your dog has however in using pumpkin make sure you are using the correct kind...you want to be using canned pumpkin itself and not the pie mix.



It wouldn't hurt to try, by nature animals will not soil where they sleep and eat..decrease the space and you have the possibility of increasing the odds he won't eliminate in this area...you can always expand the area again if he seems to be doing better.


What is his feeding schedule like, more importantly at what time does he get his final meal of the night and how soon after that do you take him out to relieve himself...if it just seems out of whack then depending on when you switched his diet (and how you switched...sudden or gradual) that could be what is causing these housebreaking incidents to occur.

OK. Thanks. Will do that.

I think probably a week after we put him on a full Innova diet. I did move him over gradually. We did a switch over about almost 10 days. The first few days of the complete switch were OK and he only seemed to be only going once or twice a day. Now, I am not sure really if that was because he had taken to it fine or if he was getting a bit constipated. Because I have noticed that after switching him over, he does strain to go. His potty is not firm like it used to be, but it is not diaarhea loose either. Somewhere in between. When he goes, he tries for a while.. does a bit.. and then hops around on his back legs and keeps trying for a bit.

Also, the fact that we may be feeding him too much crossed our minds. We are feeding according to what the bag says. Around 1 and a half cups a day for a 20 lb dog. But, that might be for a dog that is getting a lot more exercise than he is getting now?

Yup, I have got the right one. The ingredients only list pumpkin and squash. It is not a pie mix. Regarding the diarrhea vs constipation thing. Honestly, I don't know because sometimes he is straining to go, but his stools aren't firm but neither are they too loose.

He gets fed at 9:30 AM, 2:30 PM and 8:00 PM. I find that if I take him right after or soon after to relieve himself he does not do much. It is only and hour and a half after or so that he is productive. But, then even though he relieves himself before we put him to bed, he still does it at night.