Why has my 11 month old Shih Tzu started urinating/defacating inside?

Question
My 11 month old female Shih Tzu has been house trained since about 3-4
months of age.

She initially was trained to sleep in her basket on the bedroom floor and
would wake me to go to the toilet. Unfortunately however we started having
her sleep on the bed. This went on for around 3 months. When I started
trying to train her to sleep in her basket again she started urinating and
defecating on the bedroom floor (always in the same place). I have now
moved her basket into a small cage where she now sleeps with no problems
and she is keeping her sleeping quarters clean.

This seems to be working however I am wondering if I will need to keep her
caged in forever or if there is a way to slowly leave the gate open and hope
that she will know not to go on the floor.

Also, 2 mornings this week after I have let her out and taken her outside I
have found that she has opted to urinate on the lounge room floor even
though the door is open and she could have gone outside. This is unusual
behaviour for her and I am wondering if it would have anything to do with her
being in the second week of heat?

Any information you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Answer
Hi, Tali,

Thanks for the question.

Since this has only been happening in the past few days, and she's been good up till now, my first impression is that it probably is due to being in heat. You should ask your vet to confirm.

As for keeping her in the crate overnight, I don't see that as a problem for her. She might actually like it. Most dogs do, once they realize the crate is like their own little private space. The way to tell if she's ready to have freedom is to try it and see. If she makes mistakes, then she needs to be crated until she gets that it's only cool to do her business out of doors. And by the way, you shouldn't scold or punish her for making mistakes. That will only increase her nervous tension and tend to cause her to make more mistakes.

I hope this helps,

LCK