8 year old female starts making accidents

Question
My 8 year old female beagle Harley has been urinating and pooping in our house for about two months off and on.  We live in Wisconsin and she definitely rather not be outside in 10 degree weather, but even on a trip to Florida recently, she sneeked in some accidents.  We are religiously taking her outside and even with exercise she goes in the house.  Harley is crated at night, and we are wondering if she might have a bladder infection.  But what about the poop?

Answer
HI there, I am so sorry for my delay in writing to you, my system was acting up. There has to be some precipitant to this starting to happen, of course it IS always possible that she has a bladder infection but unlikely as she would complain with pain and it wouldnt affect her bowels. It may be related to the fact that she is getting older and it is 10 degrees outside.... perhaps she has arthritis and it is just too painful for her to be out in the cold. A check up by the vet is always warranted when behavior changes. Are there any other issues or signs going on? Has her food changed, has her environment changed?, does she appear to be doing anything else differently, like eating or walking or ????? These kinds of situations are often in need of a detective because you have to start eliminating all possibilities in order to figure it out since she cannot tell you.

I will suggest two things though. She should not be punished after the fact. IF and only IF you catch her in the act you can scold her and immediately take her outside. It has to be immediate for her to get the connection. Dogs attention span and memory are like seconds. Anything after that is only an expression of your frustration or anger and provides nothing for her but learning to be fearful or submissive (which sometimes inadvertently reinforces the behavior)

The other thing is to make sure that you are using a prcduct like Nature's Miracle to clean each mess up. It is an enzymatic cleaner and one of the only on the market that truly erases the smell for her. You can use it whether is it carpet or cement but if she continues to smell her scent in the house this is reinforcing that it is ok.

I wish I could give you a definative answer as to what is happening but it is pretty hard via email and since you are in severe weather my retraining info on housebreaking will not be useful because it involves taking your dog out every hour on the hour for 2 days and obviously in 10 degree weather you arent going to be able to do that.