House training

Question
QUESTION: Dear Delores:

My spouse and I are brand new (never owned dogs in our life or growing up) dog owners. We have a lovely female 13 month old american cocker spaniel. We purchased her when she was 7 mths old from a very reputable breeder.  Breeder was keeping her to show, but she grew a couple inches too big so was looking for the right homeowners for her.  We feed the dog a very healthy food "Taste of the Wild - Water Fowl" as per our breeders recommendation. Her temperament is perfect, she is very well socialized, crate training has been 100% successful and she even uses the bell we hang on our sliding doors in our kitchen to indicate she needs to go outside.

We now want to concentrate on "house training" which has been HORRIBLE so far. We decided to leave her crate open in our kitchen so if she has any accidents it would be easy to clean up. Good idea because she does urinate once every night in the kitchen. And now when we are home, if I fall asleep on the couch (obviously can't see her when I am asleep) she will go to the bathroom on the hardwood floor in our dining room and I don't think she rings the bell at all when she knows I am asleep (I would hear it!).

We have read countless books and find they are useless to us! They all say the same...revert back to original potty training techniques and crate her. Our dog training facility says to use an umbilical cord leash so she is by your side ALL the time when with her and to keep crating her at night. Hell, I am even willing to sleep with the cord on if it meant she would not urinate at night. Our dog is perfectly fine crated when we are at work so I don't know why she can't hold it if we give her access to to our kitchen at night?!

No books go into detail about how to train your dog at night. Maybe I should just crate her at night for the rest of her life, but who would ever want to live like that? If my dog can hold her bladder for up to 8 hours crated why can't she hold it at night? I would prefer to not have to use a crate someday and give her free reign of our first floor if possible.

Please give your advice since you have 20+ years experience owning this breed and we are both very frustrated.

Sincerely,
Hilary

ANSWER: Okay..don't panic :).  You just kind of skipped a step here.  She's simply not getting what she's supposed to do when you're not readily available.  She needs to learn outside is the bathroom place.

You do have to back up a little.  If you get all over this, it can be solved in a week.
You need to TAKE her out on leash every couple of hours..choose a command "go potty" (or whatever you like)...continue to give the command.
No other conversation - when you see she's about to go - command again - then praise a LOT and reward.  They quickly connect the command-action-reward.  If she rings the bell...go out with her and do the praise & reward.  She could be just ringing that bell when she feels like being outside.

And there's no harm at all in crating her at night for awhile.  But you can't just decide to leave her wander and expect her to "know".  Understand that if she's making a mistake, it's your fault.  The umbilical cord is a good idea and it'll force her to "inform you" :).

It sounds like you've done a great job so far and luckily she's really a no-problem dog.  This is simply a teaching issue.  To correct in the house you must actually catch her in the act.
If you don't - forget about it.  She'll have no clue.

Now food - yes what you're giving is a pretty good food but please don't stick with one formula and one protein.  Variety is key.  An all kibble diet isn't good.  Happy to discuss this with you at length if you'd like.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Should I move her crate from downstairs to our bedroom? Would that help with house-training too? My spouse doesn't want our dog in our bedroom, but I'm wondering if she is feeling separated being on the first floor while we're on the second?

Answer
No.  It won't help and forget about human psychology with dogs :).

She's peeing in the kitchen because she thinks it's okay.  And, by the way, it's perfectly okay to use puppy pads "for awhile" at night if you're uncomfortable with crating.  I'm not fond of crating except at night or for short necessary times.

The trick now is to put in the time & energy as to "where" she goes to the bathroom and make it impossible for her to make a mistake.  Then it becomes habit.

Also - if you begin to suspect she has to go way too often/too much...immediately suspect a urinary tract infection.  Totally common.  Take her to the vet early morning - fasted - and always, always make them do a urinalysis AND a culture.

Don't know where you are re weather - but, if possible, a nice half hour walk before bedtime
may help a lot.  On a walk they tend to mark territory everywhere.

And I do hope she is getting enough exercise...an hour a day is the minimum.  A tired dog is a good dog :).