house-breaking

Question
hello,

i recently (2.5 months ago) rescued a now 16 month-old wheaten terrier named seamus.  for the first month, he was perfect -- he gave us no problems with his crate and no problems with housebreaking.  then at the beginning of november, he had an accident in the house... and it's been downhill since then.

prior to his first accident, we had been sending him to doggie daycare and our dog walker mentioned that that might be confusing to him (dogs just get to go anywhere they want there).  so we pulled him out of doggie daycare but the accidents haven't stopped.

a note: he's not marking, he's peeing.  he never lifts his leg inside the house.  if he goes inside, he squats.  he does lift his leg outside.

we've caught him in the act on many occasions, and have startled him enough so that he stops urinating and knows that what he's doing is unacceptable.  when we catch him, after we startle him to stop him, we immediately take him outside to finish and praise him lavishly when he goes outside.  he has only ever had peeing accidents, nothing else.  we've been consistent with when he goes -- once in the morning when he first wakes up, once in the middle of the day, once when we get home from work and once late in the evening before bedtime.  but he doesn't seem to be getting it -- one time, he actually went into his crate to pee when he knew we were getting ready to take him out.  tonight, at a completely arbitrary time, he went into his crate, stepped out just a bit, and peed right in front of his crate.  that was the one and only time he's ever messed in his crate -- he's in his crate all day when we are at work, and he sleeps in his crate, and we've never had any problems with him going in there at night or during the daytime.

the most consistent advice we've gotten is that we need to keep an eye on him at all times, even leashing him to us so that where we go, he goes.  the problem is that he literally gives no signs of needing to go -- he doesn't circle, sniff or even put his head down.  he just goes, and because of this, it's nearly impossible to catch him before he goes.

i'm getting a little nervous and frustrated because: 1. he was just perfectly fine when he first got here and 2. it's been well over a month since we started re-training him and i still feel like he's a loose cannon regarding housebreaking.

let's see what other information i can provide you with: seamus came to us already neutered, so that's taken care of.  he eats twice a day (science diet, nature's best) and gets a couple of treats a day.  his physical behavior hasn't changed -- he hasn't been eating / drinking any more or less, his urine doesn't smell and isn't a different color, he plays exuberantly, and in general hasn't been any different other than the accidents.  i can't think of anything else to tell you about him, so i'll just end here and hope you can give me some insight into what's going on with seamus.

any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
~penney

Answer
Penney -

While it sure seems like you have covered all the bases of what I would normally recommend, I have a couple of additional thoughts.

I would recommend a vet check just to make triple sure to rule out an infection.  Some dogs are very stoic and do not show symptoms despite being ill.

Secondly, I would recommend the use of belly bands. They work in several ways 1 - a physical barrier to protect your house, 2 - negative reinforcement to pottying in it (since it gets wet and uncomfortable, and 3 - a positive reinforcement to pee when it comes off.  Dogs hate these things and will usually adjust their behavior pretty quick when they realize it's gonna stay on.

Many larger breed owners are not familiar with belly bands, but they are routinely used to housetrain the rescue dogs I foster.

You also need to make sure you are cleaning with a product which breaks down the pheromones in the urine, not just masking the smell.  I prefer Get Serious. The product Nature's Miracle is not the same product it was years ago and often is not an adequate cleaner.

The leashing him to you is a good recommendation unless he will just pee anyway, but most dogs know they're not supposed to be going in the house, so they refrain when their owner is so close.

I know I have not offered any earth shattering insights, but it's a little hard to tell without being able to lay eyes on him and watch him in action....

-Beth