My dog keeps having accidents in the house

Question
Our 8 year-old beagle who we have had for a year keeps peeing and pooping in our apartment. We recently had a baby and this behavior has been going on since our baby came home. He used to pee inside on occassion but now he is doing it just about every day, sometimes more than once and pooping, too. He'll even do it right after we take him out for a walk. Is it jealousy of the baby because he can't always get tended to quick enough? Is there anything we can to do to change this behavior? Right now the only option looks to be surrendering him, but if we can do anything to get him to stop having what we call "spite accidents", we will.

Thank you.

Answer
Hi Mike,

Yes, sounds like "spite accidents" to me. To the dog, a "new little dog" has come home, and you're busy tending the baby - and he does not like it. And, if you can't get to him quickly as you did in the past, he's not going to make any attempt to hold it.

You could try giving him lots and lots of love and attention, that is totally focused on him.
Keep to a *very* strict schedule in taking him out, and do have him checked over to make sure there is nothing wrong with him - just in case.

It should pass, if you are patient and consistent - but it will take a while. You may need to think about retraining using the crate training which is very gentle and is sometimes enough to get the message across.

With a new baby, sometimes a dog is just too much to manage. You may decide to put him up for adoption (THE DOG, NOT THE BABY), and if you do, I hope you won't feel guilty in any way about it. Some dogs need to be the sole focus of attention, and just do not ever adapt. Most do, but not all - and sometimes, it turns out that a dog just cannot adapt.

Hope this helps