accidential peeing

Question
Hello! My puppy is a beagle/boxer mix almost 7 months old now. We adopted her from the pound at 8 weeks and then crate/house trained her. She does fine when left at home in her crate. Our problem seems to be the accidental peeing. When we come home she will pee- I know this could possibly be from the excitement of us coming home, but it happens even after she pottys outside. She also has an accident if she gets into trouble. We don't really know how to handle this, we've just told her that it was wrong and taken her outside. It's just really frustrating because she did such a good job with potty training-and now this....any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answer
Many dogs eventually outgrow it, but you can reduce it by building the dog's confidence up. Start with obedience training. The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/ As you praise the dog for following your commands, it will build its confidence.

Play tug of war with the dog and lose. However at the end of the game, take the rope or toy and put it up, less the dog becomes confused about who is top dog. Ropes from the pets' store quickly turn to hazardous shreds. Ones I made lasted much better. Go to a hardware or home center that sells rope by the foot. Buy 2' of 3/4" poly rope. Melt the ends, and tie knots in it. Get them as tight as possible, put it in a vise and pound it with a hammer. Watch carefully, and be ready to discard when it comes apart.