Dog Wetting

Question
QUESTION: Our 2 year old Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier is still having accidents with urinating right in front of us! We originally thought is was due to drinking too much water from the pool and overfilling his bladder since he loves swimming, but there have been times he has wet his room where we contain him just because he will not let us know when he has to go out. We have taught him not to bark at people, other dogs, and horses that go by since we live on over an acre in a horse community so did we bite ourselves in the you know what teaching him this? He scrathes at the door to come in but will not bark or stratch to go out. Most of the time he follows us around without an indication that he has to go so just when we think he's growing up and just loving being in the house with us the next thing you know he drops a huge puddle right in front of us! Everytime it's a puddle not a piddle :o) We asked our vet about it and he said it sounds behavioral...can you help us with how to go about retraining our 2 year old Wheaten? He listens to most other commands and when we take him out and tell him to go potty he will go, he also does all the basic dog commands and trained pretty well. He will also jump in the pool on command so we know he can get this bathroom thing down- but is sounds like we are going to have to crate him even though we never had to before (we always had a room for him to stay in with his bed and food but he is now wetting that area, or should I say flooding it :o)  Can anyone offer any suggestions?


ANSWER: First, if you haven't, have him examined to be sure that he does not have a bladder infection or other issues such as bladder stones or kidney problems.

If his health checks out, then you need to work with him to teach him to let you know that he needs to go outside. You taught him to be quiet; you can teach him to bark on command or to scratch at the door. Some teach their dogs to ring a bell to let them know it needs to go out. Of course, the drawback to the bell is that the dog must be let out every single time it rings the bell.
http://hubpages.com/hub/Teach-Your-Dog-to-Ring-a-Potty-Bell
http://ezinearticles.com/?Puppy-Potty-Training---How-to-Teach-Your-Dog-to-Ring-a

I would crate the dog when no one is home or at night (and cut off all water in the evening), and when you are home, simply let the dog out more often so that he isn't having to "drop huge puddles". That tells me that he is trying to hold it as long as he can.

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

QUESTION: Thank you for your quick reply, in the meantime I've already grabbed the crate we used for travel out of the attic :o) Our bubbie is not wetting at night at all, he's actually never had a night accident even with his water and food down.  It's always been during the day when he has been outside all day playing on our property (we have retention areas that he loves to play in and he drinks the water he plays in :o) He also commonly has accidents when he's been swimming with the kids in our pool.  I usually leave him outside for a good hour after swimming because he is prone to having accidents if we keep him indoors after swimming.  He drinks so much water! Too much! Would you believe he even gets out of the pool to go potty? He is very active and we love to watch him run and play. We can tell he really loves the outdoors to play and loves to come in for family time. He especially loves to play with the squirrels and sleep with the kids a night :o) He's just one of the kids :o) We are sad at the thought of having to use a crate but we are left with no other recourse. I will be calling the vet tomorrow to rule out any infections or diseases, but, can you tell me how I should go about retraining him with the crate when he is fully grown? He wets during the day while I am home with him (I am a stay at home nanny) and I let him out quite often - sometimes he just will not go out on command nor give me sign he has to go.  Thank you so much for your input- I appreciate your advice very much.

Answer
Retraining an adult is exactly the same as training a new puppy. The only difference is that they can "hold it" longer than a puppy. Go outside with him so that you can praise him for pottying outside, and watch him when he is loose in the house. I would initially restrict his household freedom a bit so that you can always keep half an eye on him.

Also, don't keep him outside too long. Some dogs, if allowed to be outside for hours, get confused and don't want to eliminate in their play/sleep areas. They come back inside and think that is where they are supposed to potty. When he comes back in after swimming, let him back out briefly every twenty minutes or so to give him a chance to potty (with praise).