major housebreaking regression

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 and i thought i was the luckiest person in the world -- 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.

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.

i'm just 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 appreciate!
~penney

Answer
Do you think he could be marking, Penney? He >>is<< at about the right age for that to be kicking in, even though he is neutered (we don't know when that was done, do we?). I would still have the vet do a urinalysis just to rule out stones or infection (which don't >>always<< present themselves clearly by discoloring the urine or causing an odor). Then, I would start treating him like a little puppy who had not yet been housebroken. Keep him in sight at all times, or even tethered to you since he seems to like to 'sneak off' to do his business, and continue to startle him and take him out as soon as you catch him in the act. Letting him wear a leash while he's in the house will help with this.

Sometimes adolescent male dogs do regress in their housetraining. If you are consistent, though, and there is nothing medically wrong with him, he should pick back up on his prior training eventually. Until then, you're just going to have to stay on top of him. You might consider letting him wear a 'belly band' when loose in the house. That will keep him from soiling your floors, as well as making the act of going potty in the house uncomfortable to him. You will, however, have to be vigilant about keeping the belly band changed if he does soil it, because, just like with human babies, you don't want it sitting wet against his skin for too long.