Old Dog & New Baby

Question
Dear Dawn;

We have a 13 year old female Dalmatian. We have a 2 week old granddaughter that also lives in our house. Since the baby has arrived the dog has either peed or pooped in the house ( even right in front of us) every day. I took her out ths AM early, no problem she peed outside. Then she came inside and while I was in eye's veiw, she pooped in the living room. My son & his family have seperate living quarters, so we really only see the baby around dinner time. I'm so lost.

Answer
Hi Elice,  This is a very common problem when something changes in the household.  Dogs are pattern animals, and even a very small change in their lifestyle can upset their potty habits.  You need to start going back to what you did originally in potty training, keeping her confined when you are unable to keep an eye on her, getting her on a strict schedule on the potty training and basically just going back to potty training.  I know it is annoying, but this is a vey common situation which hopefully will resolve itself fairly quickly when the dog realizes that the granddaughter will be staying.  Hope this helps,

Dawn