Crate and potty training

Question
We Have a four month retriever who was doing so well with training we were confident enough to say he was potty trained. We got another puppy just 3 wks ago and now our four month old is always going in the house and every night in his crate. He gets a bath everyday because he just lays in his own pee/stools. We have eating times and always take it away around 6:00pm to avoid these problems but nothing is helping. Our vet tells us its just a set back and that he will get over it however we can't keep dealing with this every day we need another option.

Answer
Dogs copy each other habits and activities. The new dog needs to go out with the old dog when its potty time and see the other dog go outside. It soon learns to go outside. If the new dog goes inside, and the older dog sees it, it will simply assume that going is OK indoors since the other dog is doing it. use bleach and odo-ban to clean up the new dogs spotting. The new dog and old dog need to go out about every hour for 1-2 weeks so there is not enough to give them the urge to go inside.  Our routine is the dog does out, then eats, then goes out again. This develops an eat/potty relationship in the dogs.  Same with evening water bowl, outside, in to drink, back out, then in for the night.

Make sure the older dog is not marking for attention or territory, observe the locations and your reactions/response. The dogs are put out while we clean any mess so we are not seen as their potty servants. The accident simply disappears while they are out.

Regards
Henry Ruhwiedel
Westwind Kennels LLC