House training using a doggy door

Question
I have a 12 week old king charles puppy - we got her when she was 8 weeks old and have been trying to house train her ever since. She has done well with the doggy door and uses it to go in and out. I take her out almost every hour for a pee and she does well. She never had potty accidents in the house until this last week. Two times this week she has gone out to play, plays for a while and then comes back inside and within a few minutes does potty on my wood floor - accident will happen the one time I am not looking! The potty times are also random and not in any pattern - 5 to 6 hours after a meal and 2 hours after her last potty outside. I am stumped. What is going on?

Answer
Dear VAnya,

What is going on is this:  Your puppy is not housetrained.  

Lots of pups have great success for a couple of weeks and then the owner gets lazy.  Pup starts having accidents in the house and owner feels that "suddenly" the pup isn't cooperating.  I don't feel that any pup can be completely trusted until s/he is 6 months old.  You can't leave housetraining up to her, doggy door or not.  You must be out there each and every time she eliminates, to give her a treat and praise.  You must be watching her like a hawk every minute she is inside, to catch her IN THE ACT and get her outside mid-stream.  

If you can't watch her like a hawk, put her 4-6 foot leash on her and tie it to your wrist or belt loop so that she is always with you as you go about your daily routine.  When you have to shower or sleep, put her in a puppy-proofed kitchen or bathroom (no disciplining if she has an accident in there please), or if you have a crate you may use it then but never for more than 2-3 hours at this age.  The key to successful housetraining is twofold:

1)  Accept the fact that it's hard, but if you really work hard at it now it'll be over in 3 months and you'll never have to worry about it again.

2) Pretend that the next time she eliminates in your house, you will lose your job.  It's that important to stop the accidents, no joke, or you'll be doing this for the rest of your life.

Go to http://www.dogdaysusa.com/housetraining.cfm and follow the instructions exactly.  You will be done with this in 2-3 months.

Suzanne Harris, BSc, CPDT
http://www.dogdaysUSA.com