Why Is My 6 Month Old Puppy Peeing In The House Again?
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For years I heard the same question over and over again: Why is my 6-month-old puppy peeing in the house again?
A similar question my friends kept asking was: “My puppy is potty trained, but he’s still having accidents in the house!?”
For many years I thought the most obvious answer was simple: You may have thought your puppy was potty trained, but in reality, he still is NOT potty trained.
- Take a step back with your potty training your puppy.
- Don’t give your puppy as much freedom around the house.
- And make sure you take him out any time he wakes up, after every meal, and every 10 minutes when he’s playing.
I thought that was the answer until we brought home our most recent puppy, Elsa…
Why Is My Puppy Having Accidents Again?
I’ve raised dozens of puppies over the years and I followed the same potty training routine with every puppy.
Most of my puppies were potty trained around 4 months old. After they hit that magic 4 months of age I had very few if any accidents besides the one-offs:
- When Linus was sick he had a few accidents in the house.
- Unlike Linus, Stetson could not hold his pee for much more than 6 hours. If he ever got left home alone for an extended period of time he’d have an accident.
- When Stetson was on prednisone he drank a lot of water. During this period it was very difficult to predict when he had to potty. He had several accidents after being home alone for less than an hour!
- Adelle had a urinary tract infection and was having accidents in the house.
- During her first couple of years, Kona used to drip around the house. She was also known to get excited and urinate.
These are just a handful of stories about our pups having accidents in the house after they were potty trained. However, after over 16 years of raising puppies, Elsa surprised me by doing something different than any other puppy. Not in a good way…
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6-Month-Old Puppy Potty Training Regression
Just like every other puppy we raised, I considered Elsa potty trained at around 4 months old. I can’t remember a single accident in the house for a solid 2 months.
Then right around my birthday, it happened. She jumped up on our bed, squatted, and peed!
What the heck!? No accidents for 2 months then she pees on our bed!
I couldn’t believe it. I had never had a puppy pee on our bed before. Elsa wasn’t even allowed on our bed.
For the next few days, I did what I mentioned earlier. I took a step back, limited her freedom around the house, and made sure she didn’t have another accident in the house. I also had her checked for a urinary tract infection.
A few days later she went into heat so I chalked it up as hormone-related.
8-Month-Old Puppy Potty Training Regression
Elsa’s random accident was a long-lost memory until she was 8 months old.
This time she ran over to her comfy cozy doggy bed, squatted, and pee’d!
What the !”@:#!!! bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep!
2 months of no accidents, then another random accident!!!
This time it couldn’t be blamed on hormones. Elsa was potty trained (as far as I knew), why did she have an accident?
We took a step back, limited her freedom, and made sure she had no accidents for a week. Everything was back to normal or so I thought.
9-Month-Old Puppy Potty Training Regression
At this point, I was much less confident that Elsa truly knew she was not to go potty in the house. However, a little over a month passed and I began to lower my guard until…
ANOTHER ACCIDENT!!!
This time she jumped on our brand new bean bag, squatted, and pee’d!!!
Now what was it that George W. Bush said:
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee—I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, ‘Fool me once, shame on…shame on you. Fool me—you can’t get fooled again.'”
Bushisms – Wikipedia
Well, there must be a proverb for “fool me 3 times” because I’m an idiot or maybe I’ll have to coin a new term.
Anyhow after Elsa fooled me for the third time I sat down and thought deeply about why she was having accidents in the house after she was supposedly “potty trained”.
SPOILER ALERT: If you want to skip directly to why Elsa was peeing in the house after already being potty trained jump to potty training point #8 below.
Why Has My Puppy Started Peeing In The House Again?
Let’s start from the top with reasons why your puppy might be having accidents in the house again:
1. Your Puppy Is Not Potty Trained
A lot of people try to advance their puppies through potty training too quickly and start giving them too much freedom around the house. This results in your puppy kind of understanding potty training, but not totally.
The result is they still have accidents in the house, but maybe not as frequently as they did when you first started working on their potty training.
2. Your Puppy Is Young And Doesn’t Have Control Of His Bladder
Bladder control is usually not a problem for a 6-month-old puppy. However, I get a lot of people telling me their 8-week-old puppy, 10-week, 12-week, and 14+ week-old puppy is still having accidents in the house.
Some exceptional puppies may be potty trained as early as 10 weeks old. However, most will not have full control of their bladder. Sometimes a young puppy won’t know he has to potty until it’s too late.
3. Your Puppy Is Sick
We had several times when Linus was sick and had diarrhea accidents in the house. If your puppy is sick he may not be able to control his bowels (or pee as in point #4).
If your puppy is sick then visit your vet for a proper diagnosis and treatment.
4. Your Puppy Has A Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)
I separated this from #3 because it’s a common cause of random accidents in the house.
When puppies get Urinary Tract Infections they often have difficulty holding their pee. The result: Accident in the house.
If you suspect a UTI is the cause of your pup’s accidents then visit your vet for a proper diagnosis and treatment.
5. Your Puppy Gets Excited
Poor little Kona, our friend’s Dachshund German Shepherd mix. She used to get what we called excita-pee!
Every time I came over she’d get so excited she’d have an accident in the house.
The solution to this one is to ignore the puppy when you get home so she doesn’t get excited. Once she calms down give her some calm praise and a reward.
6. Your Puppy Is Incontinent
Incontinence – lack of voluntary control over urination or defecation.
We’re not going to go into detail about doggy incontinence. If you suspect incontinence is the cause of your pup’s accidents then visit your vet for a proper diagnosis and treatment.
7. Your Puppy Can’t Hold It That Long
When Linus was 9 months old we took him camping. He refused to pee on the dirt and held it for over a 24-hour period. Finally, he let it all out like Tom Hanks in A League of Their Own.
Unlike Linus, Stetson could not hold his pee much more than 4-6 hours. If he ever got left home alone for an extended period of time he’d oftentimes have an accident.
Every puppy and dog is different. Some can hold it for what seems like forever while others can only last a few hours even as adults.
8. Your Puppy Has To Go Potty, But You Didn’t Get Him Outside In Time
Let’s get back to our story about Elsa.
After thinking long and hard about our 6-month, 8-month, and 9-month potty-training accidents I came to the conclusion that Elsa was potty-trained she just didn’t communicate with us the same way our other dogs did.
Linus, Stetson, and Raven would all sit down by our patio door and wait until we let them outside. This is how they communicated to us they needed to go outside and potty.
When we let them outside they would immediately do their business and then wait by the door to be let back inside.
Elsa rarely waited by the door to be let outside. While she would wait from time to time we would normally just let her outside when Raven waited by the door. Then let them back in when Raven waited to be let back in.
Here’s what happened: Elsa didn’t always go potty when we let her out with Raven and her signal to us that she wanted to go outside was getting very active, pacing back and forth, and putting her head on our lap.
This was/is not a very straightforward cue and because we didn’t understand we just thought she was being a normal hyper zoomie puppy bouncing around until eventually, she had her accidents.
Our solution? Two major points:
- Rather than giving her free reign to go potty. l started leashing her and making sure she went pee or poop when we let her outside. This was our normal protocol with all of our guide and service dog puppies, but we gave Elsa a little more leniency when potty training.
- We got a Smart Bell and began working on training her to push the button when she needed to go outside. A clear signal to us that she had to go potty.
- Solution #1 – making sure she went potty when we let her outside actually solved the problem as we haven’t had an accident in over 4 months.
- Solution #2 – is a work in progress, but a clear signal from her that she has to potty will help us avoid any future accidents.
9. Your Puppy Is Loading Up On Water
We were talking to the veterinarian at our local guide dog meeting and he brought this one up. He said that some puppies reach a comfort level in their new homes at around 4-6 months old.
Because they felt more comfortable at this age he felt like they were apt to load up on water (drinking a lot at one time) and then subsequently have accidents in the house.
We had this happen once with our current puppy, Anna. At around 4 ½ months I remember from time to time she would “load up on water”. Then, she’d pee multiple times in a 30-minute period. Some of those were outside and some were inside. I remember her peeing 7 times in about 30 minutes and thinking what the heck is going on?
One of the recommendations from our guide dog group is to always have fresh water available to your pup that way your puppy will never feel the need to “load up on water”.
10. Your Puppy Is Teething
Guess what else happens with your puppy at 4-6 months of age? Your puppy begins teething!
Can teething really be the culprit for potty training regression? The short answer is yes. The long answer is teething is an uncomfortable process for your puppy. Just like anything else, when you don’t feel well it can interfere with certain behaviors. In this case potty training.
FAQ’s – Puppy Peeing In The House Again
Is It Normal For A 6-Month-Old Puppy To Have Accidents?
We always want to know what is normal for our puppies. I know I do. After raising over a dozen service dog puppies I have my own ideas of what is “normal”.
Do I think it is normal for a 6-month-old puppy to have accidents in the house?
ANSWER: No, I do not think this is normal. If you start potty training your puppy at around 8-10 weeks old then your puppy will most likely be potty trained by the time he is 6 months old. However, as we mentioned in this article there are reasons why your puppy may regress in his potty training.
How Long Can A 6-Month-Old Puppy Hold Pee?
Let’s pick out several different scenarios to answer this question:
1. You put your puppy down for the night in his crate. I’d expect your puppy to hold his pee for a solid 8 hours without an accident.
2. You need to crate your puppy during the day. The guide dog school requires that we do not crate our 6-month-old puppies for more than 4 hours during the day. Our puppy will hold his pee for at least those 4 hours and probably more if he needs to.
3. Your puppy is playing in the yard with other puppies with access to water. I’d expect my puppy would probably be peeing every 30 minutes in this scenario.
4. Your puppy is at home alone and allowed to roam the house. Every puppy is different. We allow our older dogs to roam the house and I wouldn’t trust them for more than 3-4 hours. While I wouldn’t allow a 6-month-old puppy to roam the house alone if I did I probably wouldn’t trust him to hold his pee for more than 1-2 hours.
The moral of the story. If your puppy is awake and active with access to water then he will likely have to pee fairly frequently. If he is in his crate and resting then he will be able to hold his pee much longer.
Why Is My 6-Month-Old Puppy Peeing Everywhere?
I can think of many reasons why a 6-month-old puppy “appears” to be peeing everywhere:
- Your puppy has a urinary tract infection – this could cause your puppy to pee at all different times.
- Your puppy drank a lot of water – our current puppy, Anna pee’d 7 times in 30 minutes after drinking a boatload of water!
- Your puppy is playing – no joke, puppies pee about every 5 minutes when they are playing.
- You’re not supervising your puppy – puppies pee a lot. If your puppy is not potty trained then you should keep an eye on him 100% of the time when indoors. When your puppy displays pre-potty activities (circling, sniffing, squatting) then get him outside!
The above four are the most common answers. Our main list has 10 reasons for a puppy peeing in the house again that would probably apply to this question as well.
Conclusion
We’ve been spoiled. Raven, Linus, and Stetson all were easy to potty train. We’ve also potty trained over a dozen other puppies that went on to work as service dogs with no problem.
Elsa was an anomaly. Taking a step back and really thinking hard about why she was having accidents in the house gave us a clear solution to the problem.
Our final solution was simply to leash and make sure she went potty outside every time we would take her out for a potty break.
How about you? Are you having puppy potty training problems?
Is your puppy potty trained, but suddenly having accidents in the house?
What are you doing to solve the problem?
Tell us about your experiences in the comment section below.
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UPDATE: This post was originally posted on June 12th, 2021. It has been updated with new information based on our experiences over the years.
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Hi we have a 5 and a half month old Goldendoodle. He goes through the day fine telling us if he needs a wee by scratching at the back door. He is crated at night and if I go out. In the night he goes only about 5 hours then needs to pee, he barks I get up and he has already peed. Then I let him out he wee’s a bit more in the garden while I change out his mattress for a clean one. 2 hours later he will do the same. During the day I can leave him 2 hours in the crate no accidents. I take him for a walk an hour before bedtime an he must do 2 big wees and 5 little ones on our walk. He has very little interest in water in the evenings and chooses not to go to his bowl much so I don’t think he is over drinking. After 3 months of broken sleep I’m getting tired of this.
My pomeranian has constant access to our backyard through a doggie door and seemed potty trained at 6 months going through the doggie door whenever needed. He sleeps in a crate each night and holds it throughout the night just fine. About 1 month ago he started peeing and pooping in our house again, maybe once every few days with it progressing to approximately once each day. It’s been very hot outside most of this time period, so I was thinking he doesn’t want to go outside because of the heat, but this morning it’s cool, 71 degrees, and he just pooped in the house. We are unsure what the issue is. Help!
Hi Colby! Our lab puppy is 7 months old, and we thought she was potty trained…at night she can hold it for 8-9 hours, but when she’s in her crate for 2-3 hours, and we get home, we take her out to potty first thing, and sometimes she just pees as we’re putting her leash on. We can’t get her out the door any faster. We don’t know what to do in these scenarios. We always make sure she goes out and does her business before going into her crate. Getting frustrated that she can’t seem to hold it during the day, but does fine at night. We’ve had other instances where she will have just gone out 1.5 hours prior, and then will just squat right in front of us and pee…without warning. She’ll go weeks without any accidents and then does something like that. We’ve never had these issues while potty training! She was just fixed a few weeks ago, any chance it could be linked to that?
My Corgi was potty-trained as young as 12 weeks (or so I thought), he is now 5 months old but suddenly having pee accidents 4 times a day in the house… Though we thought he was potty trained, his pattern is that he goes to potty himself almost every hour. He can’t hold his pee long… When playing freely around the house, he even pees 30 minutes after play. He has no poo accidents, goes 3 times a day. He holds his pee overnight. My questions are:
1. Should I re-train him again? Like taking him to potty every 1.5 hours? And try prolonging it?
2. We leave the water free for him… should I restrict that and give him specific time for drinking, like feeding?
3. Are there symptoms/ signs that I can spot if he got UTI? I want to try the previous 2 methods first before bringing him to the vet. (Well, he can hold his pee overnight…)
Many thanks for your help 🙏🏻
Every puppy is different. I can tell you I do the exact same thing when I raise a puppy. At some point, you have to give them more freedom to see if they can hold it and also alert you that they have to potty. We started doing the same thing with our 4-month-old puppy and while she did well to go to the door and alert us she needed to go outside she still ended up having accidents in the house. So we’re taking a step back and keeping a closer eye on her when she’s in the house to make sure we catch her before she has accidents. Good luck with your puppy!
Hello, Our 4 month old Cavapoo pup has done well with potty training, and we have not had any accidents inside for 3 weeks. we take him out often to potty on our patio and garden.
So we gave him more freedom in the house. Then out of the blue, he peed inside twice on the carpet, and poo’d in the upstairs office over 3 days. When he wants to go out he stands at the back door and hits a bell we have there, so we know when he wants to go out. We are with him all day and watch him. At nighttime he is restricted to the kitchen and has a puppy pad that he uses by the back door. He can hold his bladder for 3 hours, but often goes every 3 hours. We thought we had got to the point we could relax a little, but obviously not. Were we expecting too much of a 4 month old?
I’m sorry to hear about your dog’s traumatic and abusive background. It’s tough to assess a dog without seeing her in person. If you can you should have a local certified professional dog trainer evaluate your dog and set up a program for you and your dog to follow. That being said if your puppy is still having accidents in the house then I’d limit her freedom in the house. If you minimize the number of accidents in the house she will learn that she’s not to potty in the house much quicker. Hopefully, that helps. Good luck with your training!
My 9 month old mixed breed (likely a pitt mix) Rougarou came from a traumatic and abusive background. I have had her for roughly 3.5 months. She is on a regular walking schedule and uses the bathroom whenever we go out for the most part. However, if I do not walk her every 1.5-2 hours she will pee in the house if she is given any freedom at all. Walks every 1.5-2 hours seems excessive to me, and my neighbors are starting to ask why I walk my dog so often. Is this normal? She has seen the vet but no physical issues were found. How can I decrease the frequency of our walks and of her accidents in the house?
I’m sorry to hear about the horse accident. I hope you are feeling better now.
As for Elsa, what ended up working best for us was setting up baby gates to keep her from venturing into other rooms. I think this did two things for us. First, it allowed us to keep a more watchful eye on her. Second, the barriers kept her away from areas she previously had accidents.
I haven’t taken down the barriers but I think if we did Elsa would be fine. However, another problem arose. My older dog, Raven who hasn’t had accidents since she was a puppy started having accidents in the house. This one I think is age-related and hopefully something I’ll resolve in the coming weeks/months.
Good luck with your puppy!
Hi. My dog feels like Elsa. I’ve had 4 excellent dogs in my life. 2 for 17years (separately)and the same with our chocolate labs, 13yrs each. Never an issue w/’going’ in the house. However when my breeding lab would go in heat – she would find and eat the butter!?
Una, my goldendoodle girl, 5mo.1wk,. has peed in the house yesterday and today.While I am here. She has been house-trained for 2.5 months. Thank goodness not on the bed as Elsa, but I’m flummoxed. The bell doesn’t work – she eats them. Una is soooo subtle re: needing to go out. Yes, after play, meals, upon rising – she goes out. I have her trained to whistle to wee & poopitos – but when she needs to go out in between those times, like Elsa, she walks back and forth, empties her toy box and gets jacked up. I have observed/learned these signals, but I can’t take her anywhere or leave her w/ someone because of these subtle signals. I would be grateful for your sage advice, Always thought I was pretty good at this but clearly…I just cant seem to expand Her communication! Though she knows lots of words and their meanings…I’m totally and completely flummoxed and need help about this issue! please and thank you! Did I mention I just had major oral surgery from a horse accident – and pup just doesn’t understand, I can’t play today,…. thanks for you time, Susan and Una