• All you training experts…I need some advice.

    I've had Ruby a little over 2 months. She is 2.5 year old and has not been spayed. Other than the first 2 weeks that I had her, she hasn't had any accidents. The 2nd week I had her, I went out for a couple hours w/friends, my brother had taken her out to pee (she did) .5 hrs before I got home, I get home and take her out to see if she needs to go again, she doesn't (didn't think she would since she had just gone w/my brother). I go into the bathroom for a couple minutes, go into the bedroom and she has peed right beside the bed. I took it that she was angry I had left her. Since that time, she's been perfect with the pottie training...in fact, I've trained her to pee and poop on command outside.

    Last night, I took her out for her final time...said "potty Ruby", she does her business, she gets a treat and we go in the house. About an 1.5 hrs later, I'm getting ready for bed...probably about .5 hrs later than normal. She has access to my bedroom (her crate and toys are in there and the room is brightly lit), the hall and the bathroom...a baby gate is blocking the stairs to downstairs.

    I haven't seen her for a while, so I go into the bedroom and she's licking something in her crate. I figure it is just crumbs from a treat. I go check it out and she has caught a fly. She walks away and watches me from a distance. I see the fly is alive, but its wings are gone. I go get a tissue, kill the fly and then throw it in the trash in the bathroom. I'm in the bathroom maybe 2-3 minutes from taking the fly and Ruby comes into the bathroom and is acting a little funny. I go back into the bedroom and she has peed on the rug out in the open, right in front of her crate. I say "yuck, ewww" and then proceed to clean it up. A little later I put her in her crate and go to bed.

    I know she didn't have to go to the bathroom, so I'm thinking that she pee'd because she was angry that I took her "kill". The other thing is because it has started being cold here, I've let her sleep with me on occasion when I want to keep the window open. It is possible she was upset that she wasn't allowed up on the bed yet (I cover it with pillows and stuff to keep her off it when I'm not in the room).

    I'm going back to potty training 101 and reduced access to rooms unless I'm in there, but can that solve anger peeing. If not, what can you suggest.


  • Dogs don't usually pee in anger. They will pee to mark something, and sometimes they do that right in front of you to make a point. And some learn that peeing in a certain spot will get them some attention, or get them out of a crate…but it isn't really that they go 'man, I am mad at her, I think I will pee'...way too much human thought and emotion in that assumption.

    BUT, my guess is that she does have to pee VERY frequently now, because she is probably about to come into season. My girls will pee twice as frequently, and to some extent they have less control it appears, when they are about to come into heat.

    So, yes...back to housetraining 101. Supervise her all the time. Take her out twice as often. Don't give her any attention (including bad attention) when you have to clean up an accident. Good luck 🙂


  • Great info Andrea…thanks! I'll definitely taking her out more often now...I've been checking her since the middle of september and no sign of heat yet. And all along I thought I wasn't humanizing her behavior :D...oops...thanks for pointing that out!

    When she had accidents when I first got her, I totally ignored them, never said a word and cleaned them up with her out of the room. This time I said "yuck, eww" (once and definitely wasn't angry or scary sounding) because I thought it was intentional. Live and learn...no attention if she does it again....thank you, thank you.


  • When I brought Max home as a puppy years ago, my perfectly housetrained german shepherd mix started peeing in the house from day one. I know she was doing it because we had brought home an "intruder." I don't know if she was upset or marking her territory. But I didn't think this situation was one where housetraining 101 would have been the solution. What I ended up doing was putting her outside by herself every time she did it–when 10 minutes didn't work, I increased it to half hour and kept increasing the time until one day, she was outside by herself almost all day. I don't know if this was a good method?? But after being outside all day, she never peed in the house again.


  • When I first got Tayda, I left her in the bedroom when i went to take a shower. When I got out of the shower, I noticed she peed on the bed! I totally thought it was out of anger that I left her in the bedroom.

    Strangely, when I brought Lenny home a year later as a puppy, he did the same thing.

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