Housetraining regression in 20mth old cocker spaniel....pls help

[StarlightBarking19]

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Please can someone help us, my sister and I are at our wits end. Okay so our 20 month old cocker spaniel has started housetraining regression and is pottying in the house for a no2 and no1. She started toileting in the house about 2-3 months ago it started right after we had to change he diet due to allergies she had devoloved we had to move her onto a dry biscuit diet for health reasons and it's been pretty constant since. She always always toilets in the house during the night at least 2 to 3 times even though either my sis or I get do get up in the night to let her out in the small hours, she is always let out before bed. We are on the ball with letting her out canstantly throughout the day and she rarely has an accident in the day (though it has happend when were not on the ball) it's just the nights where she just goes whenever and where ever. It's worth mentioning that she was not easy to house train as a puppy at all it took us a long time to housetrain her and we did end up having to use puppy mats, but we finnaly did it with lots of persistance, time and patience. She has been fine for well over a year with her house training its just these last few months. Another thing worth mentioning is that she has never ever ever told us or alerted us when she needs the toilet, she dose not bark or lead to the door or anything we had to housetrain her more with structure and consistancy i.e letting her out every hour on the dot. Please please can someone help its getting very upsetting to see her doing this. Thank you for any help and advice you have.

 

[JoanneF]

I would understand it more being diet related if it was just pooing but the peeing is odd. We would normally say any change in toilet habits should be checked by a vet, but the fact it is pooing and peeing makes it less likely to be medical, and more likely to be behavioural.

The pads may not have helped - they give mixed messages about whether indoor toileting is allowed or not - but too late to worry about that now.

Thinking of behavioural changes, how does she like her new food? How has her health changed /improved since the food change? How do you react to her accidents?

 

[JudyN]

I would still recommend a health check - it's possible that there's general nerve issues in that area that make her less aware of the need to go.

 

[Hemlock]

Don't let her out - take her out. Make sure she has emptied herself and give her a great reward immediately afterwards. Take her back in, then straight away outside again. Most dogs do double-barrelled wees. It's all mess to us, but to a dog, peeing and pooing is way different, and needs to be done in different parts of outside.

I agree with the health check too, but it might also be that the new food is high bulk (more poo) and she is drinking more because it's dry.

Good luck with finding what's wrong. This sort of thing can be very upsetting.

 

[Inka]

First you need a health check to make sure it is not a UTI.... then you need to change what you do, how you behave and think as you say you are at your wits end meaning ( to me) stress, frustration and that affects a dog making it feel insecure and more likely to toilet in the house, dogs are always prepared to change when they see you are prepared to change...
Your behaviour when you 'find' it has toileted will affect the dog and it becomes a vicious cycle the dog toilets as soon as it hears someone turn over in bed/get up to use the bathroom or any noise it hears as it worries it will be 'in trouble' and 'disappoint' you....so you need to treat this as a new pup of a few weeks old and toilet train it correctly as if doing it for the first time, that means no looking, touching or talking and going outside with the dog waiting silently until it is 'in action' and ONLY then choosing a command word to use ( pee, toilet, clean...whatever) so the dog learns that that action means that command word, by no tuching talking or looking you are taking the pressure off of the dog and just concentrating on toilet training and within a couple of weeks doing this each and every time you will have a dog who will toilet on command for the rest of its life.
Same with 'when you find' it has toileted in the house... BEFORE you fall back into your routine of search and look, toilet the dog outside and the other person then needs to clean up so the dog comes in to nothing, no frustration, no stress, no blaming and within a few days its stress will go.... and as you are treating the dog as a young pup, it needs to be crated, penned or at least in one small room where it is easier to clean up... as the bigger the space it has to 'look after' while you are out or in bed the more anxious many dogs can get as anxiety can cause toileting in the house

I know it can be frustrating and you might get a clean dog within a few days and then you will relax and it will start again, so be strong and learn to be quiet/relaxed/calm.... our dogs generally want to please us so knowing that we need to make it as easy as possible for them to achieve that