My wife and I have an 8 month old puppy, welsh terrier/beagle mix. He does very well with house training and we rarely have accidents. However, at times, when one of us leave the house, especially me, he will take care of his business in the house, even with my wife in the next room.

How might we prevent this?

Thanks!

Thank you for your question! It sounds like the part of housetraining that your dog is missing is telling you that he has to go. This is often the last step in training.

Revoke his freedom! Follow the 3 rules of housetraining. Go outside with him wearing his long line. Keep him in the room where you are, in your line of visual sight, dragging a short leash. Confine him when you are unable to watch him.

Place his food bowl in the area he has chosen as his potty place. Dogs do not like to eliminate where they eat.

Teach him to tell you that he needs to go. When that little bell goes off in your head reminding you to walk him – don’t. Instead watch him like a hawk. He will probably try to slip out of the room. Follow him. If he approaches his favorite area, step on leash. Pick up the leash and say ‘outside’. Take him out.

Repeat this as often as you can. He will soon learn to go the door instead of the dining room. Avoid frightening or scolding.

In 3 weeks test him by leaving him loose again. The first time he has an accident, ground him be revoking his freedom. He will learn! Keep us posted on your progress. Margaret Davis

This is similar to a question I have. How do you know when the house training has "stuck?" Our dog is 8 months, and she goes outside regularly. But she still has accidents in the house. When that happens we do the 3 rules you mention. But how do we know when we can give her some freedom? Do we just keep trying and see how it goes? Ours also gives very subtle clues that she wants to go out. She'll go to the front door, but not make any noise. We've attached a bell to the door, but I'm not sure how to build the association to get her to ring it. My sisters dog nudges a bell with her nose when she has to go out.

BTW I really like your podcasts! Perhaps "housetraining endgame" would be a good future topic. I have not found much info on this in my search. Thanks for the great site,

John

I see you posted a podcast on ringing the bell! My kids and I really enjoyed it and we are working on it now. Thanks so much!

I had a similar problem a few years back with my Australian Shepherd. Almost the same circumstances - when one of us would leave the house, that's the only time the accidents would happen (maybe 30% of the time). We actually had almost immediate success with simply moving the food to where our guy was going in the house (always near a closet off the kitchen).

-Brenda
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