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I have a 7 month old puppy. He is a cross Mastiff and his weight is about 27kg.

I took him when he was 1.5 months old. Then I trained him to pee on some newspapers I let laying on the floor of the flat where we were living. He learned this pretty fast and kept eliminating there while he could not go outside because the lack of vaccination.

Once he started to go outside, he learned to eliminate outside, and he does it everytime we go out nowadays. I eliminated the newspapers from home, and, some time after that, the dog was holding for about 9 hours while I was at work.

However, like a month ago he started waking up during the night and peeing on the floor.

Also, I have moved to a different city this week. He peed on the floor the first night he spent on the new flat. Another day, we went for a walk, he peed outside and then we came home. I left home for about an hour and when I did come back he had peed.

He also sometimes pees in the morning when I leave for work and my flatmate is locked in her room.

Yesterday we went for a walk about 7PM, then, about 10PM he peed on the floor just in front of my flatmate and me.

It's weird because for some time he did eliminate only outside, but then returned to bad habits and started doing it at home.

What can I do for him to return eliminating only outside?

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    I would just like to comment that lack of vaccinations is no reason to delay house training. Avoid dog parks where there are large numbers of dogs, but other than that, take them outside! starting off right is much simpler for you and the dog than changing the rules and re-learning.
    – jalynn2
    Commented Oct 23, 2015 at 16:54
  • @jalynn2 I was told not to do that. If I could choose now I would train him from the beggining.
    – mornaner
    Commented Oct 26, 2015 at 7:20
  • I don't know who told you not to do that, but not going outside at all is being overly cautious and can lead to behavior problems due to lack of socialization. Puppies that have had their first shots can safely go out -- you should just avoid very heavily trafficked areas like dogs parks and trails. avsabonline.org/uploads/position_statements/…
    – jalynn2
    Commented Oct 26, 2015 at 13:35

1 Answer 1

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We've recently had this issue, and we paper trained as well. From research and talking to our usual dog trainer it's one of the possible bad habits in the dogs 'terrible twos' stage of life (think of how badly behaved a toddler can become in this phase of their lives as well). Some dogs start to bark when they didn't, some go toilet in the house, some go back to chewing everything... Some dogs do nothing bad at all as not all dogs go through this phase, and they do grow out of it.

However in the meantime your dog will need a bit of tough love. Our 8 month pup spends his nights in a smaller pen than he was used to (open plan house so we don't want him having the run of the place overnight). He used to get the whole kitchen but now he doesn't until he re-learns his house training. He's left with a few quiet toys, and his food/water bowls. We started with a pen, with his little crate in, just big enough for him to walk around it (or sleep on the cold tiles if he gets hot) and now we're at a larger pen over double the size of the original one, which is now about 1/3 of our kitchen. He's still dry overnight and in the day with this method. The pen will keep getting larger the more dry days/nights he has until he's back to the full space he was in.

Leaving his food and water bowls in there, even empty, we found helped - dogs have the mentality of not going to the toilet where they sleep (crate) and where they eat (food bowls). We used to take his food bowl away after breakfast / dinner.

However in the day he's only in a pen if we're out, otherwise he can run around downstairs as much as he likes as we're there for him to ask to be let out. We know, just like you, that he is perfectly capable of holding for 9 hours (though he doesn't usually have to on a regular basis), but it is a bit of a spiteful habit when a dog is in this phase.

Your dog needs structure - as when I asked How to stop overnight toileting on here myself, I got some great advice which has helped. If you're able to regularly take him out when you're in, he'll get more used to empting his bladder when he gets the chance to - plus he'll get more bored of where he is going, so less excitement = more likely to pee.

We took Liams (above question) advice of a regular evening pre-bed walk. This walk is the exact same route every night - he knows this walk, and what it means, and consistently he'll at least pee on this walk, even if he doesn't poo. 8pm every night he get's agitated and asks to go on his walk. This in combination with regular meal times and not over treating or feeding the dog can help with less number 2's (and is just plain better for your dog!).

We've also found going back to giving him a treat after toileting outside has re-encouraged his want to go out for a toilet. We also recently have found adding in another walk to the day is helping.

Plus you need to learn your dogs quirks for asking to go out - our Pup doesn't always go to the back door and whine, sometimes he sits as high up on the stairs as he can and just stairs at us.

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