My senior rescue dog pees and poops upstairs at night. What to do?

Keep the door to your bedrom closed. If you are letting him be on any furniture in the house, stop. Once he is denied access to your bed, he may transfer his "bathroom" to a couch or chair. Crate him when you can't watch him, and do not give him free run of your home. Keep him on a leash at all times if you need to (you can attachthe end through your belt loop to keep your hands free). This way, if he starts to go in the house, you can give him a firm "NO!" and take him right outside. If he is not leashed, you'll have to catch him, which is a problem for two reasons: (1) it will become a game to him, and (2) by the time you get him, he will forget what he did wrong. If you need more help with this, you can click on the prompt to start a consult, where we can discuss the problem at length. Good luck!

You are on the right path. I recommend crate training for any dog to facilitate housebreaking. This is often the fastest and most effective route. You must prevent the opportunities for him to have an accident. Using leashes and baby gates can help in addition to the crate training. The feeding schedule doesn’t really make a big difference to Eddie. It’s more your schedule. Most dogs will need to have a bowel movement within an hour or two of eating their meals. If he is having more than two bowel movements in a day, you may try feeding him a low residue dog food such as Royal Canin as this tends to be highly digestible and result in less stool production. Continue to reward for good behavior. Best of luck and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Hello and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Sometimes as a dog ages they develop something called cognitive dysfunction (like dementia) where they forget their training. This may be the cause of Tot's accidents. A supplement like Senilife may help withi this. Pain and arthritis can also lead to accident in an older dog as they have a harder time going outside and positioning to go to the bathroom. Sometimes urinary tract infection, internal medical issues or digestive problems may also cause accidents in the house. A visit to your Veterinarian may help to sort out what the cause of Tot's accidents are. Until you are able to take him to the vet you may want to take him outside more frequently to avoid accidents.

I would go with the decision to let him indoors, he is 11, he is an old man. Keep him in a confined area where if he does go to the toilet, it' s easy for you to clean. Put a nice comfortable bed down, and put him to bed with a positive reinforcement such as a biscuit. Ignore if he does whine, he needs to learn the bed is where he rests and does not get disturbed , but he has to do the same too !

I would start by putting her on a leash and walking around with her in the yard she is used to using to go to the bathroom, so she can acclimate to being leashed and having you near her when she goes to the bathroom. You can also start using a command word for her peeing and pooping and giving her a treat along with the command word when she goes. For example, if you see her peeing outside say "Potty" and give her a treat. This will help her associate the word with the action and then when she is out on a walk you can try saying the word to encourage her to do the action (and follow up with a treat). You can also get her adjusted to a pen by putting it in your house now, and placing her bed/toys inside with the door open to encourage her to use the pen.

It is possible that, at the age of 13, she has severe arthritis pain and squatting to urinate hurts. This may be the reason why she holds it in until she can't hold it in anymore. I suggest you have her hips checked for arthritis, and your vet may prescribe her some NSAIDs to alleviate her pain.

He could have a urinary tract infection or a medical condition that makes him urinate more. The best thing would be to have your vet run a urinalysis and blood-work to rule out medical causes. If the lab-work is normal then you should make sure you take him out as late as possible before bed time and you could also limit the amount of water he drinks late at night.