Dog Community

Peeing on the floor for attention?

Posted : 6/11/2012 2:57:32 PM

My fiance and I bought a German Shepherd puppy a couple months ago. We had him completely potty trained within 1 week, but now at 14 weeks old he's decided to start using the bathroom on the carpet. We've noticed that he only does it when we leave the house and especially when my partner and I are being affectionate with one another. I mean he will just squat right in front of us and do his business. He is crate trained so I know I could just crate him to solve the pottying when we leave, but I really hate leaving him in such a small place for too long, especially considering he was so good about not having accidents for so long. My fiance says it's just his age and that he's going through a rebellious stage. Is that possible, or do you think maybe he's doing it for attention?

JackieG

Posted : 6/11/2012 3:08:02 PM

He's not fully house trained. Use a crate and read up on housetraining a puppy. You can search this forum and find lots of advice on the subject. Good luck and give it some time and proper training before you assume he's trying to rebel. I've raised quite a few pups and don't usually trust them completely until they're six months or so with no accidents inside. When any of my dogs had an accident in the house, I took a rolled up newspaper and spanked myself for my failure to pay attention. :) Puppies don't mind crates if you use them properly.

glenmar

Posted : 6/11/2012 3:09:48 PM

Everything Jackie just said. This pup is just way too young to be reliably housetrained.

Liesje

Posted : 6/11/2012 3:18:45 PM

He's not fully house trained, way too young for reliability and that much freedom. My GSD boys were not house trained until almost 6 months and even then they were confined when I wasn't there to supervise.

auburn2932

Posted : 6/11/2012 4:13:31 PM

What everyone said, and I do not think dogs pee to be rebellious or just for attention. Miss Ava, my dog was almost a full year old before she was fully trained, I had to watch her closely.

Jewlieee

Posted : 6/11/2012 6:13:51 PM

II agree with the others, he is not house trained. Dogs don't urinate on the floor for attention. They do it because they are either not house trained or they have a medical problem. Healthy house trained dogs like to keep their living spaces free of urine and ***. I would go back to crate training and restricting access unless you can totally watch him. A dog like yours would probably quickly learn to ring a jingle bell to tell you it has to go potty if you were to train it to do that.

calliecritturs

Posted : 6/11/2012 9:15:56 PM

Mrice
We've noticed that he only does it when we leave the house and especially when my partner and I are being affectionate with one another. I mean he will just squat right in front of us and do his business

everything above is GREAT advice. But I want to address this one thing because I'm pretty sure it's what's making you feel like it's "for attention"

When you two are getting frisky, your attention is not on the dog. You are missing *his* signal that he's needing to go (and sometimes all it is -- is a LOOK to see if you are watching). Training them to use a bell tied to the door is great -- it takes some extra time but is worth it (particularly if you are occasionally ... um ... distracted ... and who wouldn't be!!)

When you first bring home a pup there is this thing called the "honeymoon period" -- they're trying uber hard to please you, and you're trying hard to watch them all the time. Then everyone relaxes and the dog becomes more confident and accidents happen. But mostly it's because everyone (you AND the dog) become too relaxed and it's up to the humans to be the vigilant ones.

Remember -- to a dog their "business" is just plain part of the moment. It's we humans that make such a HUGE deal out of "waste". Don't think they automatically get the "inside" vs "outside" thing -- they don't.

Think about it -- do YOU go outside? Nope. But we expect them to ... but we're the ones that have to provide for that to happen - as in stop what we're doing early enough to get them outside before they can't hold it any longer (Callie has never been able to figger that one out!! I mean think how long it takes HUMAN kids to get potty trained. It's not easy!! Ask any 2 year old!! LOL)

tiffy

Posted : 6/12/2012 6:59:04 PM

^^^^^^^^^^^ Agreed. Also while being housetrained he shouldn't be left out and left to his own devices. JMO.