[Gus Gus]

To preface, I adopted my dog, Tod, about four months ago. He is a three-year-old lab. When I adopted him, Tod was fully potty-trained, and up until last week, he hadn’t had any accidents in the house. Even on the one day a week where he spends six hours alone, he had never eliminated indoors.

Fast forward to two weeks ago. My partner, Drew, and I are at home with Tod. Tod is laying on the couch with Drew while I’m headed to the basement to do a load of laundry. Unbeknownst to me, Tod sleepily gets up from the couch and heads towards the kitchen. (The way our home is set up, the steps to the basement are only accessible through the kitchen. Plus, we let Tod outside to potty through the kitchen entry. I mention this because I don’t know if he was headed to the basement or to the outside door.)

As I come upstairs from the basement and walk into the kitchen, I see a huge puddle on the kitchen rug. It’s clear right away that’s it’s pee. We have a washable rug, so I separated the rug from the cushioned pad underneath and threw it in the wash. While I was doing this, Drew took Tod outside go to the bathroom. He apparently didn’t go much, but we expected that. Again, the puddle of pee was HUGE.

So, I find myself in the basement an hour later when it’s time to put the rug in the dryer. I come upstairs and what do I see? It’s ANOTHER pee puddle! It’s located in the same spot, this time on the rug pad.

A few days later, the same thing happens. We are both home with Tod. I walk downstairs and find a huge puddle in the same exact spot on the rug. This time, the pee is so diluted with water (the boy loves to drink) that I can’t even tell it’s urine at first. Todd had be going out three to potty three times per day at this point. We decide to increase this to four times: breakfast, lunch, afternoon, and evening.

Now we move to last week. It’s around 4 pm and we are all outside. Drew is doing yard work. At first, I play with Tod and then I let him sniff about. We are outside for around 30 minutes. We bring Tod inside and then run an errand. We are gone for under 20 minutes. When we get home, we find poop on the floor. Where is it located? You guessed it: the kitchen rug.

So now I’m trying to figure out what has caused this sudden change in Tod’s behavior. Why is he now going to the bathroom inside? We’ve not made any significant changes to our schedules or home interior. He doesn’t appear to be showing any other behavioral changes. He hasn’t had any diet changes and doesn’t take any medications.

Any advice would be appreciated. Should I bring him to the vet? Adjust his water intake? Set an alarm for potty breaks so they are as rigid as possible?

[Jeff Butler]

I would lean towards taking him to a vet. My understanding is that once a dog is potty trained, the last thing they want to do is go to the bathroom inside. I think getting him medically cleared is your best course of action. I have had older dogs struggle with getting outside to the bathroom enough times, but I don’t think that is a factor with your three year old.

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