House trained dog urinating in the house again due to new puppy?!

I have an 8 month old lab mix that we had no problem potty training when we got her at 6 weeks. She's always listened to commands and let us know when she needs to go out. Last week we got a new puppy for her to have a friend. He is 8 weeks and another lab mix. We've made sure to keep giving her as much attention as the puppy. I've even taken her on walks by herself while my husband plays with the puppy.

She recently started urinating in the house... on our couch, on our bed, etc. The thing is she does it right after we've already been out to the bathroom and she's voided out there. She is also laying down whenever she does it, like she's trying to hide that she's doing it. Is there a possibility that since she is seeing the puppy have accidents in the house on occasion that it's ok for her to do that for attention?

The two dogs will play together, but she has started to play a little rough with him. I don't know if its from her playing with large breeds since she was 2 months that she thinks it's ok. It's very obvious the puppy knows she is the alpha dog. He lets her do everything before him.

I don't know if she's just all around trying to find her place in the pack or what but we've done all we can think of to make her feel reassured that she's still part of the pack.

Any ideas?





Hi
Your older pup is stressed about the newest addition to the family and this sudden urinating in the house is the way it's showing. I doubt that she's doing this to 'copy' the puppy, or that she has any idea of why she feels the need to do it at all, she can't help it.

As she's been fully housetrained, I doubt that this will be more than a passing 'phase' and once she adjusts to having the new puppy in her home she will settle down and this behavior will fade away.

For now you need to keep doing what you're doing in terms of making sure that she gets lots of one-on-one attention and doesn't feel left out or overshadowed by the puppy. It sounds as though the two pups have figured out the 'pecking order' just fine and are getting familiar with each other which is good.

As for the urinating, be sure to correct her firmly but kindly whenever she does this and then get her outside to her potty spot. If necessary put her in her crate if you can't supervise her enough and make sure the little one has a crate too so that she doesn't see him running around free while she isn't.

Human toddlers often regress for a short while when a new baby arrives - they may lose their toilet training skills, use 'baby talk', get whiny and insecure etc. etc. It's perfectly normal and after a while they readjust and everything returns to normal. It's exactly the same with puppies - they're babies too, just baby dogs!

The best advice I can give you is to be patient, loving and understanding with her, reinforce the house rules kindly and firmly, and give her some time to sort it out in her little head. All will be fine. Good luck.