Pug Puppy Weeing In His Bed?

[puggy jess]

Hi everyone.. Long time reader, first time poster..!

I have a delightful 6 month old Pug puppy named Stanley. He is a beautiful boy and is (reasonably!) well behaved.

However, I have noticed that he has recently started weeing in his bed. I find this really strange.. My understanding was that puppies avoid toileting in their bedding areas at all costs (the basis of crate training etc)??

A bit of background… When we're not at home, Stan is outside (he has access inside to the laundry via a doggy door). When we get home, Stan comes upstairs into the living areas with us. He is too afraid to go down the stairs himself (although he happily bounds up them!) so we carry him down the stairs and outside on a regular basis for toilet. When he's downstairs he can get outside by himself to toilet. He also sleeps in the laundry where he has access outside all night long.

Up until this point toilet training was a breeze. He would never toilet on the laundry floor when at home alone- he'd always go outside. When upstairs I could always tell when he needed to go and I'd carry him down and he'd toilet straight away.

Why is he peeing on his bed? He normally does it once or twice a week and usually overnight. He always has access outside and he never pees anywhere else in the laundry. It is ALWAYS in his bed and no-where else.

I've tried changing his bedding (to get rid of the wee smelling stuff) and he'll immediately wee on the new fresh bedding. Why why why?!?!

[puggy_puggy]

Sounds like he is being a little bugger and he knows he is testing you. He knows that you get upset about him peeing on his bed so he does it because he wants to peeve you off. He's trying to show you that he is the boss and he is not happy that he has to sleep downstairs in his own bed and not with you.

Is he desexed? If not I would get him done soon.

My pug boy, when he was young, would go and pee in my bathroom if I locked him out of my bedroom. He would do this to tell me that he was not happy with the fact that he was locked out. Also if he got a chance he would go and pee on my parents bed to tell my dad that he was the boss. A recent foster puggy of mine was peeved off at me for not allowing her to sit on the armchair with me and her pups so she went and peed in one of the doggy beds right in front of me.

Really not sure what you can do other then desexing him, telling him off and continuing to change his bedding. Maybe you could let him sleep in your bedroom. Buy some polyfleece material and use that or towels in his bed so that you only have to wash them and not his whole bed each time.

With the stairs I would gentley push him down them. I have 4 month old pug pups here that have been running up and down my open wooden stairs since they were 10 weeks old. Any pug that has come here and has been afraid of going down the steps I have gentley pushed down and they have overcome their fear very quickly.

[Twiggy]

Is this Stanley the pug who is related to our Bailey pug that we met at Pugwood a few weeks back?

Either way we had this problem with Bailey earlier on (around 3-4 months of age). We used to wash it after he did it and tell him off and then we'd wash it, but he'd just go do it that night or the next day again. We hit a point where we were really sick of washing that damn bedding so we actually threw it out and didn't give him a new one for about 2 or 3 months and we haven't had any issues with it since actually now that I think on it.

But Bay was the same. He'd go where he was supposed to (newspaper) but he'd just occasionally slip one in on the bedding, but nowhere else.

[Pug Hugger]

What a naughty boy! UNless you catch him in the act there is no point telling him off. I went through a stage with Louie peeing ALL OVER my couch. We ended up putting him in time out for 45 minutes (locking him in the laundry) and he never did it again - no promises it is that simple but it worked for us

[missmoo]

when you wash the bedding do you use vinegar? dogs can still smell where they went to the toilet long after we have cleaned up and there is no odour that we can smell. you really need to wash or soak the bedding several times in vinegar 7 warm water for the smell to disappear. it is possible your pug can still smell his urine on the blankets and therfore thinks its ok to keep toileting there.

before this started was he toileting at night outside or has going to the toilet at night always been a problem? my boy took longer to toilet train at night than during the day.

generally speaking dogs will avoid toileting where they sleep, but this is not always the case. have you had him checked for a urinary infection or similar, this will cause dogs to toilet in places they normally wouldnt especially when they are asleep and especially at night.

sometimes it is best to go back to basics when we have a problem with our training. you may need to start getting up during the night and taking him out to toilet & rewarding him for it.

as for the stairs, help him down the stairs but don't carry him. start on the lowest step, stand him there, have your hand thru the back of his collar and the other arm over his body with your hand on his belly (where you can feel the V from his ribs), and walk him down. praise and reward, make a huge fuss. when he is confident with that step move to the second last step and so on. you could also start at the last step and use his fave food and encourage him down. with time and perserverance he will be confident with the stairs.

[puggy jess]

Thanks everyone for your comments!

He's not yet desexed but we're taking care of that soon. This might (I hope) help out with the latest problem.

We spent a night away from home on the weekend and when we returned he was understandably excited to see us. He was upstairs in the master bedroom with me as I was sorting out dirty washing and right in front of me he cocked his leg and weed on our dirty clothes! I growled a very loud "No" at him and he stopped and just continued to prance about happily. Now I'm too afraid to let him out of my sight when he's inside incase he wees on anything else!

What a rat-bag! I just hope that desexing him will stop this very strange behaviour!

[~Anne~]

I also suspect that a natural instinct in dogs is to pee on their bedding to warm themselves if it is really cold where they sleep. This is only my theory though but I have noticed that if a dogs is going to do it, it is usually more common in Winter.