Ok I have a 6 1/2 month Puggle. I bought her from a puppy store down the street. We struggled for the first month potty training her w/a crate. Finally after a month, she was about 90% potty trained. We could leave her home alone for 6 hours and come home with no problems

When she turned 6 months, we took her to get spayed at a local low-cost spay center. It took her a day or two to recover from the surgery and become back to her normal self again. A few days after that, we noticed her potty training was all screwed up. It was almost like she couldn't hold her pee in at all! She dropped from being 90% potty trained to 20%! She would be walking and just suddenly squat and pee. It was insane! I started to get scared because I read something online about spay incontinence? Can anyone elaborate? I had to watch her like a hawk all over again 24/7. I started to get worried and it didn't go away for about 2 weeks. Well I started the whole training process again by praising her like crazy and giving treats at every successful potty outside and taking her out every hour. She finally started to get better and I started to feel better. I would start waiting for her to go to the front door to let me know and purposely make her wait to train her to hold it in again because she would go to the door every 45min. That helped and now it seems she is ALMOST back to normal. When I'm home on the weekends with her, she will hold a full bladder hours. On the weekends, she will sleep in late w/me on the bed and hold it a good 8-10 hours until we both decided to get up.

The problem now is that when I am home with her, she will hold her pee in for hours. However, when I go to work, she will pee almost immediately after I leave on the carpet. I then decided to use the crate again to no avail. She would pee in there and poop as well. Its almost like as soon as I leave her home alone, she will just pee and poop without thinking twice. How can this be if she is holding it in when I'm home with her. What can I do to keep her from being lazy and just releasing it when she gets the urge. Its so annoying its driving me crazy. I have a vet appointment to just make sure she has no UTI or anything else like that from my original concern w/the spay. I need some experts to shine some light on this one. WHY Won't MY PUPPY HOLD IT WHEN IM NOT HOME!!

Anyone have any insight?

I am glad you are taking her to the vet. That problems from spaying are rare doesn't mean your dog couldn't be the exception.

Being less active in the carte should mean being able to go longer. Since she can hold it when you are around, it sounds to me like it is stress. One thing you could try is giving her a Kong filled with peanut butter. She could be too busy licking the peanut butter out to stress out over you being gone.

Anyone seen the infomercials for the new "Don Sullivan: Secrets to Training the Perfect Dog" product. It's a dvd set w/special training collar and other goodies that guarantees your dog will be able to sit/down/stay/rollover/bake cookies in no time. The commercial looks very interesting but I wanted to know if anyone had any input/thoughts/comments before I even thought about spending $70 on an infomerical product.

Here's the link: https://www.theperfectdog.com/index.php

Most things that sound to good to be true are too good to be true. The biggest secret to dog training is consistancy and self discipline. I am familiar with the Monks of new Skete, see http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/ While their methods won't work as well as the advertised ones say, count on them working.

Definitely rule out the UTI. The incontinence in spayed female dogs generally is something that shows up years down the road, I don't know if they've ever really made a cause-and-effect correlation. Speaking as a middle-aged female, I think all our bladders eventually go to some extent!
The surgery may have just caused a setback in her training; (it hurts to squat so maybe I should just let everything go. When mom's home she seems calm and everything's OK, so I can be more back to normal.) Just a guess. Sounds like you're doing exactly right by starting over from square one with the potty training.

I did an experiment today to finally find out what my puppy's problem is. I have a 7 month puggle puppy. She is pretty much potty trained with ONE exception. She only holds her pee in when I'm home!! Every time I go to work I come home to a surprise.

My vet told me it was most likely because she has some bad separation anxiety. Every time its time to go to work or leave the house my puppy starts running around almost trying to prevent me from leaving. When I finally do leave, she cries and scratches at the door. Well every time I come home, she has pooped and peed already.

One experiment was this: I left the house and stood by the door. I peeped through the window and my puppy cried for about a minute by the door than ran off somewhere in the apartment. When I came in, she was in a corner pooping!!

Today, I was home all day with her. She held her bladder almost 6 hours and I knew it was getting full but she hadn't told me she needed to go yet. So I went to the bathroom and left the puppy in the living room. Of course she ALWAYS stops what she is doing to either follow me or peek at me from the couch. She was watching me in there and then I closed the door to the bathroom! As soon as I did that she jumped off the couch and ran to the bathroom door. She scratched twice then ran off. I immediately opened the door and she had already ran to the carpet to squat and release a tremendous amount of urine!! I almost cried.

WHY IS MY DOG DOING THIS! SHE WILL HOLD IT FOR ME SOOO LONG AND THE MINUTE IM NOT WATCHING SHE WILL SQUAT!

Can anyone help me out on this. I think she is peeing anything she gets scared of being left alone - either that or she figures if I'm not around she can get away with it. It makes more sense that she is scared but what do I do about this now?

As I said, I really think it is the stress of being left alone. How old was she when you got her? A puppy that was never left alone before it was 12 weeks old, may have a hard time adjusting to it. Of the 16 puppies I have gotten at about 7 weeks, all of them quickly adjusted to being left in their crate for up to a half day. Did you try the Kong and peanut butter I suggested?

Also make sure she moves around when you take her out to stimulate her body to eliminate.

Well, we got her when she was 3 1/2 months old. She never really had an anxiety problem when we got her. Like I said in my prior post, she was pretty much potty training and would hold her bladder about 6 hours when we were not home.

The changing point in her life that totally changed her behavior was when we got her spayed in December. We took her to the vet and had to leave her there for about 6-7 hours. When we dropped her off, she really got along well with the staff and seemed very happy. The girl took her to the back and we waved our final goodbye. When we came later that day to pick her up, she was really out of if (mostly due to the anesthesia). It took her a day or two to recover and get back to her true self. That's when we started to notice her change in behavior. It was almost as if the experience of being left at the vet and waking up in a crate in a strang place traumatized her. Now whenever we leave, she always seems sad and waits by the door after we leave, scratching for a few minutes and eventually runs off somewhere. Before, she almost seemed happy to be left home alone to do whatever she wants. I often came home and saw her toys all over the place and saw signs of play while I was gone. Now, when I come home, it doesn't look like much went on besides sleeping. Her toys don't look touched and when I come home and peep through the window, she is often just sitting in her bed staring at the front door... and of course there are several pee spots on the carpet as well as poop (most likely due to the anxiety).

Yesterday when I caught her urinate on the carpet seconds after closing the bathroom door and her running scared, she seemed really shocked while catching her and picking her up in the act that she seemed to understand that behavior was no good. Today, I did the same thing again after making her hold her bladder another 5 hours. This time she waited at the door patiently and did not cry nor scratch at the door. When I opened the door she was patiently waiting there and did not run to pee like yesterday. I hope its because she remembers yesterdays behavior was not acceptable. I will keep trying this and de-sensitizing her to being left alone to see if I can eventually curb this behavior entirely.

What other suggestions do you all have to help her get over that traumatic experience and enjoy being left home alone again! I want her to be a happy, confident dog when I'm not home again!

Maybe these bonding exercises will help rebuild her trust in you:

''Elevation for small puppies: Sit on the floor and gently put your hands around your pup's middle, below his front legs, and lift him up. He is facing you. Hold him for 15 seconds. Repeat until he no longer struggles. If he is past 10-12 weeks, lift his front feet off the ground, but don't pick him up.

Cradling for small puppies: Hold your puppy gently on his back, as you would cradle a small baby. If he struggles, hold him firmly until he quiets for 10-15 seconds. With larger pups, you can do this as your sit on the floor, with your pup between your legs.

Quiet lying down: Place your pup on the floor on his side, with all 4 legs pointing away from you. Use your hands on his neck/shoulder area and middle, to hold him in this position. When he is quiet, praise him. Lengthen the time that you keep him quietly in this position. When he accepts this position well, handle his paws and muzzle, while keeping him quiet.''

The quotes mean this isn't my original work. It is copied from my Puppy Raising Manual. I have long used these or minor variations of them, and they are very effective. You may want to give him a belly rub while he is on his back too. Helps bonding. There is a big difference between him rolling over and demanding a belly rub, and you choosing a time to roll him over and rub his belly. The latter cements your place as pack leader.

I wanted to know what my puppy is doing when I leave the house, so I left the blinds by my front door cracked a bit and left like normal and waited outside. It seems right after I leave, my pup runs to the door and stands there for about a minute and when I don't come back she scratches at the door repeatedly and cries and cries. She does this for a few minutes and eventually runs off somewhere. It seems really bad when she cries and scratches. What can I do! She seems to be a nervous wreck!!

I've already tried to desensitize her to us leaving. We've tried putting our coats on and then sitting down on the coaches and evetually moved towards the door and then eventually spent seconds behind the door and gradually moved the time outside up and up. However, it still seems she is crying when we leave. Its like she can't stand to be away from us for even a minute!