[Butterfly613]

Several months ago we got a new puppy. A pug. I have a 2 year old dog and she was perfectly house broken. Now, we notice that the older dog will pee in the house when we are not home. They are not big spots, but they still smell. We tried to clean the spots (it is kind of always in the same area) with those Enzyme cleaners, shampooed the carpet... everything. She still does it when we are not home. Is this a protest to the pug? How can I teach my older dog to stop peeing inside the house?

[Aurora_Bell]

I'm sorry, I only have a few minutes, but have you tried crating while you are away? It sounds like your dog has separation anxiety, and crating is great way to ease his mind. I'll come back and give a more detailed answer later.

[Wondergirl]

Think about it. Put yourself into your older dog's ummmm shoes (paws?).

"I live with this nice family. They give me lots of love and attention, play with me, take me for nice walks. Now, guess what happened. They got this little brat of a dog who isn't even old enough to wipe his own nose. Even though they still seem to love me, they spend an awful lot of time with HIM. AND GUESS WHAT THEY DO!!!! They go away and leave him all alone in the house with me!!! Can you believe it??? I miss them so much when they're gone (especially now -- like, am I supposed to puppysit him???), and I miss our life the way it used to be before this horrible little monster showed up. What can I do to show them I'm still here and a force to be reckoned with?"

[Just_Another_Lemming]

LOL WG! Boy that older dog sure has a lot to say! :)

Butterfly, I think it is a safe bet for me to assume the puppy has had at least one accident in your home. Your older dog is marking her territory. As WG notes, you have an older dog who is none too happy sharing her home with the new addition. Please take AB's advice and start crating your dog. If you don't want to find any messes when you return home, you should be crating both of them when you are out. If a dog is regressing or have training issues and there is no one around to supervise, train, or properly correct negative behavior, dogs should always be crated. As the puppy gets older, becomes housebroken and the older dog adjusts to having a second dog in the household, the dominant peeing should eventually stop. You can test them in the house for short periods and if there aren't any accidents, you can start testing them for longer periods until you are confident there won't be any more issues. But, leave the crates for them to use. You will find that they will go to their crates when they want to sleep, get away from each other, or just have some quiet time. The crates will become their safe "go to" place.