Housebreaking/behavioral question

Jack Sprat plays 2-4 times a week with Sydney, our neighbor’s female Westie. They get along very well and are both housebroken within their respective homes. However, on occasion they will use the bathroom in the other dog’s house. And I am not talking about marking (which JS still does from time to time) , they actually will defecate. Is this a competitive issue?

I'd guess they probably just do not see someone else's house as 'inside', especially if they are under a year and hence still not really to be considered reliably housetrained.

Eeven if they are older, a dog that is housetrained to the owner's house isn't necessarily housetrained to anyone's else's house or indoor premises especially if they rarely leave the owner's home except for outdoor walks. A way to reinforce their housetraining is to make sure they are taken out on the lead to do their business regularly when on visits so that this can't happen inside and they don't have the opportunity to leave these unwanted calling cards! :lol: If they've gone inside once that may well also reinforce that it's OK to go inside in the other home, particularly if the scent hasn't been thoroughly removed by an enzymatic cleaner. So the best approach is prevention -- always assume the dog may go and get it outside regularly for structured toilet breaks.

That does make sense, only Jack actaully goes lots of places with us and it seems to only be their home. I've even started taking him out before he goes over to play there and it still happens. Sydney is 14 months old, and she also only seems to go in our house too. That's why I thought perhpas there was some competitve thing happening. But hopefully you are right and he'll out grow it when he gets reprimanded (if caught in the act).