Piddles and Pillows

I was hoping I could turn to you all for some much needed advice/input. Our little boy Albie (4 months) is doing great, but we are at lost for what we are doing wrong with this next scenario.

About a month ago, we decided to buy our puppies a new bed since they were growing and their old one needed to be switched out. We got them a larger pillow bed with a suedish cover. When we brought it home, within minutes Albie was laying on it and enjoying the comfiness of it all. Then without warning, while he was laying down, he PEED! Of course we thought well maybe cause its new, (he never peed in his bed before) so we washed it. But since then everytime we put the pillow out he will pee on it without warning. He will lay on it too but then just pee. I dont think i have it out for more than a couple hours and he will pee on it. Our other puppy Kipling wont pee on it, but Albie will. Any suggestions why? Albie still does have accidents but its mostly from us not paying close enough attention. He will even pee on his pillow even though he was just outside to pee. Its a crazy thing and its getting ridiculous washing his pillow cover every day.

Any input would be GREAT!

Washing it isn't adequate to remove the scent that a dog can smell -- he smells that he has peed there and goes again as he has marked it already. You could try using biological washing powder and/or adding some enzymatic cleaner to the wash and that might help, or may make no difference. Some dogs just like to pee on soft beds -- especially puppies will do this. It is a very common issue. It is best to just put the bed away and maybe bring it back out in a few months when they are adults, but it may be a write-off at this point as he has peed so many times. Suede type covers would be very hard to remove the scent of his pee effectively I would think. Also it has probably soaked into the bed itself so most likely, everything needs to be washed, not just the cover.

They will likely be close to a year before fully housetrained -- at 4 months they are just babies and will not be anything close to being housetrained and probably shouldn't be left on a good dog bed at this age. It is generally not a good idea to get anything you don't expect to be destroyed for puppies under 12 months -- they pee, they chew, and they destroy; all part of being puppies.

PS this is also part of the challenge (and difficulty) of having two puppies at the same time -- your peeing dog is likely peeing on things because the other is around. If there was one puppy alone, this is probably a lot less likely to happen. If you haven't, be sure to read the Library thread on bringing up two puppies at the same time. They probably should be separated and crated or penned, for example, not put together into one bed. The very fact that Albie has the opportunity to pee at all is an indication that he isn't housetrained enough to be allowed to get into a bed like this -- he still has a lot of learning to do first before allowed that level of freedom.

Two puppies : http://board.cavaliertalk.com/showthread.php?t=10549

Daisy has done this a few times. Every time she gets a new bed, she seems to want to immediately "baptize" it. I've come to expect it. It's very weird (and frustrating).