Bouvier Bathroom Accidents

Q&A

Overnight Accidents by an adult Bouvier
Excerpted from the BouvTrain email list
February 2007

I have a two year old female Bouvier [...]. I have had her since she was 10 weeks. She is my 3rd Bouvier. I work at home and am with her most days throughout the day. She has absolutely no potty accidents during the day; does great. I do crate her when I leave the house because otherwise she frantically tries to get out of the house and pees and poops. O.K. that's not my problem, but I don't know if it will help.

Here's the problem. If I let [her] have free reign of the house at night she inevitably pees and poops in the house while we're sleeping. I take up her food around 4:00 p.m. I take up her water around 8:00 p.m. I take her out to go potty right before I go to bed, usually around 10:30 or 11:00 p.m. If I crate her through the night, there isn't a problem. If I let her sleep in our bedroom, and keep the door barely cracked or closed, there isn't a problem.

Although my husband disagrees and says she has always done this, I say we haven't had a problem until we boarded her [...].

I'm at a loss, I'm frustrated, and I'm tired of cleaning up the messes [...]

LL & E

At this point I would probably have a major freakout on her. I would drag her to the spot and tell her that it is not ok to do this. While you clean up the spot keep telling her that it is not a good thing and that she was very bad. After you are finished cleaning take her outside and tell her to potty. When she does, praise her and then go back to bed.

JB

One - [...] nervous of the sudden noises heard during the night [is a possibility].

When getting free house privileges mine spend time in crate, graduate to my bedroom and then the house. But I put on music so the sounds that occur are not as startling. If she has always done it, no point in getting upset; start retraining her,

I have had several rescues like this and I start only allowing them free roam of the house for an hour and then to my bedroom and a reward for no messes. Gradually increasing the time; oh yes I know it is a pain to get up during the night; but for me they are worth it.

No sense punishing her unless you catch her in the act; all you will do is make her nervous possible scared of you the first while you are up. I have seen me also take these rescues out every hour on the hour or less depending on how long they will hold at night,

I clean up the messes immediately, I don't say a word but have a spray scent to spray over it to mark my territory . The first thing I do when I get up is grab my coffee (yes on auto perk) and go outside with them and reward reward reward for any business outside. I make it worth their while to hold all night.