Behaviour

[eagle1612]

Have a four year old cocker.  Been house trained as a pup and been great up until recently (last 3 months), now has taken to acting like a pup again in terms of house training, I have a strong feeling its behavioural or attention seeking.

Can anyone shed some light?
 

[Mary]

Has there been any major changes in the last 3 months that could have upset him in anyway?  Have you moved house for instance or has some routine changed?

If there is nothing specific you can think of it maybe worth having him/her checked over at a vet incase there is some medical reason for this change of behavior.  I would have thought this unusual at 4 years of age

[michelle123]

Yep, I agree with Mary.

New baby, pet or routine.  Perhaps have you changed his diet - or if not you could consider it.

[eagle1612]

Thanks for the replies!

We moved house in June, but behaviour has changed in last month, granted have changed his diet, but that’s because he had been gaining weight – could be the cause.

If it is – how can it be combated – simply changing diet again or something else??

Would appreciate any feedback.

Thanks

[Top Barks]

Have you ruled out any medical cause?

[LurcherGirl]

Could also be the onset of the firework season... I have never come across a dog yet that used house training as an attention seeking thing. In a fully house trained dog it is normally a stress response to changes in their environment or a health issue.

Basically, just go back to basics. Praise outside, ignore indoors.

What sort of diet change did you do? What brands of food were you/are you using?

Vera

[kate.s]

Sam will have accidents in the house when he is upset by something.....when we had the gas central heating installed he went to kennels overnight but as they finished late on the second day I had to bring him back while they were still in the house.

He was really upset because there were these 3 strange men in the house and he had 2 accidents that evening after they had gone. He soon got back on track though as I just went out with him like when I was housetraining him and gave him treats and praise for weeing outside.