Has anyone has any experience with a dog who becomes un-housed trained?

I have experience with it in that one of our dogs occasionally does it (she’s 3 years old). I sadly don’t have experience with correcting it as it has been a bit of a struggle.

For our dog, she seems to do it (she poops more than anything) as an act of protest if we haven’t been around much. It is really hard to see why she does it but she knows it is wrong: after doing it whenever she makes eye contact with one of us (before we notice what she’s done) she gets the most immensely guilty look on her face.

When we have a long bout of rain our dogs hate going out in the wet so they sneak off to corners and go there. Then if they aren’t caught in the act they figure they got away with it and repeat the act. I have used baby gates to make those spots unavailable, plus I force the dogs outside rain or no rain about every two hours, and I fuss at them (No! Bad Dog!) when I catch them in the act. It helps get them back to their training.

The trainer we work with says that what they do is keep the dog outside for a full 24 hours, feeding it outside, letting it sleep outside, and so on, and then reintroduce it to the house. If the behavior recurs, out the dog goes again. Dogs quickly learn that if they “go” outside rather than in, they get to be back in the “den” again. We can’t do that because we have a neighbor that refuses to tolerate any barking of any kind. I would talk to them about it but I don’t know who it is because they communicate by means of anonymous letters.

Has anything changed in your (and your dog’s) life recently? Are you working different hours? Do you have a new pet, or a new addition to the household? A new love interest? Even a new hobby that takes your attention away from the dog? It sounds as if your dog may be feeling insecure and reverting to puppy behaviors.

Yes, having 5 dogs myself they tend to act out in the only way they can, when there’s a change of some sort. And I have a terrier that refuses to go out in the rain, so has an accident here and there, that she trys to hide.
It’s important to get the smell out of the area, so they don’t go back there again. Also, high praise when they do go outside helps. I go out with the dogs…even in the rain.

What is it about the rain that dogs refuse to get their paws wet?
I, like Paulc, had the same experience and could not get the dog to revert back to going outside, so I have no helpful information.

My little terrier pees on the bathroom rug no matter what I do or how many times I take her out, so I got her this nifty item. We are both much happier now.

My dog is 10, but she just has a bladder problem so it“s not really her fault