We have 3 dogs. A 9 month old boy, a 16 month old girl and a 16 year (on August 5th) boy. They are all Shih-tzus.

We had some problems with the girl when we got the little boy, but things seemed to get into a routine. Everybody was trained to go outside when they had to potty. The 2 younger have been crate trained. The oldest is/was trained, but as of late has increasingly frequent accidents in the house, but he is an old man so I give him LOTS of latitude. I have to say that I am not positive that ALL the accidents are his which leads me to my question.

The problem we are having is with the youngest. For whatever reason he doesn't pee in the morning. He is my daughter's dog (she lives upstairs) and I doggie sit for him as I work from home and have a flexible schedule. It hasn't always been a problem with his peeing, only the past few weeks.

I am trying to get him to understand that we expect things from him and one of those things is that if he wants run of the house he has to pee first, so this morning I keep taking him in the yard on a leash and encouraging him, but NOTHING! I bring him back in and crate him back up. He has been awake since 7AM and it is now after 10 and still nothing. :( I put a bowl of water in his crate with him about 30 minutes ago and will take him out now.

Am I doing something wrong? Is it wrong for me to MAKE him pee in the morning if he doesn't have to? And heck, why doesn't he have to???

Thanks for any advice you can give!

Thanks,

marg