You may have simply missed a signal that you dog needed to go out. Since he hasn't had an accident in many months, I assume you have him on a schedule. Aside from that, think about what may have been different before bed time. Did he play and gulp lots of water? Did he just drink lots of water because he was hot? Did he go out for relief before bed? Dogs this age do gulp lots of water, especially when playing. Try and target what may have caused this to happened. Some dogs this age also can take a step back and have an accident. It could have just been an isolated incident, but there is really no way of knowing. You need to fix the problem and the only way to do it is to take a few steps back in the potty department. I would try supervision for a week or two when not crated, along with regular relief trips outside. Document times dog goes out, what he does and the time. This will help you and your dog figure out what is going on, and it will also help correct things. I would also say that calling your vet to inform him/her is a good idea, and I would also ask for their input. This does not mean that you need to take the dog in, just ask for advice and research what they say. If the accident happens again, voice your concern to the vet again, and bring up your concern about a UTI, although, with male dogs this is not very common. Since the accident on the bed has only happened once, ban the dog from the bed for a few months. He still has some maturing to do. Crating when you cannot supervise is essential to fixing this problem if there is no medical issue. Some here may consider this a marking problem. IÂm of the opinion that itÂs pee in the house any way you look (and smell) it and the issue needs to be fixed. Depending on how bad the problem is, will depend on how far back in the potty department you need to go to correct it. SG

Weed! Thank YOU!! She has never (as long as we have had her) had a tick up until this past week! We missed it because the blood clotted up around the tick and we thought she had run into something outside and gotten a boo boo. The vet pulled it off of her on Tuesday when we took her in. We are in Texas, so maybe it didn't occur to the vet that Sadie might be showing symptoms. I will be calling the vet first thing in the morning to get Sadie back in and tested. THANK YOU! She has always had a sensitive system. She is acting normally right now. She stayed out for another half hour and then came in for dinner. Still eating okay. I was just reading that lymes can act like rheumatoid arthritis, poor thing. I had human parvovirus earlier this year ( still working through my system) and it acts JUST like RA. Very painful and makes you feel horrible. I really hope we can get her back to her old self very soon. Thank you again so much for sharing your experience!

Chisue, you bring back memories! Many years ago, I used to have lunch with friends at Steak & Ale every payday. One of 'the girls', Debbie, weighed about 90 pounds soaking wet, but she ate like a truck driver. Steak & Ale had the most wonderful bread: small loaves, supposedly made right there in the restaurant, hot from the oven, fragrant as my grandmother's kitchen, with real butter served on the side. Debbie always carried her big old hobo purse on payday... & kept calling for more bread. We all hoped the staff didn't notice, & we pretended we didn't notice, but one day our waiter said to her, "You know you can have all the bread you want. You don't have to hide it in your purse."

While I would still get her ears checked (just to be sure that she doesn’t have something in her inner ear going on), but I have to say that Dawn might be spot on. Once when she only a couple of years old, our lab was desparate to play in the water and apparently chewed on a spray hose at the day care. They must have scolded her because anytime she hears the phrase, “what did you do” she freaks out. She also has gas a lot and if we’d jokingly ask her if she farted or call her a stinky girl she’d freak as well. You may not ever know what the trigger was, but something she relates to that noise happened. To help get her past it, I would say those things to her while I’m playing and cuddling with her so she’d see nothing terrible comes from it. She also used to be very fearful of the noises different plastic wraps can make. To get her past that, I started having her watch me hold them and carry them around, then I’d invite her to come smell it and check it out. After a few times of doing that, I started to subtly introduce the noise while I was holding it and then I’d have her come smell it again. It almost became a game with her, but eventually, she wasn’t fearful anymore.