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Dear Cathy: During the day, our 1-year-old Pomeranian is restricted to the main floor (using baby gates). She has access to the backyard through a pet door. Whether we are home or not, she goes outside as needed. When she travels with us in our RV, she can be left alone in the air-conditioned vehicle for several hours with no barking and no accidents. At night, she sleeps upstairs in her crate.

The problem is that if she has free run of the house or is moments away from getting into her crate for the night, she will urinate or defecate, even though we let her out beforehand. Other than continuing to use the baby gates and crating her at night, do you have any ideas on how to deal with this? — Jeanne, Tucson, Arizona

Dear Jeanne: If your dog doesn’t always use the pet door, then she is not fully housetrained yet. A dog should be able to go four or five months without having an accident before being considered fully housetrained. She’s young, so she may need more training.

Begin by taking her outside to relieve herself after every nap, meal and playtime session. When she starts to relieve herself, say “go potty” to coincide with the desired behavior. Use a marker/reward word like “Bingo” or a clicker to mark the behavior, followed by a food reward.

Wait for her to poop, and follow the same routine each time so she associates the command with both peeing and pooping. If there are lots of distractions outside or she spends a lot of time sniffing around, put her on a leash to move things along.

Before bedtime, take her out again, and follow the same “go potty” routine until she poops. You need to wait her out the first few times to ensure she doesn’t relieve herself in the house. If you can’t, take her outside again right before you anticipate her having the pre-bedtime accident, and say “go potty.” Again, walking her on a leash in the backyard may make this simpler for you.

During this training, clean the areas where she has had accidents with an enzymatic cleaner (available at pet stores) to break down the vomit, urine or feces and remove the odor. This will reduce her chances of having an accident in the spot again.

Dear Cathy: I have three rescue cats: M1 is 10 or 11 years old and very laid back and could care less about the other cats; M2 is 9 or 10 years old and is the alpha. With the two cats, life was good. But then I introduced M3 to the family at 10 weeks old. She was a stray. She is now 2 1/2 years old but has had a prevalent issue.

For the first 18 months, she urinated outside the litter box and near where M1 sleeps. I used Cat Attract to lure her back to the litter boxes, which worked well. Then she stopped using the boxes again. I changed the litter to unscented varieties. This worked, but she is still urinating around where M1 sleeps. Yesterday, she defecated next to one of the boxes, something she had never done before.

I have had pet psychics “talk” to her, used pheromone collars and diffusers, and worked with a pet behaviorist. The vet has prescribed every medicine available. Nothing has worked. Do you have any other suggestions? Will this go away with age? — Karen, Burlington, Connecticut

Dear Karen: While it may improve with age, it sometimes takes a combination of things to get cats back to the box. First, reintroduce the litter-box attractant, and use it until she can go two months without an accident. Second, try another cat litter, but only in the box she prefers to use, since she could have a texture preference. Next, use pheromone plug-ins or collars to reduce any feline tension, and set out four litter boxes — one box per cat, plus one.

Cats are territorial and can prevent another housemate from using a litter box with just a glance. (In this case, however, it is M3 displaying territorial behaviors because she is peeing around where another cat sleeps.)

I also recommend using an enzymatic cleaner (mentioned above) to prevent future accidents. Then use a “no marking spray” (available at pet stores) in these same areas to discourage her. Finally, remove the litter-box cover from the box she is most likely to use to see if that helps. Some cats like to squat on the edge, and if they can’t, they may have an accident outside the box.

Send your pet questions, stories and tips to cathy@petpundit.com. Please include your name, city and state.

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