I put these together to further emphysis the incongruity between them. If the dog knew to go out each and every time that is what it would do. I think it is a giant mistake to think dogs have the same moral understanding of Right form wrong as humans, what they understand is what works and what does not work in their own percieved self interest. The is no moral code as such. And the last is self explainitory because it is true.
Dogs that go in the house do so because the are unclear on the rules. Let us assume for instance that a Dog does Know right from Wrong and deliberitely choose wrong. how do crorect that.? Whereas if one assumes the dog does not have a clear understand of the rule, then simply teaching the rule to the dog solves the problem. Which assumption is more likely to produce results?
There is a idom in dog training that the dog is the reflection of the ability of the trainer. That said one must also look at all the dog when there are multiple dogs and only one has a problem it is more likely the cause of a problem is something unique with that particular dog than those doing the training.
Dogs develop a substrate and location preference about where to relive themselves. This is why controling accidents are important. Every accident creates and reinforces the impression in the dogs mind that where they are going is acceptable. Also ure has a tendency to penetrate carpet the pad an get permenantly imbeded in the subfloor. Even when recovered there may be still a lingering odor that is attracting the dog to the spot that will continue unless the subfloor is removed or treated to seal in the odor.
Simply put a dog having accident in a house is simply not housetrained House training an adult dog is no different than a puppy except it is harder because there is more history of accidents to over come. see Housetraining Your Puppy for info on substrate preference, how to change it and basic housetraining advice. The first step however in the process is prevent accidents from occuring. This requires strict supervision and confinement when supervision is not posible. Some find teathering the dog to themselves with the leash an effective technique.
Don't know your set-up and how the dog gets outdoors to eliminate. If you are using a Doggie door keep in mind in general dogs trained with a doogie door are less thouroghly trained and compentent than other house trained dogs. This is not an indictement of doogy doors quite the opposite because they require less extensive an thurough training is why people choose then in the first place but I do believe their is a slightly higher rate of loss of house training with them as well. For instance I am dealling with two issue with my youngest as it relates to using a doogie door.
1. I inadequitly trained the trainsition between sending her out and rewarding her for going out on her own, She would wait to be sent out and when that did not occur sneak off and find a spot in the house. The only cure is more dilligent supervision to prevent sneeking of and up the reward for going out on her own. The other problem is more difficult and may never be completely solved, That is the issue of consitent use of punishment under certain situations that reduces the likelihood of going out to deficate. Specifically when the dogs views certain environmental conditions like rain as adversive and something to avoid it becomes more diffuclt to get the dog to coluntarily go out in these conditions. One can reward the dog for doing so when you are home but the dog knows there are no reward when you are not. Currently I need to confine when these weather conditions exist and I am not home but am always look for new ways to change the dogs perception of rain into something that is fun.
Another helpful tool in managing the dogs behavior to prevent accidents is a strict schedual. A dog on a schedual for food, water, play and sleep will also be on a schedual for when it need to go. When the behavior is predictable it is easier to control.
Whenthe dog need to signal when it need to go out, is often the first break down in house training occurs. Most assume a dog will naturally, and easily find a signal that witll work consitently to inform the human it need to go. Nothing is further from the truth, on the contrary it is not simple or easy for the dog to do this and more often than not simply serindipity . This road block can easily be overcome by rather relying on the dog to discover a signal that works is to train a singnal to the dog. On that most find rather easy to train and very effective, is to teach the dog to ring a bell
