[yorkietalkjilly]

My Tibbe will be 10 in August and this year he has had one or two accidents in the house for the first time in his life as he apparently can no longer hold urine as long as he could all of his life and also think he sometimes has little warning now that he's apparently losing bladder control. He's been totally clean in the house since he was 18 - 24 mos. of age and now these two accidents. But I'll have to say, each time he had his mistake, HE was unapologetic, did not act 'guilty' as he clearly thought they were my fault. He looked quite accusingly at me and instantly came to me acting excited but kind of judgmental and wary. I got up to go see. He took me right to the puddles each time and stared at me as if to say, 'see what you caused'. I agreed and told him so and we went right outside to show him I still think outside is the best place to urinate and hopefully sending a message mom will now be ever-ready to let him out and won't hold him responsible for a bladder that no longer holds urine as well.

I was slow to recognize his potty-needs - signals or not, thinking anything I saw was too early for his norm or possibly he had no warning. My hip was hurting, didn't want to move unnecessarily, so I count all mistakes as mine. I realized that now that he is aging, I must be more diligent and always allow him more frequent trips outside whether he asks or not, my hip discomfort aside. Lesson learned.

You might want to take her out an hour or two earlier and more frequently than her old potty schedule for a while to see if that stops the unwanted puddles and if it does, make it a permanent change for her relief. Hugs to both of you as you face old age and faltering body parts with grace and humor.

If increasing her trips outside doesn't work, the puddles could be a behavior change to indicate something that is bothering/worrying her. That's a whole other situation you need not worry about if more frequent potty sessions outside stop the unwanted puddles.