I was just curious.

I had a very nasty experience feeding kibble and raw to the same dog, even when fed 9 hours apart.

Stephanie, I agree 100% that the accidents are not a phase. He has a new habit (if not a UTI), possibly from having to go more from the heavy water content of raw food, but ehhh .... unlikely. It's more likely just a habit that was allowed to form.

A new habit would be handler-error.

You mentioned that he goes inside while tethered to you. How? The idea of the the tethering is that if he squats or lifts a leg you know it instantly and hustle him outdoors and then praise to the skies when he finishes outside. Can you maybe describe what does happen when he has a tethered accident?

You will want to fix this now. A habit is a habit, and this is not the one you want to get entrenched. If he's going inside, then he was inside when he needed to go.

Easy solution ....

I'm also so glad you brought up the kibble and raw. As others have mentioned, there are no magic ingredients in a bag of kibble. There are no secrets that only Hills/SD knows. However, everyone must make the choice that they are comfortable with, and there are some good kibbles these days.

The mix is not something I would recommend, though. Even though many people do it and it goes fine, enough have colitis-type problems for me not to recommend it, ever, to anyone.

THK or another dehydrated (not kibbled) food and raw, yes, if you want the reassurance of a commercial food.

Kibble and raw digest at very different rates, and those differences have been discussed here many times. If you want, I can link you to some threads.

I don't want slooooow-digesting kibble to slow down the passage of raw food and its possible pathogens, which the dog's system is naturally designed to speed through and not to give pathogens time to colonize and cause illness. There are other issues, but that one is the primary one for me. Digestion to a dog is fast, short, aided by both very caustic stomach acid and a short pathway to protect the dog from the stuff he would ingest when eating road-kill, half rotted food, and any salmonella, e.coli, etc., on raw meat.

But this is a thread about house-training, so maybe if you want to start another one about mixing kibble and raw, which again, many do, that would be best.

 Quote: lynne barrows

And very frequent trips outside, with lots of positive reinforcement (throw a party, as Connie likes to say) every time he goes outside.

And associating a phrase or command helps too. I'm still praising my 7 1/2 month old GSD with Ed's phrase "good outside" from his Puppy video every time I see her squatting in the grass. I swear I can even get her to pee on command sometimes in the morning when I know she has to pee but would rather play with me by telling her to go "good outside".

That phrase or word is so valuable. I can now say "potty!" when we all go outside and they immediately know that this is strictly a business trip.

The "good potty" phrase and rewards were what made the term so valuable to the dogs.

I too got it from a video of Ed's where he said "I will even occasionally still say 'good outside' to an adult dog, long past house-training age. Why not?" and I thought Yes. Why not?

lol. Yes we use "Go Pee" and "Good Pee"

 Quote: connie sutherland

That phrase or word is so valuable. I can now say "potty!" when we all go outside and they immediately know that this is strictly a business trip.

The "good potty" phrase and rewards were what made the term so valuable to the dogs.

I too got it from a video of Ed's where he said "I will even occasionally still say 'good outside' to an adult dog, long past house-training age. Why not?" and I thought Yes. Why not?

That's why I use the "Let's go poopy now" song.
Plus, since my neighbors can occasionally hear me singing it, it will add weight to my eventual claim of "insanity" defense if I ever need it....

 Quote: will rambeau

That's why I use the "Let's go poopy now" song.
Plus, since my neighbors can occasionally hear me singing it, it will add weight to my eventual claim of "insanity" defense if I ever need it....

That's to the tune of "Let's go Surfin' Now", right?

Oh yeah. That insanity thing is in the bag.