Housetraining has gone pretty well w/Kodee. For the first few months I had him, the main problem we had was he was so used to me just taking him out really often, that he didn't really signal to me when he needed out. In spite of that, we've have very few accidents in the house overall. In the last few weeks he has finally gotten pretty good at signally me (or I've gotten pretty good at reading his signals), and I've been really happy that our communication is getting more clear.

However, he just turned one exactly 10 days ago, and this morning he tried to pee in the house in front of me! In spite of my shock and disbelief (it was fairly early in the morning for me), I managed to scream "no!" at the top of my lungs before he got started. I took him outdoors (this was immediately after we got up this morning), he peed just like every single day since I've had him, and I praised him. Not since I've had him (got him at 7 weeks) has he EVER tried to potty in the house while he knew I was watching. Not to mention, our morning routine is carved in stone, and he also knew that we were literally on our way through the house to the kitchen door to go outside to potty.

I am assuming that this is "marking" behavior, not "I actually need to pee behavior", as he just turned one, is intact, and has never tried to pee/poop in the house right in front of me (when he's done it, it was when I wasn't paying attention/back was turned). Aside from not letting him out of my sight at all, is there anything else I should do to nip this in the bud?

Not even necessarily marking behavior. Sometimes (especially young) dogs have accidents. Heck my 2 year old bitch peed in the bedroom the other week, and 4 or 5 months ago she peed by the kitchen door waiting to go out knowing full well that I would have opened the door in 20 seconds.

There could be any number of reasons, usually they are isolated incidents if your dog understood the house breaking. It happens, you gotta go when you gotta go and sometimes routine doesn't take into account fluid intake quantity, or how much the dog has been moving around sine he woke up. Movement = gets bladder going. Yell no if it makes you feel better, let the dog out, clean it up and move on

Kori the same thing happened to me about a month ago. Max is about the same age as Kodee and like you we got house training done pretty quick and easy. Haven't had an accident for about 6 months and he's been very good about going towards the door when he needs to go out for a long time now.

Then one night just after having come back in the house and going to check his food bowl, he decided the couch would be a good place to lift his leg - right beside me. Luckily there was a bag sitting up against the couch so he mostly just got that - or maybe that's what he was aiming for.

I was so flabbergasted, hardly knew what was happening at first. But it hasn't happened again since. So I don't what that was about.

Ditto on this. Kavik did this to me once about a year or so ago. She always looks right at me when she pees (waiting for praise, and I still give it every time I see it) it almost seemed like a "brain fart" on her part. Clean it up, move on, pat yourself on the back for actually CATCHING him in the act the first time he's ever done it! I doubt it was marking, just probably an "accident" - for real.

Mike it is a well known fact that as far as Lyka is concerned she still has a long road ahead of her before she will consider you to be completely trained, this peeing in the kitchen was her punishing you for not opening the door 20 seconds faster!!!

Yanno thats probably true too LOL.

Sometimes this sort of accident comes down to having never actually caught a (more)mature dog/pup in the act, never having corrected or stopped the behavior with a no. The dog knows that it gets praised for going outside. The habit has been that he does in fact go outside, but he still does not yet know that going inside is the no-no.

This is generally the turning point in my potty training of a pup/dog I don't scold young puppies for accidents that are essentially my fault for not paying attention or getting the pup out in time, but once the pup is more mature, like 6-7 months and older I will interupt with a "No!" and immediately take outside. It can happen any time, which is why I tether my dogs for so long. I tether or leave a drag line on them and make sure they are in the same room at all times.

 Quote: jennifer marshal

Sometimes this sort of accident comes down to having never actually caught a (more)mature dog/pup in the act, never having corrected or stopped the behavior with a no. The dog knows that it gets praised for going outside. The habit has been that he does in fact go outside, but he still does not yet know that going inside is the no-no.

This is a really good point, Jennifer. He has gone potty in the house before, but not while I was watching. He's snuck off and done it a few times, both when he was a little tiny pup (my fault for not watching close enough), and a few times when we added on to the house, and I think he didn't realize that was "our territory" (still my fault, of course). But I don't remember catching him in the act and correcting him in a long time. Certainly not since he's been loose in the house the majority of the time.

The good news is he hasn't tried it since, so hopefully he got the message. Thanks all for the input!