Potty training regression after a medical break
A forced break or medical interruption often causes toddlers to regress, leading to accidents, hiding to poop in underwear, and total resistance to going naked again. This abrupt change makes the process feel like starting over, leaving parents dealing with morning floor messes and children who refuse to sit on the potty for more than a few seconds.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from October 2026.
- This comes up 23.3× more often in r/puppy101 than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Using M&Ms as rewardsDid this help you?
- 2Cheering really loud when they goDid this help you?
- 3Trying fully naked on the bottomDid this help you?
- 4Using a big t-shirt if the child dislikes being fully nakedDid this help you?
- 5Taking the puppy outside every 20-30 minutesDid this help you?
- 6Rewarding the puppy with treats immediately after eliminating outsideDid this help you?
- 7Going back to waking up and taking the puppy out a few times a nightDid this help you?
- 8Repeatedly disrupting the steps to the bedDid this help you?
- 9Going back to basics for a week or two like they're 8 weeks old againDid this help you?
- 10Taking the puppy out every 45 minutesDid this help you?
- 11Letting the puppy walk by itself to the grass areaDid this help you?
- 12Pulling on the puppy's collar or picking him up while he is eliminatingDid this help you?
- 13hiring a trainerDid this help you?
- 14restarting loose leash trainingDid this help you?
- 15praising the dog whenever she pees outside and giving treatsDid this help you?
- 16taking her out in the morning and before sleepDid this help you?
- 17giving her a potty break during the day via coming home from work or hiring a sitterDid this help you?
- 18removing the dog from the bedroomDid this help you?
- 19getting an enzyme cleanerDid this help you?
- 20Sitting on the toilet after meals for 15-20 minutesDid this help you?
- 21Reading books or focusing while on the toiletDid this help you?
- 22Taking a one-week break from training before trying againDid this help you?
- 23Using treats like chocolate or stickers as rewardsDid this help you?
- 24Reading potty-themed children's books to normalize itDid this help you?
- 25taking the puppy to the vet for tests and antibioticsDid this help you?
- 26enticing the dog to drink more water by mixing in chicken brothDid this help you?
- 27considering returning to square one of house trainingDid this help you?
- 28Using sticker charts and fridge magnetsDid this help you?
- 29Offering sweets/lollies as a rewardDid this help you?
- 30Buying a special baby seat for the toiletDid this help you?
- 31Constantly prompting the child to goDid this help you?
- 32Letting the child walk around in wet undiesDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My 4 month old maltese x hadn't quite got the hang of potty yet, but at least he'd been pooping outside and we'd been having fewer accidents with access to a doggy door. Then overnight he regressed!”source ↗
“I find potty accidents the most difficult part, all of our other puppies picked it up so quickly.”source ↗
“I have a 13 week border collie mix.”source ↗
“When I picked him up to come home 3 days ago, he was a mess.”source ↗
“I would follow the same schedule I had been for the past 3 weeks and he would just start peeing on me as I held him and walked towards the grass patch.”source ↗
“Recently, this week, it seems like she is going through a regression.”source ↗
“I wake up to poop / pee on the floor every morning.”source ↗
“My partner decided to create steps to and from the bed and said he’d like her to sleep in bed.”source ↗
“More importantly (…well, to me), it’s like we’re back at step one on the potty training front.”source ↗
“It’s like she’s trying to make sure she has weed and/or pooed in every piece of floor we have at some point.”source ↗
“my pup did same thing at 4 months. one day she just forgot everything we trained and started peeing right next to the door instead of going out it.”source ↗
“My four month old golden retriever (17 weeks) has had more pee accidents in the past six days then she has had the entire seven weeks we've had her.”source ↗
“Now she is now peeing all over the house at all hours of the day, which she never did before.”source ↗
“Could this be a fallout from the UTI and she will go back to her housetrained self when the antibiotics are done? Or is this some sort of regression? Do we need to go back to square one of potty training?”source ↗
“in the past months she’s been peeing inside our bedroom (where she sleeps with us and is during the day while we work) a lot during the day and also at night, while we are there sleeping.”source ↗
“I don’t think she pooped inside in like half a year, but today, when I came home from work I found poop next to the usual pee”source ↗
“And here I am in slight shock and really worried why my dog seems to be the only one with such problematic behaviour.”source ↗
“The last two weeks we have regressed badly.”source ↗
“He doesn’t prompt, he constantly is having accidents. We will sit on the toilet and 5 minutes later pee his pants.”source ↗
“No matter what we’ve tried we haven’t been able to get him to poop and then with his regression with peeing the frustration has built up.”source ↗
“We are having trouble toilet training our 3.5 year old and could use some advice as I’m starting to feel so overwhelmed.”source ↗
“Since then, she has not progressed at all. We have days where we prompt and she goes, other days she refuses and we go through 10 sets of undies in the day.”source ↗
“She recently has reverted back and is doing both poo’s and wee’s in her undies.”source ↗
“Sometimes I can get her to go when I prompt constantly and we have a dry day, then the following day she’ll refuse going and we spend the day changing wet undies.”source ↗
“we started potty training my son at 2.5 and it’s almost exactly a year later and he still has accidents!”source ↗
“My son is 2.5 we tried potty training a few months ago but he doctor said to wait till after his surgery”source ↗
“He hides and poops in his undies. He won’t go naked he wants to wear undies.”source ↗
“He only sits for like 20 seconds and I have to sit there and sing or make him laugh to sit for longer. Any tips on what I could do better?!”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 28Puppy regression and behavior changes after an injury
- 5Toddler wakes every hour and only wants to sleep on me
- 6Why does my potty trained child have accidents only at home?
- 16How do I start potty training when I don't have a yard?
- 4Why is my six year old still wetting the bed?
- 2Toilet takes 30 minutes to fill up after flushing