Quote Originally Posted by pessimisaurus
my other thought is, how old are each of them? have they had accidents on the bed EVER in the past before they became reliable in the house? and how long have they each been reliably potty trained? potty training is interesting.. dogs dont learn the difference between inside & outside, they learn substrate and location. so for example when successfully potty trained a dog may learn not to potty on carpet, and to potty on grass. the other tricky thing about potty training is it is SELF-reinforcing, meaning, the act of eliminating is reinforcing in itself. so if when young one or more of your dogs had a couple accidents on the bed it may have become enough of a habit or reinforcement that when faced with a situation of not having access to the most reinforcing potty area (backyard) they fall back on one that had past reinforcement, the bed. (Alki had a spot in my old apt that she would potty on when left loose for over 6-8 hrs, but was completely reliable otherwise).
Mocha & Missy are 15 mo old, Muffin is 7 mo old. They've not had any accident on the bed EVER before. (Potty-training Muffin was very easy, because she just followed the other two, and got the idea after only a few weeks). Since I had them, they've only had a few accidents inside the house altogether, but every time it was right next to the door as if they've waited to be let out but couldn't for any longer.

My husband built a kennel for them out in our backyard, and they stayed there from 8 - 5 everyday except on weekends. They learned to release themselves on grassy area. Once being let in at 5:00 p.m., they stay inside until the next morning unless they want to go out for potty. (they would let us know by standing next to the door, and either scratch it or whine