r/PetBehavior

As of two days ago I feel as if my dog has forgotten he’s house trained which he has been since 3 months old.

I will start with saying he is 1 and neutered.

But it started two days ago where I woke up to a huge pee puddle on my rug when normally he will wake me up when he needs go outside, then over the last 2 days he barely begs to go outside which normally he does all day long because he loves being outside, and has been peeing inside a lot more, no warning or anything he will just squat and pee.

Does anybody know why this could be happening?

I am at a bit of a loss with what to do. My dog is a chihuahua/cattle dog mix and I have had him since he was 9 weeks old. Hes always been a bit shy around strangers and people, but it seems to be worse now that hes 5 years old. In public, outside of our apartment complex, hes generally ok. Shy, but prefers to stay far away from people. However, in our neighborhood, he is very cautious around people, unless he had already met them when we first moved in. However, from August of last year until February of this year, I was my mom's full time PCA and caretaker, and my family was extremely toxic and the whole thing became a very difficult situation. He was already stuck to me like glue before, but, since then, especially with family who weren't helping and even becoming violent, he has become incredibly protective of me. To the point where he went after a teenagers ankles and grabbed onto his pants and wouldn't let go. The kid was running towards me because he and his sister were kicking their soccer ball in the community lawn (which is huge) and it ended up coming straight for me. But, because he was running towards me and got really close to get the ball, my dog went for his pants, and it turns out he did break the skin some. For more context, he only becomes defensive when someone is fast approaching us that he doesn't recognize. Before, he would try to run away, but now, if anyone is coming close to me closely quickly. He didn't hurt the kid, only grabbed his pants, but its needs to stop. If we are going for a walk and people are coming from in front of us, hes ok. However, something I have noticed is that, if someone is walking coming up from behind us, he is on high alert and does not like that at all. Now, being a little guarded is ok, but wanting to go after peoples ankles because they get too close to me shouldn't be happening, especially since he was never like this before.

I don't know exactly how to train this out of him. He was also always a very barky dog, and our vet said a shock collar when he was younger but that never worked and I also didn't like it anyways. The thing that has worked the best is a spray bottle since he hates water for excessive barking, but I don't know how to make this aggressive behavior stop. I love him, and I don't want to lose him, but I don't know what to do. I need help.

Edit: Hes about 19 lbs if anyone is curious of his size