He peed in the middle of my bed!
I will, of course be making some obvious changes, but I would love some outside theories as to why he would do this. He has never eliminated on the furniture even in the very beginning and he hasn't eliminated inside in a few months.
Some background information:
I sleep on the sofa downstairs and haven't slept in that bed in years. The only people who have slept in the last year or so are my husband or my kids.
Up until about a week ago, Jackson had been crated at night. This past week, I decided to do a trial run of letting him sleep out of his crate. Today's situation is the first issue of any kind that we've had during this trial period.
There used to be a memory foam mattress topper on this bed. It was removed and thrown out after my kids started picking pieces out of it and eventually Jackson tore large chunks of it up.
A little over 3 weeks ago, my husband went on deployment. About a week after that, both of my kids started the school year. This is the first year for the youngest.
This morning specifically, I may have slept a bit later than I usually do. That is to say, I think it was a half hour; I'm certain it was not more than an hour. During at least part of that time, both of the kids were awake and playing quietly in their room. They had him up there playing with them even though they know and have been told many many many times that he is NOT allowed upstairs without a grown up for any reason.
I sleep on the sofa as the bed is too firm for me. The sofa is about 25 feet from the back door that he exits for all potty breaks. If he had made any sounds at all indicating that he needed to go out, I would have heard it. Even in the earlier stages of potty training, he would wake me up if he wanted to go out back - usually by whining or sniffing my face. Even now and even when I'm awake, if I don't jump up and go to the door when he sits down there and stares at me, he will pace between it and me until I let him out.
The last few things are that I have definitely been more busy than usual, but not so much that he's not getting much attention from me. I have probably been more crabby lately, but not a lot. We did recently have a play date with a spayed female. He seemed to have had the time of his life. He had a check up just over a week ago on the Friday before the one that just passed and was found to be in excellent health. And, finally, he is not neutered yet. His appointment is in 9 days, and yes, I am counting down the days.
Sorry for the long list. I'm just trying to include all of the things I can think of that might be contributing factors. Oh, in addition to the perfectly centered, giant urine puddle on my bed, he
on the floor next to the bed and a little bit on a shirt of mine that had fallen off it's hanger in my closet. 
I feel like it's almost gauranteedly something that I did/am doing wrong or the changes going on around him or some combination thereof. I was wondering what you all thought was most likely to be the cause(s) in play here. 
I'll be going back to night time crating, a more structured feeding/potty schedule, and thoroughly cleaning up the messes (until I am able to get the mattress out of the house, cleaning it as best I can and blocking his access to it are my only options.) but I'm sure that there is something more and/or better that I can do for him. Especially since I can think of several things that may have been at play in this right off the top of my head, there has got to be more I can do and probably easy changes at that. Anyway, sorry for yet another novel, and thanks for reading.
Some background information:
I sleep on the sofa downstairs and haven't slept in that bed in years. The only people who have slept in the last year or so are my husband or my kids.
Up until about a week ago, Jackson had been crated at night. This past week, I decided to do a trial run of letting him sleep out of his crate. Today's situation is the first issue of any kind that we've had during this trial period.
There used to be a memory foam mattress topper on this bed. It was removed and thrown out after my kids started picking pieces out of it and eventually Jackson tore large chunks of it up.
A little over 3 weeks ago, my husband went on deployment. About a week after that, both of my kids started the school year. This is the first year for the youngest.
This morning specifically, I may have slept a bit later than I usually do. That is to say, I think it was a half hour; I'm certain it was not more than an hour. During at least part of that time, both of the kids were awake and playing quietly in their room. They had him up there playing with them even though they know and have been told many many many times that he is NOT allowed upstairs without a grown up for any reason.
I sleep on the sofa as the bed is too firm for me. The sofa is about 25 feet from the back door that he exits for all potty breaks. If he had made any sounds at all indicating that he needed to go out, I would have heard it. Even in the earlier stages of potty training, he would wake me up if he wanted to go out back - usually by whining or sniffing my face. Even now and even when I'm awake, if I don't jump up and go to the door when he sits down there and stares at me, he will pace between it and me until I let him out.
The last few things are that I have definitely been more busy than usual, but not so much that he's not getting much attention from me. I have probably been more crabby lately, but not a lot. We did recently have a play date with a spayed female. He seemed to have had the time of his life. He had a check up just over a week ago on the Friday before the one that just passed and was found to be in excellent health. And, finally, he is not neutered yet. His appointment is in 9 days, and yes, I am counting down the days.
Sorry for the long list. I'm just trying to include all of the things I can think of that might be contributing factors. Oh, in addition to the perfectly centered, giant urine puddle on my bed, he
on the floor next to the bed and a little bit on a shirt of mine that had fallen off it's hanger in my closet. I feel like it's almost gauranteedly something that I did/am doing wrong or the changes going on around him or some combination thereof. I was wondering what you all thought was most likely to be the cause(s) in play here. I'll be going back to night time crating, a more structured feeding/potty schedule, and thoroughly cleaning up the messes (until I am able to get the mattress out of the house, cleaning it as best I can and blocking his access to it are my only options.) but I'm sure that there is something more and/or better that I can do for him. Especially since I can think of several things that may have been at play in this right off the top of my head, there has got to be more I can do and probably easy changes at that. Anyway, sorry for yet another novel, and thanks for reading.
) they are obviously not going to behave while you're not there. 
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