If this helps any, my moms dog is about a year old now but not that long ago when he got overly excited he would pee everywhere not on purpose of course and when you got mad at him for peeing it would make him pee even more and run away throughout the house which only made a bigger mess lol. even after he was fixed he still had this problem until just a few months ago he has started to settle down a bit. Im sure that if you just stick it out with your dog, he/she will eventually become a really awesome dog. btw, if your not home, and your dog has an accident on the floor, you dont have to walk through the house and accidently step in it or something to know that your dog was bad, all you have to do is watch their behavior. Once they learn, they know they have done wrong and will act upset about their mistake. so id say they can tell when they are naughty.