Please move me to the correct forum if I’m in the wrong one.
Problem:
Our cocker spaniel urinates in the house on frequent occasions when we are not looking…started about 2-3 months ago. Vet says he sees no problem health wise with Chester.
1…about 8 years old
2…healthy as can be…no urine infection
3…taken on long walk at least once daily where he successfully defecates each
day
4…give a tremendous amt of love by my wife and I and anyone who sees him.
5…he loves everyone including children
6…smart enough to avoid coyotees at night when they howl…and are just 10
meters at times
7…when we go on vacation, he has a pet sitter
8 and finally, he does not appear to be upset at us…his routines are pretty
much the same.
We need help from those of you in the know…Any advise given will be well receivedl
You’ve done the first thing I would do, a vet visit.
Do you mind if I ask a few questions?
Is he spayed?
Is he going in the same place in the house?
Before this he never went inside and now suddenly he is?
Since you’ve ruled out any health issues, I’d go back to basics for awhile to get him back on track.
If you have a crate, I’d start crating him again. When you take him out of the crate, take him outside immediately on a leash. Do this for a couple weeks to see if you can get him back on track.
I wouldn’t let him use the doggie door until this is resolved. If you don’t want to keep him crated, keep him confined and if he looks like he’s going to go take him out.
I’ve had this happen with dogs, but usually when they were older and due to illness.
I just saw this-
Were you recently away? Could the sitter have allowed him to go in the house?
He urinates only in the family room and living areas…never in the bedrooms or other rooms in the house.
We have a 6 month old granddaughter who visits us every other month. the baby was recently here for a visit and the frequency of urination increased since she was here a couple of weeks ago.
Our pet sitter takes him to her house and he stays there with the pet sitter’s two dogs…this is when we are on vacation.
It could be a dominance or territorial thing. I’d use some kind of enzyme cleaner like Nature’s Miracle on the area. I read somewhere that it helps if you put an article of your clothing on the spot like a sock or something after you’ve removed the urine odor.
What we did before we introduced the baby and dog was bring the baby blanket home first and let the dog get familiar with the scent. You could do that before the baby visits if you think that’s what caused this.
As far as correcting the dog, I’m not an expert or anthing but I have a good friend who’s a dog trainer. If you want to email me, I could ask her or put you in touch with her if no one else has any suggestions.
I’m not a great animal trainer or anything, but it seems pretty obvious that this dog is reacting to the attention that the baby gets. I don’t know how to solve it, except maybe make sure that you fawn over the dog when the baby is present. Sort of show the dog that it’s not being replaced in your affection.
Are you sure you’re getting the urine completely out of the carpet? Once a dog wets in one place, they often go back to that same area. They can smell it, even if we can’t. There are a lot of commercial products you can buy which will eliminate all traces of the urine. Check your local pet store.
I suggest that when you know your dog is going to be stressed, lock him out of those areas. Baby gates work well for this. Let him out very frequently-- almost like he’s a new puppy.
When the baby comes over, give him a really yummy treat that takes a long time to consume. A Kong or bone stuffed with peanut butter and frozen overnight works really well for this. (Keep some in your freezer for “just-dropping-by” moments.) After a while, he’ll learn that “baby visit = yummy stuff for me” and he won’t be jealous.
We use ‘Petzyme’ from Pet Smart. As the name suggests it is an enzyme based pee-spot remover. Instead of simply masking the smell (which won’t fool a dog), it somehow reacts with the ammonia and whatever else there is in pee.
You can dilute it somewhat and use it in your carpet cleaner for general area cleaning but we mainly use it full strength after we have sucked up the ‘mistake’.
Our springer is 15 - a centegenarian in human years and occasioanlly ‘forgets’.
When our dog started doing that, she also started drinking copius amounts of water… it was an early warning sign of Diabetes… alas, i thought it was behavioural (and the vet missed the symptoms as well) until it was way too late…she was also about 8 years old when this happened.
