Hopefully you guys can help me with this ongoing problems I’m having with my dog peeing in the house.
He is housetrained, he learned early on to knock on the door to go out and come in. We had a few accidents during the night when neither my SO nor myself were awake enough to realize he needed to go, but it was only a few times.
Now, we have gotten a doggy door because both of us work during the day (before, he was on nights), and we felt it was cruel to force the dog to have to wait all day to go outside. We also trained him how to use it and he uses it all the time when we’re home. And he never ever poops in the house.
But now… while we’re gone he won’t go outside to pee (but he will to poop). We find at least one puddle every time we come home from work, usually against a random wall or the couch, not even near the door where he knows he can go out. And more often than not lately, we’ll get up in the morning and discover a puddle. Let me reiterate, he used to get our attention at night when he needed to go out. And he never goes inside when we’re at home, awake.
This morning we found three puddles in varying stages of drying, one of them in and around his water bowl. (It’s one of those mini watercooler types that holds a lot of water and lets it into the bowl as necessary.)
I know a little bit about this sort of behavior, but what would possess a dog to soil his only source of water? Is this a new level of stubbornness? Is there a spray other than ammonia we can use to deter this? As I said, he never does it when we’re not there, and since we can’t catch him in the act, we can’t punish it.
Any advice?
Erg, he never does it when we’re there.
Hmm.
This dog trainer’s opinion is that there may be something… wrong. My first piece of advice would be to take the dog to the vet and have some tests run. Find out if there’s a medical reason for him to have these accidents.
The fact that he goes out to poop, but not to pee (when you’re not home) leads me to think that he may not realise he has to go until it’s, well, too late. This happens a lot in dogs who are diabetic or who have other incontinence issues. Again, I’d check with the vet. A medium or large breed dog, as an adult, should have no problem holding onto his bladder for a full work day. It also seems like he has these accidents during the night? (when you’re not awake enough to hear him ask, or maybe he doesn’t ask at all - again, it may just… happen…)
So first things first - check out to see if there’s something wrong, physiologically. Go on from there… 
Good luck,
Elly
Thanks, I will do that. He’s about 45 lbs., medium size. And he sleeps upstairs with us during the night, and on the couch downstairs right next to the doggy door while we’re gone. The fact that during the night, he makes it all the way from one end of the house to the other, down two flights of stairs (15 steps total), only to pee on the carpet down there, leads me to a more psychological explanation. But I’ll still check to make sure.
And he’s not marking, he used to do that until we neutered him. These are full puddles.
A dog that has been housetrained and suddenly is not anymore is very likely to have a physical reason for it. Bladder infections are very common in dogs (I’ve had 5 dogs over the years and 4 of them at one time or another have had one). There can also be things like kidney problems or diabetes, but you’ll often also notice that the dog is drinking a lot more water with these types of illnesses.
If it is a physical problem, he’s probably not peeing in the bedroom because he’s trying very hard not to soil the area where he sleeps. Our youngest dog just got over a bladder infection, and he’d go in the dining room because that is the least-used room in the house.
If your pup tests clear at the vet, that’s when to suspect a behavorial problem and go from there.
Yeah - do the vet check first. Bladder infections are indeed common in dogs that size. My Aussie got one once - she also wouldn’t pee where she sleeps, but sometimes was playing and suddenly would explode with this “Oh God, I didn’t see it coming! Honest!” look on her face. Once the infection was taken care of, she was fine.
Better safe than sorry. If it’s behavioral after all, post again, we’ll throw out some ideas as to correcting the behavior in a reliable way.
Thanks guys, I’ll do that.