Need help with dog peeing again in the house

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have a female dog, almost a year old. (I also have another dog, a 3 years old male). At night they sleep in the kitchen.

She has always done this “peeing a little bit if excited/scared” thing, but otherwise, once housebroken, she could spend the whole night inside and not pee. She’s been spayed at 6 months.

A few weeks ago, she has taken to pee in the kitchen where they sleep at night. We get up in the morning and often find a puddle. I think it began when once or twice, we went to bed earlier than usual AND got up later, so she couldn’t hold it. Normally, she’ll go pee a last time between 10pm and midnight, and we usually get up at around 8am.

Now, I think she thinks it is ok to pee now in our kitchen at night because she didn’t pee when we had for a few days to make them sleep in our car, when we were at my grand parents’ house, and they were ten hours inside at a time, and she also didn’t pee inside when we went to my aunt’s house and they were kept the night in her garage.

I’ve tried not giving them water anymore in the evening. I’ve never yelled at her or something since I guess it is fruitless after the fact. What I often do is getting up earlier, letting her out to pee, and going back to bed, ideally I would like to avoid that since it depends on me waking up earlier than her. My other dog can hold it without troubles so it is a first for me.

I’m thinking cleaning very well the whole kitchen with something that would discourage her to pee there, but what?
What behavioral techniques could I use?
How long can I realistically expect her to hold it?

Giving the dogs access to the yard all night long (by making them sleep in the garage and leaving the door open) is not possible I think, I’m pretty sure they would bark, though I would be willing to give it a try.

Obligatory pic of her:

2

Did you take her to the vet? Suddenly starting to pee inside like that is a sign of a bladder infection or UTI. In fact, it’s a sign of a lot of bad things, including kidney issues. Take her to the vet.

3

Oh good point, I had no idea about that, I’ll do it.

4

If you take her to the vet and they determine everything is fine you might try getting pee pads and training her to use them so she has a place where she can pee at night.

5

If she checks out at the vet, you could try crating her at night for a couple weeks, reinforcing the “we don’t pee in the house” thing. I think if they get the idea it’s okay to go, they need to be reminded that the house is their cave, and you don’t go in the cave.

StG

6

Taking her to the vet to rule out medical conditions is a good idea.

Also be aware that female dogs have smaller bladders than males, and IME they need to pee more often as a group.

I have a female dog who I have to get up early to take out, or she’ll pee on my floor. She’s housebroken, but she honestly can’t hold it for 8+ hours. I’m not sure how I’m going to handle this one once I get a job that takes me away from home for 8+ hours… probably will have to hire someone to stop by.

Try crate-training if it’s a persistent problem. Sometimes they just need a refresher.

7

+1 for seeing the vet and crate training if it’s not a medical issue.

Something else to consider: Do you catch her in the act of peeing, or just find the puddle? I ask because some female dogs get spay incontinence, in which they empty their bladders while resting, and they’re not even aware of it. It’s bit unusual for such a young dog, but it could be a possibility. All three of our female springer spaniels have had it. A tiny cheap pill twice a week takes care of it.

8

Providing your vet gives the dog a clean bill of health, you may want to consider a doggie door giving her access to the outside. You may want to ask your Vet if it’s reasonable to expect this dog to hold their urine for up to 10 hours at night.

9

Go with the crating if everything is ok medically. Pee pads are just going to reinforce that it’s ok to pee inside. Granted, it will be on a pad, but still…

10

Update :slight_smile:

So, she’s been checked and is fine, health wise. We moved the dogs’ places to the garage a week ago and so far she hasn’t peed once inside.

Yeah that’s what we’ve been told by the vet, plus she drinks more often than our male.

We were finding a puddle in the morning, near the door, the most far away from her place. I was worried too about something related to her being spayed.

People don’t crate dogs in France so I don’t have one, but moving her to another room (the garage) seems to have done the trick. (because I wasn’t seeing myself washing daily the kitchen floor with white vinegar) Otherwise I’ll have to makeshift a crate or something indeed.
Thank you all for the advice :slight_smile:

11

Try cleaning the area where she has peed with an enzymatic cleaner - like Natures Miracle -which is formulated to remove the odour that only dogs can smell that says pee here again.