kudzu

I don't know that there is any specific reason the vaccine & antibiotics would effect the function of the other. I would skip the distemper vaccination at least until his treatment is complete. Both require some effort from the immune system so I see no reason to add anything unnecessary like an annual vaccination that can wait awhile. Now personally if he received it last year I would skip it completely but you must make that decision for yourself. My vet has had my dogs on a 3 year rotation cycle for their core vaccinations for the last 12 years. This protocol has been accepted by many vets & even some large vet schools for quite a few years. The 2010 document from World Small Animal Veterinary Association's Vaccination Guidelines Group also seems to bear this out. Here is a link to the PDF Guidelines for the Vaccination of Dogs and Cats from WSAVA VGG On page 11 is a chart of their guidelines. For distemper the revaccination recommendation states, "Revaccination (booster) at 1 year, then not more often than every 3 years." In context with the rest of the chart that 1 year is 1 year after the initial series of shots is given. Many people do titer tests annually in lieu of vaccination. We have done that in the past as part of the 3 year rotation but with more evidence on length of immunity I have dropped that except for older dogs for whom I have ceased all but rabies vaccination.

You can use Betadine or another 10% povidone-iodine solution instead of chlorhexidine. In fact, my vet recommended a combo of Betadine & epsom salts for my girl's scary, aggressive skin infection that also included swelling. Someone in our Greyhound club is a vet tech at a different vet practice. She suggested this same thing to a fellow Greyhound owner for a foot infection of unknown origin saying the vet she works for suggests this. Have also heard of using this combo to good effect for horses' with hoof abcesses. It worked well for the skin infection & later for a toe wound that developed a rapid infection. (This was my Deerhound pup from a coyote dog litter. She & a littermate had very slow developing immune systems.) Vet wasn't sure why it worked so well just knew did. My speculation is it is just some synergism between the antiseptic action of Betadine and the epsom salts reputed qualities as a drawing agent. My vet's 'recipe' is like this. To 2 cups warm water add enough Betadine or generic version (bought mine at CVS) to make it the color of strong tea. Then add 2 tablespoons epsom salts & mix well. You add the epsom salts last because for some reason they seem to cause the Betadine liquid to slowly lose most of its color. Note: That doesn't mean it won't leave some staining on fabrics especially if you use a higher than normal proportion of Betadine.

There should be no guilt. It is something new you have learned & now Duke will have new things to learn. Life changes & we learn new things in response to that change. His head turns towards your hand will take on a new & much better meaning if you work on hand targeting & desensitizing him to being taken by the collar. Most dogs tolerate that until it comes to particular situations or levels of pressure. Teaching him that yielding to pressure brings rewards helps him view the situation differently. Working with him on these items will help you both build better communication & more confidence. Yes, that was very good advice you were given. Each situation is different & everyone must choose what is best for them. I view these as privileges that must be earned. In your situation I would feel he had lost his privileges until he learned some new skills. So, yes, I would eliminate those privileges for now. I know the above was directed at Giselle but I'm going to answer. Shaping is just rewarding successive approximations of the desired behavior. So my above sketchy outline of teaching a hand target shows a form of shaping. The ultimate behavior you want is a dog who will touch his nose to your hand regardless of where your hand is. However, you start with your hand right by him so he is almost assured success. Then you increase the distance or put your hand at a different orientation to his head. In this way you are "shaping" him to learn that he must touch his nose to your hand regardless of where it is. I learned "free shaping" as something like "101 things to do with a box". Links: Shirley Chong's version from Deb Jones Basically, you let the dog show you what he will offer & pick one of those things to shape into a new behavior. Directed shaping is when you have a plan in mind ahead of time. You know what you want the dog to do & some idea of the steps you will look for to get there. Of course, you may have to revise that plan as you go depending on the dog. Now I will tell you a story. Even after learning some basic clicker training I never really learned how to do directed shaping, what I consider shaping to really mean. (That's just me.) However, I started working with a trainer when my Deerhound was getting older but not gaining much self control. She is the one who got me started on shaping & teaching my Deerhound to target, "Touch", was the first thing I ever shaped her to do. One day long before she had a solid recall or "leave it" my Deerhound discovered something unknown to me but very interesting to her. Thankfully we had worked hard on "Touch" because I was using it as practice while I learned directed shaping. I wanted her away from it but knew the odds of getting her to Come or Leave It with me 300' away were slim. Without really thinking I called, "Luna, touch." To my surprise she spun & came running straight toward my outstretched hand. Holy cow! She hit my hand so hard it hurt for the next 15 minutes. LOL That's what shaping can produce & the dog does it with such joy & enthusiasm that you simply cannot believe it. I love shaping!

Something else that can help, in addition to the very good advice already suggested, is to teach your dog to target your hand. Teach him to "Touch" the palm of your hand with his nose. Like "Off" it must be trained so you still need the management suggestions others have given in the meantime. There are various ways to train it. As Giselle mentioned, I prefer shaping in my case directed shaping. However, most people who have not done that type of shaping would prefer to start with luring. So you put the treat in your hand. I tuck it under my thumb so the dog tends to nose nudge to get it. That nudge is when I click. Sometimes it helps to show the dog that you have a treat & let them watch you tuck it under your thumb. After a few tries with the treat in my hand the dogs are usually touching my hand quickly when I present it. Now I try it without the treat. Usually the dog quickly gets it. At that point I switch hands so the dog learns to target either hand. I do work to make sure I get a solid nose touch not just a fly-by version. Also, work to make sure the dog touches the palm side of my hand, not the top. This matters when using this to direct the dog to the position you want them. At this point, if the dog is reliably touching my palm when presented I add the command "Touch" as they are touching. (Use whatever command you want.) Then I add it just before they touch. With repeated reps they learn that "Touch" means if they touch my hand right then they will get a treat. Now I move my hand farther away, maybe just an inch or two, & start over. It goes much faster the second time around. In the way you start to move your hand farther & farther so the dog has to walk a one step, then two, etc. to touch your hand. In separate sessions you can teach him to touch low or high. Also in separate sessions you can work on rewarding faster & faster responses, dropping the reward for slower responses. Work on only one thing at a time, either high or low or faster or farther. Doing it separately helps the dog recognize exactly what he is doing that is earning the reward. It will all come together later, don't worry. As the dog become reliable at each of these levels, I start to fade the treats in a variable pattern. They have to touch two inches away twice in a row to get a treat or 3 times but still sometimes just once, etc. However, touching four inches away gets a treat every time until that distance is reliable. This is how you get a dog who learns to perform reliably at successively higher levels. Go at your dogs pace & don't do it so much that he gets tired of it. Leave 'em wanting more. Now you have a dog who knows how to target plus you have a built in target, your hand. This simple action can be extremely helpful in directing & positioning your dog without having to lay hands on him. Thus you now have a way to not only direct your dog onto & off of the sofa but also to a different section of the sofa or bed. It helps avoid the need for taking him by the collar or tugging with a leash. It has become one of the essentials & one of the first things I train. It is useful for getting them onto & off of things, teaching them to go up the scary, open-backed basement stairs, getting them through other worrisome situations & even helpful as a replacement for commands a dog does not know yet. Dog may not know "Come" but he will trot over to touch my hand. Dog may not know "Leave it" but I can direct him away from something with "Touch". It's one command with 1000's of uses. I do also teach my dogs various commands like "Up", "Off", "Move", "Wait", etc. but sometimes I need the more precise positioning a hand target enables. Plus, as said it can be quite helpful long before all those other commands have been taught. Another note is that if you have a dog who is reluctant to leave the sofa or bed but does so to touch your hand you would do best to reward that well for quite a while before fading the treats, or whatever high-value reward you are using. Until responding in that situation becomes a habit for this dog you need to make it worth their while. AND... teach him that touching his collar is a good thing by simply feeding him treats while you touch his collar & withdraw the treats when you stop touching his collar. That is not clicker training but more classical conditioning. You can then teach him to at least tolerate a collar tug the same way. However, my preference is to use clicker training to teach him to respond to gentle hand pressure on his collar. I would do these somewhere & place other than when he is on a bed. Later you can do it in that situation.

When was his last blood work? I would want a good blood chem & CBC done at the next vet visit. I would not want to start the steroids without that. You've got incontinence & a possible neurological problem. If the incontinence started before the anti-inflammatory then it may be related to the problem with his tail & sitting. If it started after then it is possibly related to some other problem, either related or unrelated. I'd want the blood work to help narrow down the possibilities. If this is a neuropathy there are possible causes that may effect blood work. Had a retriever who occasionally displayed cold water tail. It was very disturbing to see. The first inch or two of her tail at the base of the tail was held in a relatively normal position but the rest just dropped down. When she got excited & wagged, well tried to wag it that short section at the base would wag & the rest just flopped back & forth, limp & useless. It resolved in a couple days each time & at no point did she seem to be in pain. The first time it happened I rushed her to the vet fearing she had broken it. Also had a dog with a polyneuropathy. Some types can cause the symptoms you have described but so can many other things including LS & inflammation from an injury, arthritis, etc. Reducing the inflammation can be of benefit. Just be sure you've checked that blood work first. Hope you find the cause of your boy's problem & a resolution quickly.

The world isn't black & white. There are times when the seemingly ideal thing is not actually an ideal solution because other conditions are far less than ideal. I know of a number of situations where injectable antibiotics where the better solution for reasons other than "lazy" ones. Just because someone has not experienced such does not mean they do not exist.

Hi Giselle, What I was asking is for a reference from someone who uses "dominance theory" who refers to this as something similar to a scientific theory. Every time I see the terms "dominance theory" or "alpha theory" being used it is by someone trying to debunk said theories or to point out that someone who purportedly uses such is using outdated or incorrect scientific info. Well, at least that is the best way I can come up with to describe it. So if you wanted to have a discussion on all this it would help to see a written reference to "dominance theory" from one of it's supporters. Is there such a thing? Don't get me wrong. I am not trying to argue with you or anyone else. I am aware of what is most often meant by these terms. I know the reasons why other methods have been more effective, easier & safer even for the most dangerous or ill behaved dogs. However, it is hard to have a good discourse on something that has not been defined by those who you are requesting responses from.

As pointed out already, it is much easier to teach a dog what to do than what not to do. Take your cue from Dexter! I've done something similar, though not taught in quite the same fashion. Decide where you want your dog to be & what he should do instead of being in your kitchen workspace. Then reward him for that. At first reward for anything even vaguely close to that & slowly back off rewards for that but instead consistently reward something closer to the desired behavior/location. For my Deerhound pup I decided it was best all around for her to rest on a rug just outside the kitchen. This way not only was she not in my tiny kitchen, not counter surfing, not learning to hoover the floor unless invited, she also was still within sight so I knew she was not making mischief elsewhere. At first I just worked to reward her before she came into the kitchen. It took some work but I also made sure she got no rewards for being in the kitchen, meaning I left no food out unattended. It was either put in frig/cabinet or I took the pup with me if I left the room. Very soon I found her hanging out just outside the kitchen. Then I started rewarding her for being nearer or on the rug. Almost before I knew it she was waiting on that rug anytime I was working in the kitchen. She's 2.5 yo now & still comes to sleep on that rug during food prep. I've a new Grey & he has learned that being on his bed during cooking is the surest way to get a reward. It really works & is so much more pleasant that repeatedly having to give orders, scolding or squirting with water. My dogs seem happier now that I am teaching them what they should do instead of always trying to teach them what not to do. Does that make sense? Hope it does.

Wow, I am so surprised to read this. I stopped mentioning the tap water problem to anyone because no one believed me. We found with my dog that tapwater was indeed a prime irritant of his problems. Filtering with a simple Britta filter attached to the faucet or the pitcher type made all the difference for him. It cut back his incidents from several times a month to only several times a year. When traveling I usually just bought distilled water. And I say distilled because some bottled waters were apparently not filtered in a way that helped him. And while we're on the subject of the bizarre things that caused problems, I will mention that highly acidic foods also caused him problems. That actually lead to many problems briefly when we tried cranberry based supplements. Instead of helping his problems it made them worse. I am not trying to say this is what may be causing your girl problems. My guy was really strange. I found that many of his symptoms and the items that appeared to trigger them were similar to interstitial cystitis. You can Google that and find more info.

In order to confirm or deny the validity of a theory or portions thereof it would help to first have an actual scientific theory. Does such exist in relation to domestic dog behavior or social structure? Though I think I understand what you are trying to do the folks supporting this "theory" don't seem be be approaching it in a scientific manner so that makes this discourse rather difficult.

Three things- 1. That barley/kidney flush recipe is getting saved. Must do a little searching for more info on it. Quite intriguing. 2. Can you find any other commonalities to the episodes? I had a male dog who did this if forced to hold his water for an entire work day, multiple days in a row. It nearly always started on a Friday evening after the vet office had closed. When the pattern changed it was almost always because something in our schedule changed. Sometimes he had a UTI but other times not. 3. My cat currently has a difficult to clear UTI. Had it first a few months ago, cleared with 2 weeks Baytril. Symptoms recurred on Friday, New Years Eve. Vet couldn't manage to get sample for urinalysis but we chose to treat with Baytril anyway rather than wait until Monday & risk an e-vet visit over weekend. After 14 days of Baytril the follow up visit showed UTI was still there. Vet switched him to 14 days Clavamax. I asked about doing a culture since they'd gotten a large enough sample. He said it likely wouldn't culture anything even if the bacteria was resistant to Baytril. Something in the antibiotic effected culturing in the lab. After 14 days the infection was still there but things had definitely improved. So we are now going back tomorrow after over 5 weeks of this. I hope it's finally cleared. Good luck with your girl.

My dogs almost always have someone home so they can go out most anytime they want. However, optimally they go 4 times a day. The rest are play. They would do just as well with 3 breaks but would need a little adjustment period. What usually happens when we are out of town is I pay the hourly "farm" rate for my critter sitter. We are in the country & she has numerous farm clients. She comes twice a day & is at out place for about an hour. Dogs go potty as soon as she gets there & again right before she leaves. They do fine. We have done this for a decade.

I will to echo some of what has been said already. Seizures can be frightening for all but many dogs can live happy lives despite this. Good that you will discuss medication with your vet. Yes the tanking up on water happens with many dogs after & some before. After makes sense. Before is a mystery to me. Stress can cause seizures. However, some became anxious before a seizure. Perhaps they feel it coming on. Current thinking is that each seizure lowers the threshold for the next seizure. Also discuss diagnostics. Initially you want s Super-chem & CBC plus at least a Snap 4DX. You want the 4DX so it includes anaplasmosis. Those results may then point to further testing. Possibilities include more comprehensive TBD panel ACTH stim test, thyroid, parathyroid, bile acids. There are likely more I am missing. In the end you may find no cause. Be careful of the possibility of getting accidentally bitten or whacked & injured by a mouthful of teeth. A seizing, thrashing & later confused dog can cause unintentional damage to not only himself but those trying to help him. Most pet owners accept that risk & rightfully try to protect & comfort their seizong dog as much as possible. I would not like a child do not. Think of a plan for how a youngster can take action in case of seizure without risking injury. "Get Mom or Dad." whatever works for you. Just practice caution. My sisters dog started with seizures as a puppy. They increased for a time to the point it was time for medication but she resisted that. She experimented & found at least some of the likely triggers. She reduced or eliminated them as much as possible without getting crazy about it. This got things under control & kept it that way for several years. Eventually things progressed, they went through a rough patch as meds were being adjusted. All good for years. Then more med tinkering. Through that he still had occasional breakthrough cluster seizures but lead a happy, full life. He lived to 10+ & died of unrelated causes. He was also a most excellent pet. A total goober, dork & a loving, lovable guy. Most of all I hope this cycle is over for Steak & does not return at least for quite a while.

And DPG's dogs are in a pack as well, on their own territory. You know your dog nest & quite likely are correct about the culprit. Yet more than one pet owner, myself included, has been shocked to find their impeccably housebroken, "never had an an acvident in the house" dog suddenly change when caninr guests end up staying longer than expected. Can you set up a camera to see what exactly is happening?

Did you perhaps mean "Click to Calm"? I am not familiar with "Click to Control".

Get copies of all the lab work, if you have not already done so. Then post the results from the thyoid panel here & include which lab it was referred to. If your vet sent it through Idexx it probably went to Michigan State. Ours have been & the last time it included notation that Greyhound lab norms are different. To me it seems hypothyroidism is similar to degenerative myelopathy, Lyme & Cushing's disease. All are mamy are overdiagnosed yet also overlooked by some vets or in some patients. Likely this is because the most common symptoms are quite non specific even though sometimes profound. In addition to the tests specific to the suspected disease you need to rule out other causes. Sometimes other illnesses effect thyroid hormone levels. If a vet asks for only certain tests not the full thyroid panel it can appear as hypothyroidism when it is not. That is one reason you should get & keep copies of all the lab work. My vets office actually faxes them to me automatically. Sometimes I see them before the vet does. Hypothyroidism in Greyhoumds is a controversial issue. As a breed Greys, & from my reading Deerhoumd as wells, run low on thyroid hormones. Meaning that on average their normal values would be considered low for another breed. Dr Stack's site http;/:greythealth.com has a nice concise section on hypothyroidism. You can also find good info from OSU Greyhound Health & Wellness Program but I don't have that web address handy. Also be aware that some people in the Greyhoind community believe that hypothyroidism is quite rare in Greys. I am not one of those. However, there is no evidence I have found to indicate it is common in Greys. So I believe your vet may be mistaken on that part. My personal feeling is without other proof we should consider it to be no more or less likely in Greys it is just more difficult to properly diagnose. If your dog really is hypo-t then supplementation is needed. That fact that your vet did follow up testing is good. Some do not which is unfortunate. What dose was prescribed? Greys do not seem to need supplantation at as high a dose as other breeds & after an initial treatment period dosage can often be reduced. Normally the thyroid panel is rerun 30 days after supplementation is started. If the levels have improved sufficiently the dose may be cont'd or in some cases even reduced. If the levels are too high dose is refused. In either of those cases my vet would then recheck in 30-60 days. If levels are too low then the dose may remain the same or be increased with recheck in 30 days. Better to go slow than overdose. This process is repeated until the appropriate maintenance dose is found. After that my vet rechecks either quarterly or semi-annually depending on the case. My girl is quarterly but not the full panel. We do that semiannually. Through it all we monitor symptoms. As a ruley vets do not supplement without symptoms regardless of lab work. My girl had at least six of the classic symptoms & her thyroid panel had changed from her prior times. She had had some mild problems previously & a thyroid check was done among other things. As a result we had also ruled out other likely causes of her symptoms. Once supplemented many of her symptoms diminished. A few have resolved. A couple others may not have been symptoms after all. You do not want to push their levels too high. It can cause iatrogenic hyper-t which is as bad as hypo. If symptoms do not begin to resolve, get worse or new symptoms appear repot it to your vet. Overall both my Greyhound & myself are much better since starting treatment. My parents dog, a 40 lb mutt is as well even though their vet did only the 4 test T4 & 3 panel. That's not proper diagnosing in my opinion but Dad's not listening to me. lol

Are you sure it was Sage? Yes, I know I could tell the difference between most male & female... um... marks, but I've not seen in this thread anything about DGP's dogs, if he has any. If he does, how might they figure into this? There are plenty of questions like where does she sleep at home? Could being separated from you be causing anxiety? Has she traveled on enough overnight trips to really know that nights in a new location require holding it? Most dogs I've had learn to adjust quickly to visits to familiar places. In the beginning though, they need some help. You said she seemed happier with her stuff over there. What did she do or not do that gave this impression? Has it changed since then? Are the accidents always in the same area? Have the prior accidents been treated with an enzymatic cleaner? In the long run she either doesn't really understand she needs to hold it there or she is for some reason unable to. Treating her as if she does not know the rules is what I would do first. You need to help her & DGP by preventing the accidents as best you can & protecting his floor. (I know you know that, just thinking out loud.) Crating or otherwise confining her is your best bet. If not already doing so then a potty walk immediately before bed is in order. If she is still seeming anxious or otherwise not her normal happy self there at night you may need to come up with a way to help her feel better there. It's a frustrating situation for all parties. Hope you find a solution.

Hydrocortisone is good for temporary, occasional relief of minor itching. However, it is contraindicated if there may be an infection of some kind. It can actually make the infection much worse. Just be judicious in it's use.

First, let's get this back in context. I never said that an understanding of dog behavior & body language would not be helpful nor did I say knowing why a dog does something would not be helpful. And in this context the "why" was possible vindictiveness. Sorry, but I do not believe that you could look at a dog's behavior or body language with even the greatest amount of studying and be able to determine if a dog was vindictive. Now the 'why' could be any variety of other things. You gave the following example: Well, yes it is guessing but you didn't just guess. You first did exactly what I was suggesting should be done. You paid attention to what the dog was doing & identified the likely reward for this behavior. Thanks for helping to explain my point! Of course, there could also have been a mouse in the cabinet or maybe even a cat. Yes, we suddenly had a dog rush over to the food cupboard when a cat was inside. However, your guess was the more likely reason and the most logical place to start when trying to change the dog's behavior. Among other reasons & actually even then we do not "know" they are trying to calm. That's Turid's word for it. Some others have a quibble with that term. I think it as good as any even if it could at times mislead our thinking a bit. No, everyone does not know that. And anyone who thinks they have learned that has learned only the more extreme reasons that may produce a whale eye. Also, by the time a dog is behaving aggressively you are quite often past the whale eye stage. Seems it is more often seen right before aggression. That is why it is of such significance when working with dogs who have shown a propensity to aggressive behavior. Nope, still can't know what they're thinking. No amount of knowledge will ever make me a mind reader. I've no idea how you've come to this conclusion about her. I already provided the link to her site. All her training info is up there free for anyone to use. You can read it if at some point you wanted to come to an informed decision. However, she has nothing to do with this except that I chose to use that quote in the belief it would make my explanation shorter. That clearly did not work.

Did you run the full thyroid panel? T4 alone is not enough to diagnose hypothyroid.

It's good progress overall. Much work for you but so good for Chase. For her sore, can you get a large sponge or piece of foam, cut a hole in it & apply it around the sore? Picture something like a donut. Some folks with down dogs have had some success with this approach. It pads the area around the sore preventing pressure on the sore & allowing more airflow. Thought it worth throwing out the idea. Hope it heals quickly, her appetite picks back up & she continues to gain weight. You're doing a fantastic job.

Silverfish, Sue Ailsby aka "Sue Eh" is a respected Canadian reward based trainer. She has quite a lot of cred. Will let Google tell you more about her & you can look here to say what her idea of a training plan is. However, I used that quote not because it was Sue's but because it was a more concise, polite way of expressing my own belief. Since it was a quote, I credited her. I could have found a similar sentiment to quote from someone else. It is one shared by many trainers. Perhaps because I took it out of context (from here) it came across as coming from some "very rigid training programme" but no trainers I work with or respect have such. Likely because it would be so prone to failure. Unfortunately, my own wording was also far less accurate and should actually have used "motives" and not "motivations". I love to know what motivates my dog. One can usually can find what some of those are through observation. However, I will never be able to read my dog's mind & she's not prone to verbal discussion except in my imagination. I will never know her motives. Those motives are the 'why' and while I am somewhat open minded on the topic animal communicators, I seriously doubt many of us can read our dogs' minds. I certainly do not possess that skill. (Right now you are wishing I'd found another quote to use rather than putting it all in my own wording, no?) Since I cannot ever know what my dog is thinking I will never truly know her motive, her 'why' for a particular action. Would I like to know? Oh, heck yeah! Do I try to imagine why? Sure, but it's an old habit & I'm just speculating as the OP was or any of the rest of us are when we speak as though we know the reason for our dog's actions. Sometimes we may well be correct. Through observation we can sometimes be fairly sure of the 'why'. But why does 'why' matter so very much if we are just guessing? Worse yet, why worry so much about finding out 'why' when so very many people are so quick to assign such uncharitable motives to their dog's actions such as the usual suspects of anger, jealousy, revenge, stubbornness, spite, etc. We're making assumptions then. Our own reactions to those assumptions then can often make things worse. Or it can make them right but for a different reason leading to even more confusion & worse problems later. Better to do your best to make a plan of action based on what you can observe & notice what may be the possible reward to the dog for her actions. Thus it is usually much less helpful to struggle with figuring out why she is doing something. It took me a while to realize how much progress could be made faster when one dropped worrying about 'why' and concentrated more on when, where, how, & what. Why is OP's dog peeing on DPG's floor during the night? Well, first let me say what I was avoiding saying to begin with. Why did OP choose to imagine her dog as vindictive? Sheesh, does she dislike her dog that much? (You're liking Sue Eh even more now, right?) OK, so I'm using OP's example. She has now chosen vindictiveness as the most likely 'why' possibly caused by an uncomfortable sofa as the cause. She decides the first plan of action is to bring over the comfy beds from home next time. If the dog beds are brought over & the peeing stops will that prove she was right? Perhaps the dog was anxious from being away from home & the comforting familiarity was what helped. Perhaps the sofa really was uncomfortable & exacerbating an unknown physical problem with the resulting pain as the actual cause of the inappropriate elimination. Perhaps one of the other dogs was intimidating the p!$$ out of her when the humans were not there to give the normal structure. Perhaps the dogs is not as well housebroken as one thought. Perhaps the normal elimination schedule is thrown off & the dog simply could not hold it. Perhaps... Perhaps... What good is this doing? Sure we'd love to know the 'why', especially if it was medical. But in this case, as in many or most cases, we simply don't. Plus, in the hypothetical above, now the dog is vindictive as proved by the success of brining dog beds. So are we still searching for a cause? Uh, nope! Have we found the solution? Yes & no. The dog beds worked so just bring them every time who spend the night away from home. Not my idea of a solution. Not always feasible. OP's dog bed idea actually does sound like a very good one & it might work but not necessarily for the reason she speculates. And what does she do from there? I would prefer to work on helping my dog be able to spend the night somewhere comfortably, without accidents, without having to always lug the home beds around. Sure I'd do it if I had to but I'd set to work on "away from home" training to ensure my dog can happily adjust to various new sleeping arrangements rather than presume she's being vindictive which could cause any accidents to make me resentful. And after it is all said & down, you still don't know why OP's dog peed on the floor at DPG's house. You just don't know why. You can wish you knew. You can speculate. You might even hit on the true 'why' but you also might not. And even if you hit on the real 'why' you cannot even be certain you have. But there are still plenty of known 'what' & 'how'. Those are more readily apparent & verifiable. I'd love to know why but have chosen to stop "worrying about why" & concentrate on other things I can be much more certain of and act on with much better odds of success.

Did you change anything else besides the coconut oil that could explain this?

It doesn't help people to assume they know their dogs' motivations. To quote Sue Ailsby:

No sooner had I finished editing my post in this thread than I got an email from my mother forwarding this story to her pet loving friends & family. She seemed to be taking it a bit too seriously but that's just my mom's way. Here is the last part of my reply, "Love ya, Mom, even if you did make us carry umbrellas to school anytime there was a 30% or greater chance of rain. Y'all can stay home alone & safe. I have to go kiss my dogs goodbye now & get to work. "