Hi everyone
I'm a new greyhound mum, just adopted my girl 3 weeks ago. She's an ex-racer and is 3 years old. So far she is settling in really well but the one issue I am having is that she pees inside when I leave her to go to work. I totally understand that she's still settling in but this is something I really want to nip in the bud before it becomes an ingrained habit.
Current routine is this:
7am: Get up and take her outside to the back lawn where she pees. I take her out on the lead and give her a treat and lots of praise once she goes. Back inside and give her breakfast.
7.30am: Time for a walk, generally for around 30 minutes. She will poop once or sometimes twice and will usually pee again on the walk. We get home and she has free range of the house and garden until I leave for work.
8.30am: I leave for work. I shut all of the internal doors and she just has access to the lounge while I am out.
4.30pm: I get home from work and always find that she has peed in the lounge (on the carpet). I don't make a fuss, just clean it up and then take her for a second walk of the day, usually for another 30 minutes or so.
5.30pm: She has her dinner. I always take her out to the back lawn again a few times during the evening but she rarely wants to pee again so often she will hold it until the next morning.
It does seem that the pee is pretty fresh when I get home so I am picking that she is not peeing until maybe 3pm or later. She has peed in 3 separate spots on the carpet and I have cleaned them thoroughly with laundry detergent, deodorised with baking soda and then sprayed with a water & white vinegar solution.
Starting from today I have arranged to take an extended lunchbreak so that I can go home and try to toilet her during the day.
Can anyone offer any advice? It's so hard to know whether I'm doing things right.
