Behavior Change - House Accidents

[Guest RetiredRacer]

Hey all, new member (although I've read countless threads on the forum - you guys are awesome). I've had my 4 year old boy for about 10 months and my 4 year old girl for about 3 months. I have a few questions regarding my awesome boy Wally. He has had intermittent bouts of loose stool since I have had him and I've changed food brands several times from Orijen to now Earthborn Holistic. While I thought the loose stool was from his diet, I have finally picked up on what I think the issue is - anxiety. Although I know that greys are used to very structured lives and some are more prone to anxiety to change than others, I have found that my boy is especially prone to suffering anxiety with change. I am really struggling to attempt to correct his recent problems though. I recently graduated graduate school and will not be starting a job for a few months which will require another move. I have had to change locations from where I graduated and this is when the majority of the issues began. Although I take him out frequently, and they run freely in the backyard where i witness him peeing and pooping, we are having daily pee accidents in the house - these have included on a bed, floor, couch etc.. There have been times when I have been inside the house and he has done this. I am at the point now that anytime I leave my current location, which is my parents home, he will pee on the floor at least once - yesterday he went three times inside...once while I was inside and twice while I was gone for four hours. He is also back to having loose stool and while I was gone tonight for an hour for dinner, he pooped inside the house.

 

After a few weeks of having our new girl in the house he developed some of these issues where he would have frequent accidents in the house, once directly behind me in my office. He had multiple lab work done at that time including a urinalysis. He was treated for a mild UTI which I feel did not correct his accidents in the house- those seemed to resolve with time. He has only had one accident at night and doesn't have any issues from 9P to 6A. It also seems as if when his poop is more formed, the pee accidents disappear which makes me think this is more anxiety related. It doesn't seem as if he is drinking any more water than usual. One thing about him is that when he pees outside, he really has to go and pees forever, even if it has only been four hours or so. He was previously house trained and would routinely not pee inside the house for around 9 hours although he would occasionally have poop accidents inside the house. He also does not give any indication that he needs to go. We have been in our current home setting for roughly two weeks. Does anyone have any suggestions for me? Thanks in advance!!

[Guest Greyt_dog_lover]

It actually sounds like separation anxiety to me. I have had a girl that would pee at the top of the stairs when I went downstairs to do laundry. She is a very nervous girl. Your boy may be a nervous guy as well, i would try alone training, as well as I would do things that build confidence such as obedience training. My girl got much better with obedience training and agility training. We do obedience training with all of our hounds every day. Just a short 5 minutes of sit, stay, leave it, etc. They also know other "tricks" like figure 8 through your legs, put a treat on their paw when they are laying down and they dont get to take it until you release them, bang (they lay down and roll over on back). I do think the nervous hounds really enjoy the bonding times with training and it gives them something to focus on other than their fears.

 

Chad