Previously Housetrained Female - Now Urinating Inside Regularly!

[Guest Smashley2]

Hi all,

 

we have a beautiful 2 1/2 year old grey (i wrote about her chasing a whippet in a previous post - thankfully we have had no further such incidents!) named Essie. Overall she has been the best thing ever, and we adore her! Unfortunately, after a good 3 months of being housetrained with NO accidents, she has begun urinating (and occasionally defecating) inside.

 

She started weeing during the night - and in her defence there had been a few mornings when i had not gotten up as early as usual, but even after i started getting back into the regular routine (and it was probably only an hour at most that she was waiting) the behaviour continued. Now she has been going inside regularly - even with regular trips outdoors (we live in a one bedroom apartment so there is no where to go unless we take her out). I even went back to the original training regime of waking in the middle of the night to take her out - no luck!

 

Just to rule it out, we took her to the vet who diagnosed a UTI and gave her a course of antibiotics and some anti-inflams. Although we felt bad we had not taken her straight away, we were actually relieved to find a reason for the behavior. Unfortunately, even after the treatment, the urinating is continuing! We are at our wits end - it doesn't seem to matter how often we take her out, she will go inside. We have wooden floors and keeping on top of the smell is taking hours - and costing a fair bit as well!!

 

The last point is that unfortunately we are currently overseas for nearly 6 weeks, meaning we have house-sitters who are having to manage this issue also! The urinating started well before we left for our trip so the change is not the precipitating factor, however i imagine the stress of having new people around is not helping!

 

If anyone has any ideas we would love to hear them!! We are desperate!

 

Many thanks.

[Houndtime]

I can only think that maybe you have not cleaned the scent of the urine out completely and she is continuing to mark the same areas. If that is not the case, then she needs to be confined in a crate or smaller area and back to housebreaking 101. Good luck.

[NeylasMom]

My first thought is the UTI is not resolved. If you haven't, I would do a sterile urine culture to see if there are still bacteria and to make sure you are treating with the right AB. That would be my priority.

[Guest Smashley2]

Thanks guys - we have asked our house sitters to take her back to the vet asap. We have tried to get the urine out as much as possible, but unfortunately our building is very old and some of the veneer has come off the boards - meaning that the urine seeps into the wood We have used everything from commercial products aimed at dog urine, bleach, detergents, disinfectants, even using bicarb soda overnight to try and see if that soaks up the liquid from the wood - the latter seemed to help most with the smell (which was great for us - but perhaps not enough to trick her!)

 

Any particular housetraining tips you would recommend? When we were first training her, it was just regular trips outside to urinate, lots of cheering when she did, and a middle of the night outing - that seemed to work a treat! Unfortunately those things don't seem to be working now

[greysmom]

There's probably two parts to this issue. First, an unresolved UTI, which a sterile culture will either identify or rule out. An adult dog won't willingly potty inside their house without something going on. Second, the behavioral aspect. She is undoubtedly stressed by having new people caring for her - from her persepctive, she has just been adopted again, even though she's in the same house. She might be having some separation anxiety, in addition to a medical problem.

 

If she is going in the same spot(s) you can get puppy pads to put down to save your floors. You can also look into panties for her (which would act like a belly band for a boy). Either of these would be a good stopgap measure until a) the UTI is cleared, and/or you get home and can address this first hand.

[juliemac]

Your petsitter can get female potty pants at Petco ... I've found the sizing by weight is a darn good fit until the girlies are senior and have lost their muscle mass (so you don't need to adjust from the sizes on the package to account for greyhound physique).

 

For a hound that is emptying a full bladder, you'll probably want to insert a poise pad (or 1/2 of one) ... kotex pads can work in a pinch, but they're not really intended to absorb that much liquid quickly.

Edited November 26, 2015 by juliemac

[macoduck]

This stuff works pretty good, especially compared to what they sell at pet stores.

http://planeturine.com/index.cfm/ID/27/Products#HardSurfaceStainandOdorCleaningSystems