Pee Spot In The House

[Guest SimontheGreyt]

Hi Everyone!

 

We adopted Simon the wonder greyhound almost two months ago and I can't believe we got so lucky with this special pup. He came to us missing most of the hair on his bum from some severe fleabite dermatitis, worms, ticks, and missing half an ear from I'm guessing his racing days. In two months his hair is probably 80% grown back in, he is calm and happy and all around doing really well. I have a couple of other questions around helping him interact better with babies and small dogs, but a more pressing issue came up over the last couple of days-

 

With the exception of two incidents during a short round of prednisone to get his flea allergy reaction under control, he has been taking potty breaks like a total champ. We have never come home to an accident, We take him out every 6-7 hours, sometimes more like 9 over night, and he never seems distressed or like the pee is urgent when we take him out.

 

Our vet assured us that the peeing in the house with prednisone was very normal (heck, I'm pee every 15 minutes when I'm on prednisone) but up until yesterday he had no more issues with potty time.

 

I noticed a damp spot on the carpet yesterday morning, nothing too bad but definitely pee. I cleaned it up with our anti-odor disinfectant and left it to dry. Several hours later i came around the corner to Simon letting out the BIGGEST pee on that same spot. This wasn't a 'marking' type of pee, this was a full bladder, cant even bother to lift one leg kind of pee. Poor buddy was making eye contact with us while we tried to tell him to stop! We didnt reprimand him, I just scooped him outside while my husband got the floor cleaned up.

 

My only thought is that he may be stressed because he has a tiny dermatitis blotch on his leg that he licked raw, and we had briefly put him in a cone to let it heal. Maybe the stress of the cone/discomfort got him worked up? Maybe he hates the cold THAT much that he realized he could just pee the rug? ( I am in Boston and we've had our first round of cold weather.)

 

To be clear, he is not on any medications right now. All of his other behaviors/poops/general tail waggyness are normal, and we keep him pretty bundled up outside to negate the cold.

 

Do I need to be worried about this? Is it possible he can still smell the pee from the first time in the carpet and it signals 'this is a pee spot' to him? Any guidance would be great! I don't want him to lose his confidence because I know he knows he is supposed to go outside.

 

 

Thanks for any advice! I've been LIVING on this forum during our first couple of months gathering the great advice here. I'll post a picture when I figure out how!

[GeorgeofNE]

Oh boy, can I relate.

 

I would suggest you get him to the vet for a urinalysis before you panic.

 

A housebroken dog won't go in the house if he can help it, and I know EXACTLY what you mean when you describe the incident.

 

Long story very short, my first greyhound had a never-diagnosed issue that simply defied all medical testing and my efforts. I hope very much for you and Simon that this is a passing problem easily treated with antibiotics.

 

I assume you used a cleaner meant for animal urine and NOT just a cleaner that gets rid of smell?

 

Best of luck, he sounds like a great dog!

[Guest SimontheGreyt]

Thanks George! Yes, we used a special dog pee odor remover, I'm forgetting the brand but we got it at the pet store specifically for this purpose.

We are going to get him checked tomorrow by the vet and ask for an urinalysis, heres to hoping this is an isolated incident. The only other pee in the house incident was over 6 weeks ago on the first day of a course of prednisone with no other issues in between.

[Scoutsmom]

I totally agree with CA about getting the dog checked by the vet. While that is being done, I have 2 suggestions. 1) reclean the spot and put something over it (like a chair) so he can't easily get to it. Sometimes putting foil over it will also work (the sound of pee hitting the foil scares the dog--at least in theory). 2) Take your pup outside really really frequently. Most greys come to us not realizing that they need to signal when they need to go out. So you need to learn what the signs (often very minor) are that he needs to go out. I swear my Bree doesn't give any physical signs, just uses some kind of ESP to let me know. Sometimes I'm not receiving and we do have an accident but at least it's usually in the kitchen.

[SPDoggie]

Once you *know* the area is clean, feed the dog there a few times, as they would not soil where they eat... so that might get it through their brains to not-go-here!

 

Good luck!