Recently adopted greyhound peeing in house

[Amroxy]

Hello,

 

I am new to this forum but hoping for some advice. We recently adopted a 3 year old greyhound (2 weeks ago). The rescue centre didn't know much of his background apart from that he did not seem to be a racing greyhound and that they was possibly a stray before. He had only been in the kennels for 1 month before we took him home. 
He seemed to settle in right away and the first week he was good as gold and didn't have one single accident, however this week things seem to have changed. 

He has pee'd twice in a row during the night/in the morning (we have even tried setting our alarm earlier in the morning to let him out and he has still pee'd so he must be doing it in the middle of the night) 
So then we tried taking his water away 1 hour before bed, which worked as he didnt pee in the night but then the day after he was left for 4 hours and he has pee'd TWICE! 

He does not have any accidents while we are in, and sometimes we actually have to force him outside to pee because he is just so lazy lying on the sofa he does not want to move he can lay there for hours . & As I say, for the first week he did not pee at all while we were out so he can definitely hold it in.

I thought it could be separation anxiety but we have only had him for 2 weeks of which we left him for the exact same time each week so its not as if we have been in constantly apart from weekends. Also, we have a doggy cam and when we check it during the day he is just sleeping, he does not seem to be anxious/waiting for us. 

Could it just be the dog adjusting after being in kennels? Is there anything we can do to help prevent this? How do you go about teaching him it is wrong as we are not in when he is doing this?

 

Thanks in Advance

 

ps. This is our first rescue dog, I have always had dogs from puppies (and never a grey) so I have no idea how to go about house training an older dog, Any tips will help so much! 

[MerseyGrey]

Hi! I can’t give you any tips on housetraining as ours was already housetrained when we brought him home. We didn’t really have many problems with him, it was just a case of us learning that he wouldn’t whine to go out, he would simply look at the door and if we missed that cue...it was like a torrent all over the floor! We took him into the garden regularly and to the same place (you may need to do this on a lead) until he toileted. 

If he’s not destructive it’s probably not separation anxiety from what I understand. Two weeks is a very short time so maybe he just needs to settle into a routine with you, and you need to learn when his regular toilet times are until you can bring him to your routine. Four hours doesn’t seem like a very long time but when you’ve got to go... As for teaching him that it is wrong, I suspect the best thing to do is to catch him in the act and turf him outside. If you’re not home than you may need to think about getting someone to call in on him for potty breaks. If you haven’t noticed yet, greyhounds are sensitive to reprimands so you will need to be patient.

Please don’t withhold his water, he should always have access to water. Make sure he’s not cold as if this wakes him up, he might just decide to have a wee while he’s awake

[JohnF]

When you take him for a walk is he being given plenty of time to mark his territory several times? If you have a yard or garden he will get into the habit of needing to mark this too.

Are you certain he doesn't have a UTI causing frequent peeing?

[BatterseaBrindl]

House-train him the same way you would house-train a puppy....

Take him out frequently.

Praise & treat him him when he goes.

Baby-gate him into a puppy proof space when you're not home.

 

 

[Toffeesdad]

We used belly bands on our boy when we brought him home.  He wouldn’t mark with it on.  For the first few weeks we used a panty liner in his belly band for accidents.  Are you letting him sleep in your room at night? Ours has a bed in the corner of our room where he sleeps.  He may be having night accidents due to noise or something like a garbage truck etc that freaks him out.  Also he might be cold and waking up.   It’s still early days good advice about house training like a new puppy.  Good luck

[Amroxy]

Thanks for all the tips guys. They are all really helpful - I have been doing some research and I think the best way, as mentioned above, is to just train like a puppy. I don't think we have been praising him enough when he does pee outside because we just assumed he was house trained after no accidents in week one so we've started with lots treats and praise today!

In response to some of the questions - Yes he pee's and sprays a lot on walks. We have been taking him out 2x daily, first thing in the morning and usually at around 7pm at night for approx 30 mins each time. I am unsure about the UTI, I have an appointment with the vet soon for his first check up so I will mention it then if things don't improve.

& He sleeps downstairs at the minute, me and my partner had discussed maybe bringing him up in the night if things don't improve so that's definitely an option- The idea of a belly band sounds really good though, I will look into this too.

 

Thanks again everyone