do puppies get urinary tract problems?

murandmom · 07-02-2008, 10:41 PM

Okay--love the site, and love my new puppy, but we're having big problems with urinating in the house! She is 10 weeks old, we've had her for a little over one week, and she is confined with me watching her to the kitchen (she's in her crate overnight and when we are out of the house). She's a great puppy, listens well, is starting basic commands, plays well (supervised) with our older dog, and she immediately goes to the door to go outside to poop and pee. Sometimes she pees in the kitchen--I blame myself--I'm not watching for the signs, but I have noticed the regardless of when I let her out, she goes pee (and I let her out pretty much all day--especially after eating, napping, playing). She will pee each and every time I let her our and tell her "hurry up" (our go potty command), and it's like she's never done. Tonight, as I'm reading up on other threads on dogforums.com, she peed while she was eating, and continued eating--didn't even stop. I didn't think to watch her while I can hear her chomping away on her food, and I turned around to look when I smelled urine--I'm pretty smell sensitive (the urine doesn't have a bad odor other than pee). She's had a check up and is fine--we go back on the 21st (in 2 1/2 weeks). Also, she has never gone pee or poop in her crate, sleeps through the night light a charm, doesn't mind going into her crate when we leave. I know she's a puppy, I'm rolling up the newspaper to hit myself over the head for not watching her like a hawk as I write this, but I'm really starting to wonder if there's another problem brewing. She'll even whimper and whine to be let out to poop--pee is a different story (if we don't get to the door fast enough, she walks away and pees). And we are using a pet odor spray too (immediately cleaning up and spraying when she goes). Whew! Thanks!

TooneyDogs · 07-03-2008, 08:37 AM

One sign of a UTI is very small spots (dribbles) of urine. Puppies bladders are not very strong anyway and they have to go OFTEN...about every 70-90 minutes. To make matters worse, when they do go out they often don't empty their bladders because they get interrupted by a butterfly, a leaf or a bird. They often come back in the house and finish on the floor.
Keep watching and give her time....it will get better if you're consistent with the training.

alphadoginthehouse · 07-03-2008, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TooneyDogs

One sign of a UTI is very small spots (dribbles) of urine. Puppies bladders are not very strong anyway and they have to go OFTEN...about every 70-90 minutes. To make matters worse, when they do go out they often don't empty their bladders because they get interrupted by a butterfly, a leaf or a bird. They often come back in the house and finish on the floor.
Keep watching and give her time....it will get better if you're consistent with the training.

She is sooooooo cute...what is she. At 10 weeks, and like Tooney says, they don't always finish...which can cause a UTI (not emptying the bladder completely). When I had puppies, I would take them out, at a minimum, every hour, whether they acted like they needed to or not, between after they slept, ate, played, drank (unless they were sleeping). Big praise for anything they did (pee/poop) with treats at the beginning. And if she is doing it when she's eating, she's so happy, excited and relaxed, she may not realize she is doing it.

Keep and eye on her and I think, with what you've already accomplished, she will be doing the "no pee at eating time" in no time. Good luck and keep us posted!