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Urinating during the night

666 views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  DoggieDancer  
#1 ·
I have two 7-year-old Westies, 1 male, 1 female, littermates, who have been housetrained since 6 months. They have full run of the house 24/7 and a doggie door that they use all the time to go into the yard whenever they want. Suddently last month my male started peeing during the night, usually right in front of their crate, but he has found a few other places too. It doesn't happen every night, but has been at least a dozen times in the last 2 months; sometimes it was raining, but not every time. I tried pushing his nose in it and scolding, just gently scolding, not scolding at all, and anything else I could think of. I took him to the vet who examined him and did a urinalysis and said there is nothing physically wrong. Nothing has changed in our routines or environment. Anybody have any ideas what is causing this or how we can stop it?
 
#2 ·
Does he squat when he's peeing or is he leaking? If he's leaking or squatting out of no where with no warning, he might have a UTI.

And you really shouldn't put your dog's face in it's mess... It doesn't do any good. If you want to reassure your dog knows where it needs to go pee, right after the mess take him out to pee, and when he does praise him a lot and treat him. Please don't do that again to your dogs.
 
#3 ·
Have you caught him in the act? And yes, do NOT punish him by rubbing his nose in it..that's just mean. Really.

What else is going on at that time? You say sometimes it's raining..has it been windy? Is anything different with the female dog? Most times misurination (if it's not a UTI) is related to stress or anxiety. This could be changes in his hearing at night or his vision or it could be changes in the female's health that could trigger him to stress too. Most of this type of behaviour requires a lot of detective work. Keep a journal for a bit...when, where, what the weather is, any new people around etc etc to see if you can find a link. Once dogs get older things can change...their senses change, they can develop thyroid conditions (which are notorious for triggering anxiety) etc etc.

My cat Oscar (now gone) used to pee on my bed. What fun. I had him checked out physically and he was fine. It stymied me until I started thinking about the when, the where etc of it happening. Turns out he only ever did it when I had come home from work angry or stressed....I started dealing with my stress and did a lot of "checking in" with myself before I entered the apt. within a week the problem stopped. Period. Never happened again.

Our pets are our barometers of how WE feel.
 
#4 ·
I've been keeping a log and there's no consistency that I can see. Nor do I see anything with the female to trigger Mac. Since it only happens during the night--and not every night--I can't be there to see when it happens and act then. It's not a leak or squat; occasionally a spray but mostly a full urination. The vet ruled out UTI and I had both dogs checked at that time. We are both retired and around most of the time so there's no work-related stress or anything like that going on. I'm stumped!