Dog Community

Un-housebroken at age 8 - Help!

Posted : 6/25/2006 10:43:56 PM

I have an 8 year old lab mix who has been going to the bathroom in the house more & more often over the course of the past year. Up to about a year ago, she NEVER went in the house -- then she came down with a case of giardia last spring, which caused severe diarrhea and several occasions of

ooping and peeing in the house. Our vet treated her thoroughly and pronounced her cured early last summer.

I'm wondering if somehow that experience caused her to think it's ok to go in the house?? Any thoughts? If it's not that, any other ideas of what could be causing it? We've ruled out physical issues with our vet.

I'd greatly appreciate any help -- we live in Minnesota, where keeping a dog outside is NOT an option, and she's the love of our lives -- but we can't live with a dog that uses the living room as her own personal bathroom!

HofmannGestalt

Posted : 6/25/2006 10:58:28 PM

How long are you leaving her in the house at a time?

spiritdogs

Posted : 6/26/2006 11:12:13 AM

This may be coincidental. Is she unable to hold it as long? Is she urinating right after a nap? Some older spayed females lose sphincter control and become spay incontinent. Ask your vet - she can be placed on a medication that helps if that's what it is.

sstudden

Posted : 6/26/2006 12:08:36 PM

Our other lab has spay incontinence, which stays pretty much under control with medication. This is different -- and seems unrelated to the amount of time in the house -- if we're gone for a long time, we put her in a crate anyway. Yesterday it happened about 15 minutes after she'd been outside - she peed & pooped (not soft, so no diarrhea issues) on the dining room rug. She actually had to walk past us to get into the dining room and never asked to go out.

She is walked for 20-30 minutes twice daily, and let out in the yard several times per day.

spiritdogs

Posted : 6/26/2006 5:46:18 PM

Well, you could try going back to housetraining 101, so that she retrains herself to *not* go inside. If she has been having accidents for a year, she may simply have learned that she can use the house for her potty needs. Be sure you are cleaning any mistakes with an enzymatic cleaner like Petastic. You may want to do a urinalysis and fecal flotation, as well as speaking to your vet, to make sure there are no issues you are unaware of.