Housebreaking sucks.

[amalie79]

This might be a record for me in number of posts in a week.

As it's looking more and more like I may need to take Luna in for her skin stuff, so I'll probably have this checked into then, too, but I wanted to get some feedback first.

Luna's housebreaking was coming along pretty well... She got spayed last Tuesday. I can't remember if this started before or after the spay, but it's definitely been worse since we started letting her off the leash in the house. To put it simply, she is peeing. A lot. She drinks a fair amount, too, but I'm not sure it's all that much more than River (Robin, on the other hand, needs to drink more ). Luna pees every time she goes outside immediately. Sometimes several times while she's out. I praise her a lot, but I'm bad about taking treats outside. She can hold it for 6+ hours during the day-- she's only crated about 2 days a week for any more than 2 hours, but she's never had an accident in the crate.

Instead, she's peeing on River's bed that's on the floor next to my bed. She's done it every evening for the last several days, twice on some evenings. Tonight she did it within 10-15 minutes of coming back inside from peeing for the 4th time in an hour.

My first thought was UTI, but she can hold it when she's not sitting on that dog bed, and her urine is sitting at about a 6.5 pH. And it's always on that bed. She'd had accidents a few other places in the house, but not for a few weeks. And if she's on a leash-- like if I keep her on the bed with me and don't let her down, no problems. River's bed used to be Simon's bed-- he was incontinent. I always had a waterproof pad and sheet on top of it, and I always sprayed it with Nature's Miracle et al before washing, but I know that's not always 100%, and I am still using those sheets and pads.

Am I right to think this sounds behavioral? I guess she might smell the old pee... Or be marking River's bed? Or it could be some sort of UTI. Just after all my fights with the vet over crystals, I'm afraid to take another sample in!

Argh.

[pitbullmamaliz]

Sounds like a UTI. Any time Inara's housebreaking seemed to go out the window it was due to a UTI.

[BigDogBuford]

It could be a complication from the spay.

[amalie79]

It could be a complication from the spay.

Ugh.

I know she peed on this bed before the spay. I'm just perplexed by her being able to hold it otherwise-- like 6-7 hours-- and only going on that bed. And while she's 6 months old, I didn't get the impression she'd been an inside dog before 6 weeks ago, so the whole housetrained thing is new to her...

Sigh. I guess I'll try to get her in to the vet and hope it's NOT a spay complication. Now I'm gonna worry until then.

[plebayo]

I would imagine if it were a spay complication she would have less control. Because she's young I would bet it is vaginitis or a UTI. Best to rule out infection if she's clean you'll know it's a house training issue and you can proceed from there

[iluvk9]

I remember all my puppies just peeing whenever they wanted. Often after they had just been outside and already peed.

[amalie79]

I would imagine if it were a spay complication she would have less control. Because she's young I would bet it is vaginitis or a UTI. Best to rule out infection if she's clean you'll know it's a house training issue and you can proceed from there

That's what I was thinking. I haven't noticed any dribbling, wet spots, etc. She's ONLY going on the dog bed, though that may have to do with the fact that I keep her locked in the room with me so she's not getting into things she shouldn't or chasing the cats. But, honestly, my bed room's a mess. There's a big stack of newspapers by the dog bed and she's not peeing there... there's frequently a few bits of laundry or a top sheet that's fallen off the bed on the floor... nope. Not peeing there. I'd think she'd be going elsewhere if it was a control issue.

I'll get her checked out so we can rule out infection. We're also getting a new dog bed since this one is falling apart anyway. I'll get new waterproof pads and cheap sheets at Tj or Big Lots. I've found this to be the only way to have a dog bed on the floor. If anyone has an indiscretion (ahem-- cats included!), it's an easy clean up and at worst, it's only ruined a $2 sheet and a $5 pad and not a $30+ dog bed.

I remember all my puppies just peeing whenever they wanted. Often after they had just been outside and already peed.

Buuuut, I was thinking this, too. Like I said, she's only been an inside dog for a few weeks. We've also only caught her in the act a couple of times, so she's had some reinforcement history peeing there. Over the 6 weeks she probably peed there (or on the bed that USED to be right next to it) a good 4 or 5 times before I ever caught her.

This morning I remembered treats... but I had no pockets and once she knew I had them, she wouldn't leave me alone and go do all her business, so I was late for work. Again.

Good news is she slept most of the night, which means I slept most of the night.

[iluvk9]

Good news is she slept most of the night, which means I slept most of the night.

Yea, the puppy stage was when I let them in my bed so I COULD sleep and be ready for work the next morning. Not a great idea, but it worked for me.

[amalie79]

Good news is she slept most of the night, which means I slept most of the night.

Yea, the puppy stage was when I let them in my bed so I COULD sleep and be ready for work the next morning. Not a great idea, but it worked for me.

We started doing that, but Robin sleeps there, and I could see her getting irritated that she had to share her bed. I would love for them to continue getting along as well as they do. So now I let Luna start to fall asleep with me on the bed, then I put her in the crate and either sit next to it while she falls asleep or read at teh foot of the bed. Once she's settling, I go lay down. If she starts to fuss in the night, I wait until I can get a few seconds of quiet, and then I lay with my head at the foot of the bed so she can see me; sometimes that does the trick, sometimes I sing to her. Usually I fall asleep singing to her. But that seems to do the trick. Then at 5am, we go out for a potty, and everyone can come back and get in the bed for a while until I get up to feed them.

[furever_pit]

I agree that you should get it checked out just to rule out a UTI. Although I also wouldn't rule out the possibility of a marking behavior.

[amalie79]

Well, she didn't do it at all yesterday, but I caught her as soon as she started today, and boy did she look shocked!! And since she's now allowed to play more (she was leashed all the time after her spay), she's wearing herself out and sleeping well...which means I'M sleeping well.

I kind of want her skin checked out, too, so I may take her in with a sample tomorrow morning. Sigh.

Sometimes I think the vet must think I'm a nutcase bringing animals in all the time... then I remember that I have a LOT of animals and it's usually a different one each time, or at least one big problem per animal. And most people aren't good about taking care of their pets. Ugh.

I really should have become a DVM. Woulda saved myself a lot of money.

[amalie79]

Probably the very beginning of a UTI-- elevated pH and inflammatory cells, but no blood or crystals yet.

And all the bumps on her skin appear to be beginning staph infections.

She's got 2 weeks of cephalexin and the vet said to just stay on top of her flea preventative. He also said that with her skin and coat, we'll likely be battling staph her whole life. (which, in my book, means I need to have her on a great diet to keep her skin and immune system in tip top shape for fighting it).

[hugapitbull]

I posted in the other topic. I'm a big fan of cranberry capsules for fighting UTI at the very first indication there could be a problem.

[amalie79]

Update...

The antibiotics must be doing their magic. We haven't had any accidents since Friday... and her skin looks amazing again. She's so pretty when she's not all bumpy.

But she has another 10 days or so of meds to make sure we get all the skin infections along with the UTI.

Her latest way to make my life difficult is that she got out of her crate. Again. It's a pretty crappy crate (a Petco "premium" 2-door crate-- we got it for a song online, but they charge well over $100 for it in store. The ASPCA Walmart wire crates are great. This one, not so much.) and either we don't always get the latches on well or she can wiggle them loose. We're securing them with carabiner clips for the time being.

We also noticed that some of the bars have been squeezed together (or apart, depending on whether you're an optimist or a pessimist ). It could be from her trying to get more things into the crate-- Adam left a basket of laundry too close to the crate the other day and she got 2 pairs of jeans, 2 tshirts, 2 button up shirts and a shower curtain in there with her. Didn't chew anything or eat any buttons, just padded the bottom of the crate. However, the bars are rough like she may have bitten them together.

I DON'T want her biting the bars and I really don't want it collapsing on her while she's trying to pull things in or trying to squeeze her way out. So I bit the bullet and bought a plastic crate last night. I found one on Craigs list a few weeks ago, but then a friend offered me hers; unfortunately, we haven't been able to get it from her for a whole host of logistical reasons. The one I bought is a Petmate Pet Porter, 36". Atwoods has Pet Porters on sale and this one was only $72. The next best price I could find was the ASPCA brand at Walmart for $85 and the Pet Porter at Lowes for $89. These seem to get good reviews and are a reputable brand, so I went for it. She goes in it pretty easily. We'll do lots of crate games this weekend to try and make the transition. We'll also start putting multiple kongs in there with her if we'll be gone more than an hour or so.

And the cat chasing might be even worse than Robin's was, so I gotta get on that pronto.

She is SUCH a stinker.

[TheRedQueen]

Puppies are overrated!

[amalie79]

Puppies are overrated!

Truer words have never been spoken.

Before this one fell in my lap, I was vowing never again!! And well, I still am, but life doesn't always give you much choice. Life's a b*tch that way sometimes.

At least she's pretty smart, confident and unafraid. Every time she's "caught" a cat, she just tries to play with it, boxing with her paws and open-wide mouthing (I'm still gonna put the kibosh on that, but it's encouraging that so far she's not grabbing them, touch wood), and I have a 3 day weekend to put lots of time into the new crate. Plus, our Sunday practice training session this week is on mat work, so I'm going to take her crate pad and use that, I think. Reinforce a nice settle on it.

I'm already tired just thinking about it.

[TheRedQueen]

I have three puppies of various ages in the house right now...I understand your tiredness...

[amalie79]

She got out. Again. Adam didn't put the carabiner clips on the locks, just on the door and she still managed to squeeze out. She's definitely able to undo the latches. She doesn't seem to get into anything (that I can see) and I still have all 5 cats (at least for now), so it's not that she's being too awful...I'm sure she's making River miserable, though, poor girl.

[TheRedQueen]

How goes it today?

[amalie79]

Well, still no accidents.

We had our Sunday practice sessions at the training facility last night. The theme for the night was mat work, but we brought the crate and did crate work instead. We bought a Pet Porter at Atwoods for $72 the other day, and we're switching over to that. I only ever asked Luna for 15-20 seconds in a closed (and latched) crate before a C/T, but in that duration she never tried to leave the crate, so I feel pretty good about it.

We talked to the trainer some more. Since the door of the wire crate is loose, it's almost like it's just ASKING to be pushed open-- ya know, now she knows she can get it open and so she'll keep trying to bust out. The trainer really didn't feel like it was a "crating" issue per se (not an "oh crap, I'm in a box help!" issue), and more like a boredom/wanting to be where everyone else is issue. So I think for the time being, we'll continue to use the wire crate at night, as it's in our bedroom and she sleeps in it pretty well now-- a little fussy sometimes, but getting into a routine. Then we'll put the pet porter in the same room as Robin's crate out in the rest of the house and use it when we're gone during the day. It's a high enough traffic area that I think she'll feel less isolated, but off to the side enough that there won't be a parade of cats traipsing by to taunt her.