Any advice would be appreciated on soiling indoors ...

Hi there,

We have a Ruby male who is 1 yr 3 months old. Recently we have noticed that he has started soiling indoors. I have been racking my brains trying to find out why he has started doing this, as nothing has changed with our daily routine.

We noticed about 6 weeks ago that he had been peeing against a throw in the spare bedroom. Lately things have got worse, as he is doing it more frequently. Over the weekend, he lifted his leg and peed on the bedroom curtain and yesterday, he climbed up on the kitchen table and peed on a loaf of brown bread ..... This he dragged a cushion from the couch and peed on it (he has done this before)

He has full access to the back garden and my husband works from home, and is there with him during the day. He is not neutered and we have had no problems with him up until now.

Any suggestions and advice on what might be causing this to how to remedy would be greatly appreciated. Hopefully somebody might have had the same problem.

Regards,
Helen

Firstly you need to completelt clean and make sure that the odour is taken away from the areas he has pee'd on. Is he weeing more than normal which could point out to having an infection..... for the time being you will probably have to make an effort and take him out every hour... good luck.

he climbed up on the kitchen table and peed on a loaf of brown bread .....

Click to expand...

I'm sorry but just that image had me laughing out loud... :lol: Maybe he prefers white loaves?

Some dogs do backtrack on housetraining but it is usually if not stress or medically related, due to their having been doing some of this all along for a long time, without it having been noticed.

First I'd check him for medical issues to be sure you are not dealing with something along those lines.

If it is behavioural the likelihood is that he may have been doing the marking all along at least sporadically, when not seen by you if he is able to get away with this while no one is watching -- that implies he may have had too much freedom too soon. It likely was a bit here and there and now has become an ingrained habit. The fact that he's doing this a lot and only it is noticed after suggests that he has no sense that it isn;t allowed because no one has been there to catch him -- again -- too much freedom too soon, a mistake lots of us make!

Neutering will almost certainly help this as a behavioural issue -- elminates marking indoors in the majority of cases. At any rate I'd be very cautious with him if you take him to visit other houses as this behaviour at home means he will certainly lift his leg when he gets the chance elsewhere.

The only way to address this if it isn't a medical issue, besides neutering as one first step, is to start from the beginning on housetraining and make sure he is always in sight, always watched, always within reach to take him out. Someone needs to formally take him out so he goes, praise and reward, each and every time. No run of the house, just slowly work on room by room til he is totally reliable.

Merlin did the same thing about the same age BUT only in Pets at Home! on the end of the ailse(??) He's stopped doing it now - we make sure we have a good old pee outside on the bollards! :lol:

Also see:

http://www.anicare.ie/pdf/toilet_older.pdf

Thanks for all your help and advice. Yesterday there were no accidents (thankfully). We are back to puppy training basics and keeping a very close eye on Ruby. Guess best play to see how things go on a day to day basis.

I am also in training now to IGNORE Ruby rather than spending so much time with him and giving him so much attention. Last night, we took him out for a long walk and when we got back to the house and Ruby did his own thing playing with toys, rather than be up on my knee, which is great.
So we will wait and see!! I will keep you posted ! Thanks again for all the info. Its nice to know we are not alone :thnku:

I'm sorry but I can't stop laughing at the thought of him clambering onto the table to pee on the bread :lol: :lol: :lol:

Glad things are a bit better today but be sure to get him checked for UTI's as well :flwr: