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Peeing problems

nikkipants

New member
Hey guys!
I have 2 cavs. MikaBoo is a 2 year old blenheim girl. She is a princess. Linus is a 1 year old tricolor and he is hilarious. Both of them have one issue each. Linus has a barking issue. He is very vocal and barks at my neighbors and such. He is doing very well with it lately and I have been working with him on it.
MikaBoo is my primary problem, though. She is such a good-tempered little girl and just is so sweet and awesome. But she has had a peeing problem that we just can not get rid of. We started training them in a litterbox because when we first got Mika, she was so tiny and we lived on the 29th floor of a building in NYC...she almost peed in the elevator whenever she had to wait. Poor thing. So we trained her to go in a box. And she did so well! Now we own a house and are in the Boston suburbs and we have a yard. They're both doing very well and barley have any accidents at all! [The only reason I mentioned all of this is because I have no idea if it has to do with the problem...]
THE PROBLEM! MikaBoo likes peeing on blankets and soft things. We had to kick them out of our bed because she kept peeing on the blankets. Has anyone had any experience with this or does anyone know how to fix it? I am very sad about it because they love sleeping on our heads. And we have a baby on the way and the last thing I want is to wake up in the night to get the baby and have dog pee when I get back. But now it's to the point where I had a blanket on the couch and she peed on it!

I'm sure you all know how frustrating this is since she is so well behaved otherwise. :(

Hope everyone is having a great day/night!
Nikki

PS here are my babies:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=33091731&l=6d6d9045c5&id=55800158
 
Welcome to the board!! As you probably realise, no dog is perfect [how many perfect people have we ever met??] - kbut it sounds like you are trying to sort out their issues.

Barking - best way of controlling this is to teach them to bark on command - if you do a search on the board you will find posts about how to achieve this. Then you can teach a reliable "quiet" command.


Regarding the peeing - sadly, a soft surface is very appealing for bitches to pee on - much nicer than the cold, damp grass outside!!

Firstly though, has she been checked out by the vet to make sure there is no physical cause such as an infection? Is it a deliberate pee - or could it be happening without her knowing [incontinence]? Is she spayed? If not, I would definitely recommend that as it reduces scent marking [yes bitches do that too] and might reduce the peeing.

Is she maybe stressed from the move?

Have they been crate trained? That might be something to consider, especially with a new baby on the way - you should NEVER trust a dog alone with a baby or young child, even a Cavalier, there are occasions where a child will hurt a dog [not intentionally] and any dog will sometimes retaliate. It might be sensible to train them now to sleep in a crate or a puppy pen, I'm guessing you won't want them in the bedroom after the baby is born anyway, so it's kinder to get them used to it now. Most dogs don't like to pee where they sleep, so a crate may break her of this habit as well.
Again a search for crate training will bring up lots of informative posts.

Ideally I think you should go back to first principles of house training - you will find the free downloads from Ian Dunbar especially helpful - we recommend these for EVERYONE with a dog

http://dogstardaily.com/free-downloads

Before and After you get your puppy

Good luck and keep us posted
 
Nicki has given excellent suggestions. When our Sophie was a puppy, she would pee on the bedding in her crate, so we had to remove it all and make her sleep on the hard plastic tray. I was wracked with guilt and awful feelings, but that's what it finally took, for her to stop peeing in her crate and she still loves us. We did not return the soft bedding to her crate for a couple months, to ingrain the good behavior.

Nowadays, she is very, very good, and sleeps in her crate every night. (she's almost 2 y/o) She loves it in there. I have some fabric draped over (like a bird cage) to create a little den for her. I often find her in there during the day, by choice. She loves her bedroom. :luv:

Do have your dog checked for UTI first, just to rule out any health problem.
 
Hi again!
Thanks so much for the suggestions and input!
As far as the barking goes, I actually have been trying the "quiet" command and instilling it in him and it is working very well! I am very happy about that. :]

Yes, they are crate trained. It's weird, she will never ever pee in her crate and mostly it happens to fast for me to notice. I will put a blanket down and she will pee right on it and walk away. Same thing on the bed. I think the soft surface peeing thing must be it. :/ It's a shame because otherwise she's so awesome. It's okay, though, I suppose I will just enforce the potty training and try to not give her the opportunity to pee on things.

Thanks again for the input. You guys rock :]
 
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