House breaking - normal or possible bladder infection?

[ChrisK]

Hi- I'm a newbie cavalier owner. We've had Sweetie, an 11 wk old blenheim for 2 weeks. We have been bell training her since day 1. We take her out every hour, as well as when she wakes from a nap and soon after she eats. Things had been going well. She always pees on command when we take her out. She's never gotten up more than once/night, when she always pees and poops then goes right back to her crate. Still working on catching when she needs to poop,so have had a few poop accidents. But there haven't been any pee accidents for a week. Granted, she rarely rings the bell, but we always seem to catch her in time. Now today she peed in the house 3x, altho we've continued to take her out as usual. My friends are saying she probably has an infection, but she's showing no other signs of one. she was at the vet on Friday for a vaccination and also a general exam. The only thing the vet mentioned was that her vulva was red and irritated and I should wipe it until she's old enough to clean herself. What do you think? I can't imagine trying to get a urine sample.

Thanks!
Chris and Sweetie

[Super Princess]

congratulations on your new edition!! and welcome to the board.
Ive been on here for years...since i had my first Cavalier Oliver. Now i have Maggie whos my first dog on my own...so i have a million quesitons all the time. haha.

i would say normal. but to keep an eye on her just incase.
i thought maggie had an infection at one poitn (she was good with training when awake but would 'leak' at bedtime.
they said as well..they would have to try and get a sample..i laughed when they told me how. then they said they could use a needle extraction if it HAD to.
i made my dad come to the appointment with me because i cant stomach things like that. i get dizzy.
It turned out that she had something called vaginitus. where the hair rubbed the inside of the vagina..causing a pussy infection.which was probably causing the accidents at night time.

now your issue..personaly i woudlnt be that worried. shes little.. shes proablby going to have times when she has accidents..off and on.
she'll get the hang of it...and then you might walk into the room and find an accident. there were a few times this happened to us.

[Karlin]

I think your gut instinct is worth checking out. If she is still peeing -- and given she was red and irritated in just the area that might be affected by a UTI -- I'd have her urine checked.

I must say the advice of the vet seems a bit bizarre. Dogs don't really clean themselves after urinating. Have never heard of anyone being told to clean the doglet themselves! I'd think that the fact that she was already red was probably an indication that she had some sort of developing irritation. Might try to see a different vet at the practice...?