Can a dog person explain this?

[Parrothead]

Baxter is 7 years old. He will wake me up from a dead sleep if he has to go out in the middle of the night. He will stand in the doorway of whatever room we happen to be in and whimper if he has to go out when I'm awake. We have been having problems in the last six months with him peeing on the floor if we leave and he thinks he should have gone with us. A typical temper tantrum. So he gets crated when we leave.

 

Ten minutes ago he stood up, got out of his bed (which is at the foot of mine), and peed on the floor. Dd and I were wide awake talking when we heard him pee. He was 6 inches from his bed. We just looked at each other gobsmacked because we couldn't believe what he was doing.

 

All the nightly peeing rituals were performed on time before coming up.

 

After dd and I got up he slinked out of the bedroom, went downstairs and stood at the back door until I let him out. Then he proceeded to pee again. I was so disgusted I didn't wait around to see if he did the other. I went back upstairs to clean the mess and sent dd down to bring him back in.

 

Is this behavior a sign of anything? Should he see the vet?

 

ETA: he is a Bassett hound wannabe if that is important. Hi mother was a German short-hair pointer.

[RoughCollie]

Yeah, if I were you, I'd take him to the vet to get checked out. He could have a UTI, or it could be a symptom of several medical problems which are best treated if caught early.

 

Is there any reason for Baxter to have developed separation anxiety with regard to him peeing after you leave him alone in the house?

[I talk to the trees]

My first thought would be a UTI. I'd take him in just in case.

 

If that's not the case, then I'm :confused: .

[Parrothead]

Yeah, if I were you, I'd take him to the vet to get checked out. He could have a UTI, or it could be a symptom of several medical problems which are best treated if caught early.

 

Is there any reason for Baxter to have developed separation anxiety with regard to him peeing after you leave him alone in the house?

 

No it is all temper. I consider myself lucky that he doesn't pee in my bed when he is ticked.

[Parrothead]

I have the cat going in Wednesday. I'll see about getting him an appointment. Thanks.

[StephanieZ]

Dogs don't have temper tantrums. :) They get anxious. Or sick. Or scared. Or aggressive. Or confused. Or lonely. Or lots of things. But, really, no matter how much it seems like it (and yes, i know the feeling!), they aren't punishing us! They just don't have that kind of thought/behavior processes.

 

So, yes, take him to the vet for a check up. In addition to a good exam and discussion, they'll want to get urine, so bring him in with a full-ish bladder. They'll likely also want to do blood work.

 

If the vet visit doesn't reveal answers, ask for a referral to a behaviorist. NOT A TRAINER! There are some veterinarian behaviorists, but very few unless you are in a very major metro area. The others are masters-level "behaviorists." These people can figure out what exactly is triggering the behavior, and they can fix it for you if you follow their advice. They are super smart. Worth every penny. :)

[Catwoman]

Dogs don't have temper tantrums. :) They get anxious. Or sick. Or scared. Or aggressive. Or confused. Or lonely. Or lots of things. But, really, no matter how much it seems like it (and yes, i know the feeling!), they aren't punishing us! They just don't have that kind of thought/behavior processes.

 

 

 

My dogs strongly disagree with that statement.

 

One of them is pitching a fit about it right now. :scared:

 

If he pees on the floor because of this, I think you should have to come over to my house and clean it up, what with it being all your fault and all.

 

;) ;) ;)

[Rose in BC]

I know they say dogs don't get mad or have temper tantrums but as a former owner of three basset hounds I can tell you they did get mad at us, especially when we left them. I used to tell people hounds had independent spirits ...they had personality! (Well so do the dogs we have now :).)

 

Having said that, UTI was first think that popped in my mind.

[Pawz4me]

I totally agree that dogs don't have temper tantrums, or at least not in the way humans do. There is always a reason dogs do the things they do. Always. And it's not to "get back at" their humans for something the human has done or not done. Sometimes it's a medical issue, and sometimes it's behavioral. But behavioral does NOT equate to "temper tantrum." The first thing to do anytime a reliably house-trained animal starts having accidents is always to get a thorough check-up, including blood work, urinalysis and probably a chem panel. If he were mine, he would've been to the vet months ago. That isn't normal behavior. At his age there are a number of issues that could be causing it, some significantly more serious than a UTI (diabetes, Cushing's, etc.).

[Melissa in Australia]

I personally know a dog that hated me and threw temper tantrums, did things to try and frame me, anything to try to get me to leave.

 

Background - I was DH's dog before he met me. he did everything with the dog. When we got married we lived in an incy wincy pop-up caravan. There was not room for two people to stand up, let alone a dog. the dog was banished to outside. The dog took this personally. It tried to make things uncomfortable for me in the hope that I would be driven out. Here is an example of things it would do. We live in a remote area, at the time there was no neighbours. We would have a shower by bucket. I would heat some water up in the kettle, put it into a bucket with enough cold to make it the right temperature, place it onto the outside step of the caravan, go back in and take off my clothes, step outside to have my shower and FIND THE DOG HAD PUT DOG FOOD IN MY BUCKET. DH wouldn't believe me. He spied out the window one morning and sure enough it was waiting for me to put the bucket out and then grab a mouthful of kibbles walk over and dump them into my water.

[Pawz4me]

I personally know a dog that hated me and threw temper tantrums, did things to try and frame me, anything to try to get me to leave.

 

Background - I was DH's dog before he met me. he did everything with the dog. When we got married we lived in an incy wincy pop-up caravan. There was not room for two people to stand up, let alone a dog. the dog was banished to outside. The dog took this personally. It tried to make things uncomfortable for me in the hope that I would be driven out. Here is an example of things it would do. We live in a remote area, at the time there was no neighbours. We would have a shower by bucket. I would heat some water up in the kettle, put it into a bucket with enough cold to make it the right temperature, place it onto the outside step of the caravan, go back in and take off my clothes, step outside to have my shower and FIND THE DOG HAD PUT DOG FOOD IN MY BUCKET. DH wouldn't believe me. He spied out the window one morning and sure enough it was waiting for me to put the bucket out and then grab a mouthful of kibbles walk over and dump them into my water.

 

 

This is a perfect example of how people misinterpret things. You automatically attribute it to some sort of spiteful behavior, instead of digging deeper into the "why." It could be any number of things. The first that spring to the top of my mind --

 

-An incredibly bored dog, used to more human interaction, trying to entertain himself.

-A stressed dog. The poor dog had been uprooted from his home, banished to the outside, and a new person had entered his life. These are all incredibly stressful things for a dog. If a child started exhibiting weird behaviors during a time of upheaval, would we attribute the behavior to temper tantrums or would we attribute it to stress over the changes in his/her life?

-Many dogs and cats dunk food in water. It's a normal behavior for some. This may be especially true if the dog was bored/anxious and if he had any bird hunting dogs in his gene pool. Those dogs love water, and even if he'd never shown it before, it may have manifested itself due to anxiety/boredom.

 

I don't mean to offend anyone here, but whenever anyone attributes dog behavior to tantrums or spite, I immediately think one of two things: (1) clueless owner or (2) lazy owner who doesn't want to step out of his/her own head and think of things from the dog's perspective. It flummoxes me that so many people are so quick to attribute spiteful behavior and temper tantrums to dogs. And yet they apparently don't even consider that dogs suffer from stress, boredom, anxiety, etc.

[Melissa in Australia]

The dog would only do it to MY shower water, not Dhs water. There were many many other incidents. This dog was definitely trying to drive me out. Believe me I am not a lazy person, and as for cluelessness. I knew that that dog did not want me there. IT made it very well known. It was obvious to every single person.

[Plink]

I'm glad you are taking you dog to the vet. Let us know how it goes.

[ktgrok]

Baxter is 7 years old. He will wake me up from a dead sleep if he has to go out in the middle of the night. He will stand in the doorway of whatever room we happen to be in and whimper if he has to go out when I'm awake. We have been having problems in the last six months with him peeing on the floor if we leave and he thinks he should have gone with us. A typical temper tantrum. So he gets crated when we leave.

 

Ten minutes ago he stood up, got out of his bed (which is at the foot of mine), and peed on the floor. Dd and I were wide awake talking when we heard him pee. He was 6 inches from his bed. We just looked at each other gobsmacked because we couldn't believe what he was doing.

 

All the nightly peeing rituals were performed on time before coming up.

 

After dd and I got up he slinked out of the bedroom, went downstairs and stood at the back door until I let him out. Then he proceeded to pee again. I was so disgusted I didn't wait around to see if he did the other. I went back upstairs to clean the mess and sent dd down to bring him back in.

 

Is this behavior a sign of anything? Should he see the vet?

 

ETA: he is a Bassett hound wannabe if that is important. Hi mother was a German short-hair pointer.

 

He's not having a temper tantrum. He MIGHT be anxious, which makes them have to pee. Totally different. Think about it, Dogs dont see pee as bad or gross, so peeing when you are gone wouldn't be punishment in their eyes. Maybe a gift, lol.

 

But yes, go tot he vet. They need to check his urine. What you are describing could be one or more of several things...many of which are very common. Urinary tract infection, bladder stones, enlarged prostate, (all common) all the way to kidney issues, cushings disease, diabetes, etc (all much less common). Your dog is trying to tell you something here, something is wrong. To the vet TODAY please :)

[ktgrok]

I have the cat going in Wednesday. I'll see about getting him an appointment. Thanks.

 

Wednesday is too long, sorry. Think about it, if you had a bladder infection that was so bad that you were peeing your pants, would you want to wait until Wednesday to see a doctor? It could get MUCH worse by then. He could really be in some pain, and it really should be taken care of today or tomorrow. Sorry...I know that probably isn't what you wanted to hear. But they need to do a urinalysis, and probably a rectal exam to check his prostate.

[Sisyphus]

We had a dog with bladder stones who peed in the house (after years of being housebroken) right in front of us. I'm glad we didn't punish her by kicking her outside or anything, poor thing had an infection and was very sick, it's so hard to tell with dogs when they are sick umtil it's very bad!

 

We also had an issue with our lab being ultra lazy and not going out to pee, and then peeing on our floor or bed! She sleeps with us, and she would crawl in with whoever went to bed first, and the kids were small so shed head up there at about 7. Wed ask her if she had to go potty (she knows what that means) and get no response, and head to bed ourselves at 10-11. Dh would get up at 6, ask her- no response. I'd get up at 8-9, and shed go to get out of bed and then not make it! We took her to the vet, no physical problems, she was just lazy and held it too long. She was banished from the bed for a while, we made sure to make her get up and go pee, and it was fine and she's been back in bed with us for years now.

 

Now she is very old and has dementia and sometimes has accidents, but what can you do?

[ChristusG]

When my dog began having accidents he had a UTI. When he began peeing floods of urine on the floor, he was diagnosed with diabetes. I'd see a vet.

[Seasons]

I would bring him in to the vet first and make sure it isn't physical.

 

I had an 8 year old shitzu that was completely house trained. Then all of a sudden he started to get up in the middle of the night, go downstairs to the living room to pee in the middle of the floor and then head back upstairs to go to bed. I had just listened to a show on dogs needing boundaries and they suggested putting him on a leash and keeping him with me on the leash every minute of the day/night for 1 week. The following week he was to remain on the leash, stay with me every minute of the day/night but I wasn't to hold the leash. It was supposed to just be dragged behind him. I did everything they suggested and we never had another incident in the house. I kept the leash on him while we slept, in the car - he even sat at my feet under the piano while I taught lessons.

 

Eight weeks ago I had another shitzu (13yrs old) undergo surgery for 5 bladder stones. This was a dog that never urinated in the house and could hold it 10 to 12 hours. After he healed from the surgery he was 'going' everywhere. He would just stand there, make eye contact with me and pee in the middle of the floor. I recently took him through the same - let's call it boundary process I did with the other dog and he is complety housed trained again.

 

It has worked for me twice. It's just tricky to find a 2 week window when you can keep a dog with you every second of the day.

[Parrothead]

 

 

Wednesday is too long, sorry. Think about it, if you had a bladder infection that was so bad that you were peeing your pants, would you want to wait until Wednesday to see a doctor? It could get MUCH worse by then. He could really be in some pain, and it really should be taken care of today or tomorrow. Sorry...I know that probably isn't what you wanted to hear. But they need to do a urinalysis, and probably a rectal exam to check his prostate.

 

No, I called yesterday for the cat. The earliest they can see her is Wednesday. I'm sure the earliest they can see Baxter is Wednesday or later. It doesn't matter how I feel about it or if I put myself in his shoes. They don't budge.

[StephanieZ]

No, I called yesterday for the cat. The earliest they can see her is Wednesday. I'm sure the earliest they can see Baxter is Wednesday or later. It doesn't matter how I feel about it or if I put myself in his shoes. They don't budge.

 

Most/all vets have different "triage" processes for various issues, so it might be worth another call. Some issues can wait, some cannot.

 

There is an ethical requirement (and in many places a legal requirement) that veterinarians provide emergency service to their patients or refer them somewhere they can obtain it. You may have to pay extra, but emergency service is generally available nearly everywhere. If there are other vets in town, I'd find one that isn't so unavailable.