Older lab and urinating

Discussion in 'Senior Labradors' started by mom2labs, Aug 7, 2018.

  1. mom2labs

    mom2labs Registered Users

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    Another question I have with our 11 yr old lab is that some times he will not urinate where he normally should go, he seems to do this randomly since we got our puppy 12 weeks ago. Is it because he's getting old or could it have anything to do with the puppy now going in the area (which is pretty big) that he has always gone in and trained to?
     
  2. Beanwood

    Beanwood Registered Users

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    I am not sure in this case. It sounds like your older lab's behaviour is indeed linked to that of the puppy, however, I wouldn't rule out other minor changes due to ageing that could also be happening at the same time.

    I am absolutely not an expert but would be having a chat with the vet, just to make sure aches and pains that would be natural at his age aren't adding to a bit of anxiety and stress. I would be wanting to ensure that the older dog is comfortable physically, and then address any psychological issues affecting behaviour.

    In our case, our younger dog was always keen to play with Bramble, the big clue with Casper (our older dog) was that although was happy to observe from a distance, he really wasn't that keen to engage. So just made sure Casper had a place where he could "decompress" and puppy wasn't allowed. We ensured everyone had plenty of space and supervised interactions very carefully. Crates and puppy pens were very useful in this case, especially when the puppy entered the hyper, bitey stage! Even so, they were a couple of ouchie moments, basically when Bramble climbed over him and accidentally caught a sore area.

    You might want to also check out a good behaviourist, just to come along and check out your set up, and maybe offer some tips around your routines. :)
     
  3. mom2labs

    mom2labs Registered Users

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    Thanks for the tips. We will be making another appointment with our vet soon for this and some other things. It is very difficult to keep our puppy and the older dog separate. Our older dog always wants to be where we are therefore the puppy is there as well. We do put him in his crate when he seems to be really annoying our older dog. The thing is we will try to remove our older dog by having him come out and lay with me when I'm working which he has always loved doing but now he wants to stay where the puppy is even if he's annoying him, and he doesn't always seem to like it. I don't get it. The only other thing I can think of is our older dogs hearing has drastically gone downhill since a medication he was given about 5 months ago. I don't know if he barks so much at him because he doesn't know what's going on although i know he can hear a little even when the puppy isn't even doing anything to him he'll just bark so I don't know. I just don't always know when to intervene between the two of them. Our older dog will engage him with a toy but then barks at him so I don't know he wont walk away from it. His hearing loss is devastating to us.
     

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