Apologies for long post: Holly is 2 1/2 now. Ever since she was a puppy, once past the weeing all the time stage, she has been incredibly reluctant to wee in the garden. She gets 3 walks a day, and we used to get her to wee first thing in the morning and last thing at night by scattering a few biscuits around, so she’s go about sniffing and would then wee while distracted. Last year she developed colitis and while we were being careful with her food we stopped the scatter feeding in case she picked something up. She then stopped weeping in the garden altogether. We started taking her down the road to do a wee last thing at night, which worked for a while, but then she decided that she didn’t want to go out. So every night we put on lead and harness, get to back gate and she sits / lies down and Will Not Move. If we get her past the front garden she just stands still and won’t move. It has got to the stage where one of us has to go out last thing and try to get her to wee. We are sometimes out 20 minutes with dog refusing to go anywhere. She often won’t wee which sometimes means that she goes to bed having not done a wee since 18:00. Recently she has begun weeing on her bed (she sleeps in crate). Sometimes she just wees when she is lying in kitchen floor. I thing she has damaged her bladder from holding on so long. I’m trying to incentivise going for a wee last thing at night and thought i’d do some click and reward type reinforcement, although reward options are limited due to HA diet. When we are walking out from the house Holly often gets half a mile away before she does a wee. It is not behaviour i’ve Ever encountered before and vet also says he’s never come across it. Vet asked me to get sample, but very difficult as if I move towards her when she is doing a wee she will stop. I wondered if they would treat empirically just to rule out UTI. I am going to ask tomorrow. Anyone ever had this? Very frustrating. Holly has never been punished for weeing ever.
An excellent idea. If food is an issue, then why not use a game of tug as a reward for urinating. There is an excellent discussion of playing tug in Fenzi and Jones Play. Alternatively, there is a useful video on tug by Nick Benger, https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=785414888316288 It might be useful to have a second person behind the dog to catch a urine specimen once the stream has started.
I think you firstly need a vet check. Is Holly spayed? It is very common for spayed bitches to develop spay-induced incontinence: http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/1...zBjF9adOSfPX7ub-MNou0sefCgtclmqIo5XMT2sCa_Wco https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubm...WBhNl1kBBLZiiqZYcuVIOR6-zYmP1wni0IoEJhtl0vH2s If she is urinating whilst lying down and appears to be unaware of it until afterwards, that is a classic sign of urinary incontinence. These type of accidents always need vet involvement, because they are not just behavioural. There is medication (Incurin or Propalin - you may need to trial one first and switch to the other) which she will likely need to be given daily for the rest of her life, to prevent the incontinence. Otherwise it is likely only to get worse as she ages. It is likely that, not having toileted before bed, her bladder is full and that, combined with the spay-induced incontinence, is leading to leakage at night. But you can't just do the medications - because if you stop the incontinence, you will still have an uncomfortably full bladdered dog! I think you really need to treat her like a little puppy and start to immediately give her a treat after she urinates - every time, even earlier in the day, to establish the habit - not just at night. You need to get to the point where she is eager to urinate to 'earn' her treat - just as we often do with a little puppy, when toilet training. She may be more reluctant to toilet in the garden because often dogs see the garden as an extension of their 'house' and they want to urinate further away (which is why dogs often go at the end of a garden or the corner of a garden).
Thanks for replying Jo, I’ve taken Holly to the vet and he could find nothing wrong with her and suggested I take her to a behaviour expert. If Holly has incontinence induced by spaying or from deliberately holding her wee for so long then that’s something we can deal with, I’ve never imagined for one second that she would wee in the house or in her bed on purpose, however the most pressing issue here is that I feel the one thing I can do to help is ensure she wees regularly and it is imperative that she goes to wee last thing at night and she won’t go out. Last night we went to take her outside, she refused to move. Eventually got her to a patch of grass, she lay down. In all I was out with an immovable dog for about 30 minutes at 11 pm. I took lead off to give her freedom to roam, she remained lying down then got up and went and stood at back gate. Repeated this process several times. She would not walk, she did not wee. Out of desperation I got ball out and threw it to get her moving in the hope she’d need to go. She took ball, dug massive hole under trampoline in middle of the lawn, put ball in hole, refused to come back inside. My husband is so utterly fed up with her he wants to get rid of her. Although I admit, it seems a relatively minor thing, having a dog who will not just go for a wee is actually really stressful because I know that if she doesn’t go she will have an accident overnight. Going to have another try to get urine sample, although this picture doesn’t really fit with UTI as she would have increased urge to go and be uncomfortable and possible unwell. I know that the incontinence is not behavioural but the refusal to leave the house / garden is absolutely behavioural. The idea of rewarding is good, it’s what I planned to do but she has colitis so reward options are pretty limited and she was at vet last week with vomiting. To get her to leave the house at night I would need to offer her something amazing which I can’t do because I have no idea what triggers her gut condition. I really am at my wits end. Sorry for long post. Just got a lot going on and this is not helping.
Hi there, have you tried stopping the walks for a few days? So that the only place she can go is in the garden? With regard to reward options, you can use part of her daily food ration. It does sound though, as if you might need some help from a behaviorist, who can get to know Holly and see the whole picture. And support you through this difficult time.
I hadn’t considered not walking her, but I could do this to force the issue. I think you are right though, we do need outside help. Just spent a futile 20 minutes outside with her, first only walking to the boundaries of the house and then freezing and lying down flat on her side as a means of not moving any further (still aware enough to jump on the cat as she happened by). I’ve got some very meaty smelling new (hypoallergenic) treats and today every wee has been clicked and rewarded. I took treat and clicker out, she could smell treat and was actually drooling (never drools) but still not enough to get her to walk. In the time I was out being frustrated we could have gone for a nice brisk walk around the block and she would just naturally wee at some point. I’m more than willing to do this but she won’t go. I could cry I am so frustrated. I will look for behaviourist right now because as things stand i’m not sure I can keep doing this every night and my OH is totally sick of her. In pretty much all other aspects she’s lovely but I just feel really fed up now. Thanks for responding though, much appreciated x
