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arlosmom

my older dog has started peeing in the house -- help!!

arlosmom
14 years ago

My otherwise wonderful dog, Arlo, has started peeing in the house daily while I'm at work. Today made 4 days in a row. He's 14, and I've had him for 11 of those years. He's always been an occasional house pee-er, but in recent years only maybe two or three times a year.

He is not in a crate while I'm away. I crated him for the first 3 or 4 years I had him, and he absolutely HATED every minute of it. He'd break out of the crate or work himself into a frenzy. I came home one day and he had managed to up-end the darn thing. Crating was just miserable for both of us. I don't even want to try crating him again at this point. He was in a no-kill shelter for 6 months before I adopted him and he had (has) some lingering skeletons for his early days. Maybe crating reminds him of his six months in a shelter cage. Anyway, it would be traumatic for him and I don't want to do that to him.

I only work part time, so I'm only away for 4 to 5 hours max at a time. I walk him 3-4 miles in the morning, and then give him another quick walk just before I leave for work to "empty the tanks." I know he can hold his pee for long periods of time because he goes all night without a bathroom break. When I'm not working, he's fine for long stretches without a bathroom break.

I had him at the vet yesterday to have his thyroid levels checked and he peed in the vet's waiting room! I mentioned this new problem to them, so they went ahead and did a full blood work-up and urinanalysis on him along with the thyroid test. Well, the vet's receptionist just called and said his blood work was excellent, and that they couldn't see a medical reason for the peeing.

So now I'm really stumped. My work is seasonal, so I didn't work over the winter and he got really used to having me home. But I've been back working for 4 weeks now and the peeing just started this week. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Here's my boy:

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