[MissMolly]

Molly is 7 months old, and she still hasn't made the connection to go outside. She always runs to the kitchen to go. We have made progress (she doesn't pee on the carpet anymore!). Everytime we see her sneak into the kitchen we take her out, but she still has accidents. Also she seems to need to pee almost every hour on the hour. She doesn't have a UTI, we confirmed it with the vet.

My husband read that we should limit her water after 8PM to help combat the behavior. I dont like the sounds of that at all.

Also, every morning she pees in her crate. She can't go overnight yet without relieving herself. We put a blanket in her crate for comfort, but my husband things she cannot feel the wetness, so she pees.

Any thoughts?

 

[emc]

If she's going in her crate then your husband is right about limiting the water in the evening. Put her on a leash in the house and don't give her the run of the house without any close supervison, take her outside every hour and when she does her "stuff" give her a lot of praise, maybe even a food treat, whatever so she knows you are really please with her. Make sure the kitchen floor is clean well so that there's no trace of urine scent, use vinegar or some commercial product.

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[iowamommy]

Your husband is also right about the towel in the crate. We made this mistake as well. We have a 8 month old basset (who we are starting to wonder if she is a basset/beagle mix) and she would always pee in her crate at night as well. I always have a blanket/towel in there for her comfort. But, after reading somewhere that you shouldn't do this because the towel soaks in the wetness or they just kick it to the back we took it out and she stopped after a couple of times. Once completely house trained you can put it back in. We are still having housetraining problems at 8 months as well. Hang in there!

 

[Barbara Winters]

I know I used to get up during the night to let them out once when I was house training puppies. Actually they usually all ended up going out then.

I did have a bitch that would always seem to pee in her crate and she did not have a UTI. Upon further examination by my veterinarian it was determined the she had what is referred to as a "pelvic bladder." The bladder wasn't located exactly where it should be found and this can lead to incontinence. Fortunately this improved as she got older.

There are numerous other conditions that can contribute to incontinence so a full workup may be indicated if this continues. Probably it's a housetraining issue but discuss this situation with your vet if things don't improve.

Check out Incontinence in the Bitch by Dr Fischer.

 

[jmm]

i had the same problem. i took the bedding out,
her last outside walk is around 10pm, no water or very very little after 6pm....this is the killer....took her out every 2 hours over night then gradually increased the time and now we are at 6 hours and no elimination in the crate. sadie is 6 months old. my biggest probelm is the fact that it seems like as soon as her little bladder starts to fill up she has to go...so that means every hour during the day. i checked for uti and kidney function and all is ok.....i just think she should be holding it longer in the house. she was a pet store puppy turned into rescue so i think she thinks she can still eliminate whenever.

 

[Guest]

You have to be very consistant. When Ruby was a puppy, we'd take her out in the a.m. (on leash) and then say, "do you wanna eat?". She'd run to the door.

We'd feed her and then take her out again (on leash) and she'd do her poop.

During the day we got good and watching her like a hawk and if she looked as tho she was doing the big sniff (like she had to "go)", I'd say, "do you want to go out?" She'd run to the door. So I'd hook her up (harness and leash) and off we'd go.

We wanted to teach her to tell us that she needed to do a poopy so when she'd act like she had to go, we'd say, "do you want to go out?" and she'd wag and run for the door. Then we'd say, "do you need to do a poopy?" We'd get a bark or another run to the door. So we'd tell her to get her bear. (all of her toys are called bears).

So, even to this day, when she needs to go out and gets her bear, we know what she needs to do.

And yes, take up the water at 8 p.m. And if you have to wake her up to go outside B4 you go to bed, then do a wake up at 10 p.m. or whatever time it is and do it. Consistancy is the key.

 

[Mikey T]

It has been always my belief that the reason bassets are longer to housetrain than other breeds is they gain sphincter control much later in there development.

If the only places molly had accident is where she slept, and if she is spayed/nuetered I would also investicate the possiblity of spay incontinece though it is a very young age for it to begin. It is usually more of a problem in older dog though both of myh female beagles developed the problem between the ages of 2 and 3.
The cause of the problem is thought to be a result of less sex hormones. It is easily and most of the time successfully treated with PPA - trade name Proin or hormone replacement. It is generally believed proin poses less risk to dogs than hormone replacement.


Schedule the access to water like you do food and the eliminations will be more predictable therefore accidents are more avoidable. The one caveat as this usual happens to everone that does a good job of managing the dog to prevent accidents, the lack of accidents does not mean the dog is house trained, It may just be you are preventing them. Give the dog more latitude an if the accidents start to happen you will know why.