Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi...

I have a mixed breed rescue pup approx 6 months old. He has been doing so well in many respects, espcially house training. In fact, we are now at 1 month without an accident which is a blessing...

However, The major problem is that in the mornings when pup REALLY has to go pee, he goes outside and pee's all over his front two legs.

He has never marked, but he does slghtly lift a leg to pee, however he pee's standing almost striaght up. The frustration is that he comes inside smelling like urine every morning and his front legs are soaked. This does not happen later in the day when his bladder is less full and he goes out to make. Does anybody have any suggestions as to how to get him to lift a leg or aim properly? I am trying to avoid getting up in the middle of the night to let him out as he is doing well with his crate.

In case the info is needed, he is about 35 lbs chow/terrier(?) mix. He does not go out to pee on a leash, but rather goes out to a dog run.

ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!!

I'm really sorry. I have no idea how to deal with such an issue. Hopefully others have some advice.
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PHReign
Email me: HReign@pethobbyist.com" target="_blank">PHReign@pethobbyist.com
Dear dog,
I can not buy anything larger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this. Do not think that I will continue to sleep on the couch to ensure your comfort. Look at videos of dogs sleeping, they can actually curl up in a ball. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other stretched out to your fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straigt out and having tongues hanging out the other end to maximize space used is nothing more than doggy sarcasm.

you need to make sure hes not in his crate for too long at night. i know when i wake up i have to go pee. dog bladers are smaller than humans so it can get filled up quicker. you should let your pup out right before you go to bed. and then let it out again right when you wake up, before you do anything for yourself! your pup is probaly hearing you wake up and getting excited, this is why you have to take care of him first. the leg lifting isnt somthing you can teach the dog. its something that comes naturally. some dogs dont even lift their legs, i've seen some labs that pee like girls. some dogs arent physically able to lift their leg, like my dachsie. leg lifting takes some practice, you try peeing while lifting a leg. he'll pick it up quick enough. he may even get talented enough with it that he can switch his legs as hes peeing, like my sheltie. just remember not to leave your pup in his crate too long.

We have always let the dogs out last thing at night and the very virst thing in the morning, before doing anything ourselves. The pattern seems to be that any time he "holds it" for over 6 hours or so, he pees on his feet.

I feel that the solution is likely to let him out more often so his bladder is less full and he has a weaker urine stream, but I am really trying to avoid getting up in the middle of the night to let the dog out especially when he can actually hold it. Also, getting up more often would involve putting the dog in the crate once more.

I have been reassured by other people that pup will eventually learn to not pee on his feet by either squatting more or lifting a leg as time goes on and he gets older. He really isnt showing any signs of improving at this point and continues to stand straight up. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

If anybody has any other tips to teach pup how to aim his stream and not pee all over his front legs, it would be greatly appreciated.....

The key here might be trying to reduce his amount of liquid intake during the day. A problem I ran into when my chihuahua was younger was the fact that he was going to the bathroom in our bed after WEEKS of not having any issues in his kennel. So, instead of feeding/watering him at noon and 6pm, we changed it to 10am and 4pm. This allowed him to, for the most part, get his system emptied before bedtime. Like you, we were giving him frequent bathroom breaks and taking him out before we went to bed. Knowing that getting the puppy riled up caused their systems to process faster (or so it seemed, lol) we scheduled a playtime around 6pm when we would normally have finished dinner and be winding down for bed at 9pm. By basically playing the pee and poo out of him, he almost immediately stopped having issues. Likewise, you might try limiting his intake before bed. Our problem was in bed, yours is right after he gets out. It couldn't hurt giving our method a shot. It's kinda like the idea of what goes up must come down...what goes in, must come out.

I sure hope that helped!

Sami

>>The key here might be trying to reduce his amount of liquid intake during the day. A problem I ran into when my chihuahua was younger was the fact that he was going to the bathroom in our bed after WEEKS of not having any issues in his kennel. So, instead of feeding/watering him at noon and 6pm, we changed it to 10am and 4pm. This allowed him to, for the most part, get his system emptied before bedtime. Like you, we were giving him frequent bathroom breaks and taking him out before we went to bed. Knowing that getting the puppy riled up caused their systems to process faster (or so it seemed, lol) we scheduled a playtime around 6pm when we would normally have finished dinner and be winding down for bed at 9pm. By basically playing the pee and poo out of him, he almost immediately stopped having issues. Likewise, you might try limiting his intake before bed. Our problem was in bed, yours is right after he gets out. It couldn't hurt giving our method a shot. It's kinda like the idea of what goes up must come down...what goes in, must come out.
>>
>>
>>I sure hope that helped!
>>
>>Sami

>>>>>>>>>>>

Restricting a dog's water can kill the dog--literally. I hope no one will do this except under direction of a veterinarian. A dog's whole cooling system runs on water intake. Tiny breeds not getting the water they need--yikes.
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series articles at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47

Hi.
You seem to answer your own question within your post.
Unfortunately, there is no solution without more effort on your part.
The problem is that your pooch is so full when he goes out in the morning that he almost bursts! He obviously is a VERY GOOD DOG because he's holding it longer than he would if he had free access to a bathroom break spot.
Imagine if every day you were forced to wait while you were dying to pee. This would not be acceptable.

How about trying this:
1- Take him out once more (or at least later) the night before. If he's not going out until 6AM or so, he should be going out at 11:00 or 11:30 PM the night before.
2- No water drinking for 60 minutes or so before his last night walk. Example: Let's say he goes out at 11:15 PM for the last time each day. You should restrict his water intake (and any snacks that would make him want water) from 10:00 PM on. Also, make sure he can't get to water in the toilet bowl. Some dogs are greedy water drinkers which can lead to these problems. Most problems of your sort can be solved by water restriction at night.

If these 2 things don't work, set your alarm for 2 or 3 in the AM and take him out. The answer is simply that his bladder can't hold all the liquid that currently he's been holding and you must give him an opportunity to go before he's bursting.

Good Luck - he obviously is so good and you've done a good job so far that I'm sure you can solve it in no time.

Thanks so much again for all the great advice. We have been even more stringent about night time water restriction and pup is going out at about midnight and then again at 6 or 7AM. He continues to pee on his front feet. He has even been hitting his feet at routine outside time during the day too.

He will start out with his leg slightly raised and peeing to the side, but about halfway done, he puts his leg down and hits his front legs. He wont squat at all to pee, just stand straight up. After he is done peeing, he licks the pee off his front legs to clean off. The problem persists and we are even noticing him peeing on himself during the day.

I spoke to the vet recently and besides night time water restriction and more frequent potty breaks (as the replies here have mentioned), he thinks that with time, hopefully pup will learn to lift a leg or squat more. In the mean time, we remain frustrated and not much seems to help.

Overall, we definitely remain pleased albeit frustrated. I would definitely rather have a pup that pees some on his legs than a pup who pees on the rug!

THANKS AGAIN... Any other suggestions are definitely welcome. We are willing to try anything!

>>Thanks so much again for all the great advice. We have been even more stringent about night time water restriction and pup is going out at about midnight and then again at 6 or 7AM. He continues to pee on his front feet. He has even been hitting his feet at routine outside time during the day too.
>>
>>He will start out with his leg slightly raised and peeing to the side, but about halfway done, he puts his leg down and hits his front legs. He wont squat at all to pee, just stand straight up. After he is done peeing, he licks the pee off his front legs to clean off. The problem persists and we are even noticing him peeing on himself during the day.
>>
>>I spoke to the vet recently and besides night time water restriction and more frequent potty breaks (as the replies here have mentioned), he thinks that with time, hopefully pup will learn to lift a leg or squat more. In the mean time, we remain frustrated and not much seems to help.
>>
>>Overall, we definitely remain pleased albeit frustrated. I would definitely rather have a pup that pees some on his legs than a pup who pees on the rug!
>>
>>THANKS AGAIN... Any other suggestions are definitely welcome. We are willing to try anything!

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I suspect that the reason the urine is hitting front legs more at other times is that the dog now has to tank up on water to get enough. I really don't think restricting water helps with housetraining issues, and since it can cause truly serious health problems, the vets I work with advise against it.

Maybe you can stimulate him to lift his leg more--but be careful with it. If he has an orthopedic problem or growing pains or panosteitis, it may hurt to lift a leg. So encourage but don't push.

If you can give him some outdoor time with a leg-lifting male who is friendly to him, that stimulates leg-lifting. One of my dogs went to a play date as a non leg lifter and came home with a new skill!

If you want to get a little nutty, you could even get some scent from a friend with a male dog. If they were to soak up urine on a paper towel and put it in a plastic bag for you, and then you rub it on a post in your yard, it might get him going. You could even do it routinely, put a word to it, and get him doing it on cue. Do not try to tell him which leg to lift. That way if something is sore, he can shift his weight off it. Of course you can add a treat as more incentive.

Have you thought about some kind of disposable or washable covering for his front legs? You could put them on just before letting him out, and teach him to stop in the doorway to have them removed for a treat.
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Kathy Diamond Davis, author, "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others," 2nd edition, and the free Canine Behavior Series articles at http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=SRC&S=1&SourceID=47