Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had my dog Molly for 8 years, and in October 06 we bought a new kitten, who generally lives in my room. Molly is now used to the kitten and they get on ok. The only issue is that whenever Molly believes she's not being watched she will come into my room and urinate on the carpet. Why does she do this? It's happening a couple of times a week and it's getting tiresome. She will even do it if she's just been out and has an empty bladder. She also used to come in and raid the bin for cat food containers but I've now put the bin out of reach, however it is a related problem. Is she marking her territory or is it showing that she's still in distress about the new arrival?

Does Molly have any health issues? You may want to have her checked out by the vet.

Also, if you haven't cleaned up the spots in your room incredibly well with an enzyme cleaner (typically takes more than one attempt to clean a spot), your dog will continue to go in that area.

Dogs can and do mark their territory this way, but I'd check the other things out to be on the safe side.
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Chelle and the rest of the crew including, but not limited to Kita and Taiko (the shiba inu wrestle maniacs), Adi (reserved and dignified tabby cat), and all 28 reptiles

Molly recently went to the vet about lumps we found on her sides, which the vet put down to her becoming middle aged and said they may be arthritic as she's having increasing trouble with using her back legs. We didn't mention the peeing because we didn't consider it a health issue. She has been pretty much healthy until the past few months which could be a coincidence or may be related to the stress from the new cat, I'm not sure.

I have heard of female dogs doing this before...simply to mark it as THEIR territory.

Unfortunaly the only tip I can give you is to make sure that you show her that she is still higher than the cat in the hierarchy by making sure you don't favour the new arrival too much...sometimes they can feel like they are being replaced or like the "old shoe".

I feel for you though, it's no fun having your dog pee in the house...I went through a stage like that after I got my new dog...it wasn't so fun. Hope you find a solution...you might try googling it and see if you can find some more advice that way.

-My Diamond