How can I teach my old dog to go to the bathroom in a new place?

January 7, 2009 5:35 PM

My 12 year old dog has begun to pee (and occasionally poo) inside. I think this is a combination of old age, a med he is currently taking, and a bit of jelousy towards the two cats that have taken up residence in the house in the past year. How do I encourage him to pee and poo in a particular spot inside?

As said above, Shell (the dog's name) is 12 years old. Not ancient, but starting to get to that age where it might become harder for him to hold it for long periods of time. Also, Shell is on some medication for a kind of ear infection. This med makes him extremely thirsty, and thus he has to go pee a lot. And when he does, it's for long periods of time, rather than the many (many, many) short-burst pees he usually did on our walks. Finally, we have adopted two cats over the past year (one a year, so far...I hope there won't be a third this year...people seem to like abandoning kittens in the area around our house). They get along well with Shell, and he couldn't care less about them. But, he's not getting the attention he got in the past.

All of these factors, I believe, have led Shell to start peeing in the house. It's not in one spot, but in various places throughout--a couple times on carpets, a couple times on a foam mat we have in one particular room, in the genkan area (sort of a small foyer near the front door...I live in Japan), and a couple times in the wood-floored hallway.

Shell has his own room, where he hangs out when my wife and I are at work. This room is sort of a garage-ish area--concrete floor, and a place where we keep collapsed cardboard boxes for recycling, odds and ends from around the house to throw out, the cat's litter box, winter tires. We have put a carpet on the foor, and Shell's got his little corner with his bed and pillow and favorite slipper.

I want to build a "bathroom corner" for Shell in this room. Square off a corner, and put newspapers (or pee-mats, if I can find them here in Japan) on the ground so Shell can go to the bathroom there. How do I train Shell that this is an OK place for him to go when he can't hold it?

posted by snwod to pets & animals (12 comments total)

Probably the same way you trained him to do his business outside -- rewards, "good dog", etc. whenever he does it right, "bad dog" whenever he does it somewhere else.

But, I'm not sure doing this is a great idea, really. You may want to work on adjustments to the meds so this is not necessary, or ways he can be taken for a walk more often. Having been trained to go outside and having abided by that training for 12 years, he's no happier going inside than you are about him doing it.
posted by beagle at 5:52 PM on January 7

Ah, just noticed the Japan part. Most puppy housebreaking pads in the US are treated with a "go here" kind of scent, and they worked pretty well when my elderly greyhound reached the "can't hold it all day" stage. Granted, the dog had absolutely no concept of where his ass was and sometimes missed the actual pads (I would lay down a rug of six or eight), but would have his front feet on them at the time and he was a giant stretch limo of a dog. He figured out about using the pads without any help from me, I think it was the scent applied to them.

If you can't find the treated pads, you might still find housebreaking spray with a similar scent that you could spray on newspapers.

You may want to create your area at least several inches away from the wall to prevent leg-lifting on the actual wall/baseboards.
posted by Lyn Never at 6:26 PM on January 7

My friend had a twelve-year old dog that started, fairly suddenly, to have accidents in the house and it turned out that he had a raging UTI (Urinary Tract Infection). Has that possibility been eliminated with a vet?
posted by kate blank at 7:08 PM on January 7 [1 favorite has favorites]

and a bit of jealousy towards the two cats that have taken up residence in the house in the past year

I doubt it. You're anthropomorphizing.
posted by dunkadunc at 7:11 PM on January 7

Check it's not medical. If it is "jealousy" or dominance, he'd be peeing high up on things. If not, then it could be medical.
posted by idb at 7:45 PM on January 7 [1 favorite has favorites]

That's not entirely anthropomorphizing - it's entirely usual for pets to respond strangely when new pets or people come into the house. Maybe it's stress. Maybe it's excitement. Maybe they're uptight trying to guard their people (resources) and don't like that others (cats) have access to those resources. That sounds jealous to me.

That said, UTI would be my first guess, or age related issues. See a vet.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 8:56 PM on January 7

Like others are saying above, definitely get him checked out for a urinary tract infection. Our dog (4 1/2 years old) suddenly began peeing in various places around the apartment about a month ago even though he knows where he should be doing it. I took a urine sample to the vet and sure enough, he had an infection. Even the vet was surprised because our dog seemed completely healthy otherwise! After we began treating him for the infection, the accidents went away (knock on wood).

BTW, yes you can get pee pads in various sizes in Japan. They're called "toilet sheets" or "pet sheets" and you can usually buy them in "home centers" or in drugstores. Some large supermarkets carry them, too. Or you can buy them in bulk over the internet. If you read Japanese, Peppy and Iris are good places to find stuff.
posted by misozaki at 9:02 PM on January 7

dunkadunc, check this out: recently on the blue.

I wonder if you should possibly remove the carpet from the garage-like room. My mother's dogs, who are house trained, largely instinctively prefer to pee on the concrete floor of our basement to other areas of the house, given the option (I think because the floor there seems similar to outside). Aside from that, just approach this the same way you would any toilet training--praise for correct behavior.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:25 PM on January 7

Erk, link should have gone here.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:27 PM on January 7

Thank you for the suggestions, folks.

To clarify a bit. This is not my dog from the start, rather he's a step-dog. My wife has had him since he was a puppy. I'm just the Johnny-come-lately. :) I'll talk with her about how she originally potty trained him.

I'll also definitely suggest to her we talk to the local vet about the possibility of a UTI. A friend of mine suggested that a while ago when Shell was having the long pee bouts on our daily walks (this was last year sometime, and only lasted about a week or so and never resulted in accidents in the house).

And, PhoBWanKenobi, that's exactly what I was thinking about when I suggested that jealousy might be a cause.
posted by snwod at 9:51 PM on January 7

Take something he's peed on before, don't wash it, and put it where you want him to pee. Dogs like to keep refreshing their marks. You may be able to accelerate the training by leaving him in his room, with the pee-stained item in the appropriate spot, lots of water to drink, for a while. My dog pees near the door, so I have a machine-washable rug there with lots of newspapers under it.
posted by theora55 at 8:09 AM on January 8

I've had the same problems and successes described by Lyn Never, though our oldster is past being agile enough to leg-lift anymore (poor guy). We picked our "landing zone" based mostly on past performance and its largely successful, though we've had plenty of puddles right next to the pad...
posted by Ogre Lawless at 1:56 PM on January 8