dog urinating in house

Question
My dog is an 8 year old mix between a beagle and chihuahua. She is current with vaccinations. Every now and then she will urinate on the couch. She hasn't been sick or injured so I'm baffled at what would bring this on. I've tried walking her more and taking her out for more frequent potty breaks. Her diet consists of name brand dry food with an occasional table food treat. She does manage to finish what's in the cats' bowls if I don't move them quickly enough. The cats eat name brand dry and canned food. I would love to hear your ideas. Thanks.

Answer
There is a chance that one of two things might be going on. First of all, she might be having hormone problems and isn't urinating on the couch as much as she is just "leaking" urine.

This is a common occurrence with spayed dogs. Your vet can determine if that is the problem and give you some medication that will help with her bladder control.

The second thing is that she might have bladder stones. In a small dog these can fill up the bladder after a while and then there isn't much room for urine, so any movement can make it come out.

Again, she needs to be seen by your vet to determine which of these (if any) problems she might have.

Also, if she is overweight, she will have more problems with bladder control, just like an obese person does. All that weight pressing on the bladder can squeeze it. If she eats table scraps then chances are that she is a bit overweight.

Call your vet and have her looked at. Tell him about this wetting on the couch so he will feel her bladder. If she has stones her bladder will feel like a bag of marbles.