Accident-prone Weimaraner

Question
QUESTION: I have a 4-5 year-old female Weimaraner who has been housebroken. She knows not to pee in the house but just lately (the last few months) she began to pee on the wood floor in the dining room. Before she preferred a spot on the oriental rug in the living room. This only happens when we are not home or the family is sleeping. It is not a pleasant surprise to find a large puddle early in the morning after getting up. We do yell at her, and tell her "no" and "bad" while pointing to the puddle, and she understands. She'll back away with her head to the ground.
Still, it happens repeatedly, at least once every two weeks if not more. I really need help because both of my parents have threatened to get rid of her, which I obviously object to. Lily has never judged or expected something of me, so I would like to return such gratitude. Please help me fix this problem, as I truly do not want to see her go.

ANSWER: Hi, Stacy,

Thanks for the question. I hope I can help.

The first thing you need to realize is that scolding a dog doesn't really teach her anything except to be nervous or afraid of you. That's what the backing away with her head lowered means; that she's feeling nervous about what you're going to do to her, not guilty about what she's done. And the more nervous she is, the less likely she'll be to hold her bladder when you want her to. And it might not be under her control, either. If she's been spayed she may be exhibiting spay-related incontinence. It's unlikely, given that she only does this at certain times of day, not all the time, but there may be a medical condition behind the behavior (unless you've already had your vet rule out that possibility).

Was there some kind of change in the household in the last 3-4 months? A move, someone moved out? Another pet that died? A change in the daily schedule? Also, how much hard vigorous playful exercise does she get every day? Does she like to play fetch and tug-of-war? Does she ever get a chance to play with other doggies? Does she have a crate? And since it sounds like you and the dog are living with your parents, are they willing to make some changes in how they relate to her? Which brings up some more questions: how old are you, and how much time do you have to devote to working with the dog every day? Could you hand feed her all her meals outdoors?

I look forward to hearing back from you.

LCK

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: She does have spay-related incontinence but she gets pills for this. We have gone to the vet and he ruled out any medical condition.
There also has been no significant change lately. We've been busy, like always, but very aware of her. She goes on a run nearly every day of the week, with a few play times in between. She likes other dogs, but she insists on most of the attention so we don't schedule many "play-dates".
We did use a crate on Lily as a puppy, which did not work out AT ALL. She would actually hurt herself to get out of the thing, and we'd have to force her into it in the first place. She even bent the wire of the door forcing her way out.
Some changes can be made, but obviously we aren't home 24/7. I may still be in high school, but most afternoons+nights could be spent with her. I don't necessarily know what the hand feeding will do...but I suppose it can be arranged.

Plus, sorry for my late response, but thank you for your quick response!

Answer
Hi, again, Stacy. Sorry it took me a while to get back to you.

If the vet is right, that there's no medical reason for this behavior, then it sounds to me like it's probably the result of your dog being unhappy or stressed in some way. Certainly being scolded doesn't do anything to help reduce her stress, so it would be very helpful if you and your family could realize that doing that isn't helping. In fact some dogs actually do things like this so they CAN be scolded; they like the attention, even if it's negative attention. At any rate, this behavior is unusual in well-adjusted adult dogs, and indicates to me that she's trying to "tell" you guys something about how she's feeling.

The reason I asked about hand feeding is because it might be very helpful if you were to feed her all her meals outside using a pushing exercise. This is where you basically put one hand against the dog's chest, palm up, and just hold it there while you let her eat from your other hand. As she eats you pull the food hand away ever so slightly, but leave the other hand where it is, so that she has to put pressure on it in order to eat. Once she's finished eating you spend some time playing with her, preferably a good hard game of tug-of-war, using a tug rag, like a bandana or an old sock. The harder she bites in play, the more emotionally balanced she'll be. If she doesn't like to play tug you can usually get a game started by teasing her with a toy and running away, inducing her to chase you. If she has fun chasing you, and you zig zag, and switch directions, fake left and go right, etc., she'll want to bite something when she finally catches you.

Also, as you do the pushing exercise over time you want to build up the amount of pressure that she puts against your other hand by actually pushing against her chest as hard as you can. But you have to build slowly to that level; this is important. But once she's eating while pushing as hard as she can, and also biting on the tug rag as hard as she can when you play tug, she'll be better able to handle whatever internal emotional issues are causing this behavior.

I know pushing into you in order to eat doesn't seem connected to a housebreaking issue, but it IS connected to a dog's being able to work past whatever emotional issues are causing emotional distress, which can cause many different kinds of misbehavior from aggression to separation anxiety (and since she only does this when no one is home or you're all asleep, that may be a factor here) to, yes, housebreaking problems in adult dogs.

Here are some links that will hopefully be helpful:

http://tinyurl.com/3balu6 (pushing exercise, a la Neil Sattin)

http://www.tiny.cc/SwimUpstream (description of why it works)
         
http://www.tiny.cc/tug (why playing tug is important)

Let me know how it goes.

LCK