peeing...please help!

Question
QUESTION: We have a four year old male boxer. We do not know what to do and are just about ready to give up on him. The past few years he would pee in the house if he was left alone, which I guess is understandable since boxers have such bad seperation anxiety. So we have learned to keep him outside when no one is home. Although the last few months he has begun to pee when we are home! Last night he pee'd after he had his supper and his walk! The vet has already ruled out a UTI before. The wierd thing is though that he does not pee in one spot, he walks all around the house and pee's as he is walking, which makes it awful to clean up. Also we cannot figure out how he can have that much urine inside of him because he will walk all through the kitchen, the dining room, the living room and the bedroom and create a constant urination. And last night when he did it we were in the same room as him. We got upset and put him outside and as soon as he went through the door the pee stopped. He knows what he is doing is bad because normally he would be barking at the door to come back in but all night long he never even came near the door. It is the strangest thing, he simply walks around while peeing. He has done this the past two nights with us in close proximity to him. But previous to this he has done it when we are away or somewhere else in the house. Originally we thought he was doing it out of spite because he was mad he was left alone, but now we have no idea why he would do this, like i said he was not being ignored, he was not hungry, and he had already had his big walk. Please please help, we cant deal with this much longer. the floors are beginning to smell and the hastle of cleaning up everywhere is just too much. We really feel that this is not a health issue because he never pee's during the night or on the deck during the day. Any help at all would be greatly appreciated! He is a very friendly loving dog and we would hate to have to get rid of him, but if this continues we don't have much choice. Thanks very much for your time.

ANSWER: Hi Shawna. Actually, my 13 year old male does this as well. It turns out that it is health related. He has a hernia around his anus, and investigating it further, the vet found a growth in his colon that he thought was putting pressure on his bladder. The vet also found a kidney infection. I have also talked to others who's dogs have done this, and they ll had a health issue going on. One dog had something wrong with his prostate. You didn't say if your boy was neutered or not. A vet told me once that that had something to do with this condition. Let me look some things up, and I'll get back toyou today sometime. Give me a chance to do some more research before you decide to ship this boy off. I'm sure we can come up with something to help you guys. I'll talk to you later today! :-)

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QUESTION: (He is neutered btw.)

Answer
Ok, I did a lot of talking to others who have experienced this with their dogs, and even to a vet and behaviorist. Everyone agrees to have any health issues ruled out first. The vet said to have any UTI's explored, and also to have him checked for losened spincther muscles. This can be helped with hormonal injections from what I understand. If all health issues are ruled out, you may want to talk to a behaviorist to figure out what's going on behind this. Everyone seems to think that you will most likely find some sort of health issue going on. The behaviorist said that after he went to the vet, and if any health problems were found and dealth with, to put the dog on a leash while he was in the house, and keep the leash in your hand at all times. This will let you keep a really good eye on him if he shows any inclination to using the bathroom, and you'll catch it before it happens. The vet suggests getting a urine sample and taking it to your vet, and to have him checked for the losened sp. muscles. He also suggest to note the color of the urine, and if it has a funky smell. This may not be a lot of help to you, but this is all I could find out. It all leads back to the same things time and again. Start with your vet, and then move on to a behaviorist or someone in your area that has a lot of knowledge about dogs that can see your boy in person and help you gain control over this. I hope I was able to help you some. :-) Good luck!