lhasapoo - 7 yrs old

Question
Babee is the sweetest most loving dog we have ever had. we give her all our attention, we are seniors & retired.
we have her since 7 weeks old. she was wonderful to train. I didn't want to walk her at night or in the desert heat, so I trained her in the house with a wee-wee pad.
Everything was wonderful for 7 years - & then she started raising her leg & urinating on everthing & anything. The vet found crystals in her urine & put her on antibiotics. went back to him, still crystals & so another antibiotic, and then a 3rd time & more antibiotics.
I think it might be a behavior or emotional problem but why, we don't know.
I now have her in a denim dog panty with a heavy Kotex pad. because she goes to her wee wee pad & squats or raises her leg & urinates. The panty makes no difference to her, so I just change the kotex pad.
I take it off at night, she sleeps with me & door is closed so i felt confident that she would be ok. Not this am, she went to her wee wee pad & made & then she turned to the wall & lifted her leg & urinated.
PPPPLLLLLEEEEEAAAASSSSSEEEE HHHEEELLLPPP!
Terry

Answer
I am really lost on why a 7 year old would suddenly start behaving like that.  It does seem to have started with the crystals.  Keep working with the vet.  If it is a physical problem, no amount of training will fix it.  The leg lifting is more a male thing.  Could the vet check for a hormone imbalance?  

The only thing I can think of is her developing a status issue, but that most often comes at 3 years old or sooner.  By urinating all over everything, she is showing you don't have control over her.  The dogs see all the
people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in
the pack and a top dog.  Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members
outrank the 4 legged ones.  You can learn to play the role of top dog by
reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class
or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with
a treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/