Older dog pooping & peeing in the house

Question
We have an 8 yr old male Husky, who has been neutered when he was 6 mths old.  Just in the last few months he has been peeing in the same spot on the rug in our living room/dining room and now today I went home to find dog poop at the bottom of our basement stairs on the carpet.  He had a complete check-up back in May of this year and everything came back normal.  What could the problem be?  I'm getting tired of constantly cleaning the same spot on the rug.
Thanks for any help you can offer.

Answer


Hi Valerie,

Your dog may well have been totally fine five months ago when he was last checked by your vet, but since then it sounds like he's developed a problem. Male dogs can develop urinary tract infections just as female dogs can. This is something which would cause a reliably house trained dog to have accidents in the home.  There are other medical conditions which would cause bowel and bladder incontinence problems. Because your dog isn't too old, a medical reason for these problems need to be ruled out.

Until you can have your dog examined by your veterinarian, limit his access to your home when you're not able to watch him,  when you're not home, and during the over night. Use a child gate or two, or an indoor dog pen to contain your dog so he doesn't have the run of your home, and lay newspaper down over the entire containment area. This will make clean-ups much easier.  Be sure to take your dog outside more frequently than you had been, he needs it right now.

If there has been any changes in your household recently, or if there's been a change in your dog's normal routine, these are situations where house trained pets would suddenly start having accidents. You should rule out a medical reason before assuming this is a behavioral issue.

Clean the areas in your home where he's had accidents with an enzymatic cleaner, such as Nature's Miracle or Simple Solution, and supervise, supervise supervise! Punishment is useless if your dog is suffering a bladder infection, or from a behavioral issue.

Best of luck,

Patti