Dog peeing

Question
We recently got a 2 1/2 year old golden retriever from a family. She's a great dog who is well behaved, great with our toddler and very smart. She has only one problem. She pees on our carpet downstairs. She does not pee anywhere else in the house. She has a doggie door so full access to the outside. She seems to do it the most at night, while we are home. She gives no warning. She calmly goes downstairs, pees n comes back up. It's not a huge amount so I'm not sure if it is marking or peeing. We had a cat that had marked so I figured that's what she was marking over. We bought a baby gate and blocked her from where the cat had marked, so she only had access to a small amount of carpet. She is still "marking" or peeing on the small area she can still get to. We can be gone all day sometimes and she won't pee, but at night she seems to have issues. We've even left the light on to see if that would help... Just to see. Nope!!! Please help!!!

Answer
Hi Sharon,

The first thing I would recommend, as I often do with housebreaking issues is to have your dog see a veterinarian for a medical evaluation if she hasn't seen one recently to rule out any medical reason for her nighttime urination.

I recently took in a Golden Retriever at about a year and a half years old who is nearly 3 now and wasn't housebroken when I got her. She was a challenge to housebreak and I'm not sure why it took so long, but it did. Some dogs seem to be more concerned about eliminating indoors than others. Perhaps Golden Retrievers are such happy-go-lucky dogs that they are ones that just don't care a lot. I don't know.

In addition to having your dog medically evaluated, I would recommend using an enzymatic cleaner such as Nature's Miracle to rid your carpet of any residual odor that may be causing your dog to return to that same spot to urinate. Get an inexpensive black light to find out where there may be urine residual so that you can get rid of any spots that may be attracting your dog to that area.

Since she is going downstairs at night I would confine her at night in a crate while you are in bed sleeping. If she cries at night as if she has to eliminate, I would take her out until you know for sure that she does not have a medical problem that is causing her to need to urinate at night.

Try keeping her in her crate in your bedroom with the door closed. I'm afraid that if you don't confine her to a crate she may start urinating in the bedroom. This won't have to be forever - just until she gets trained.

Try to keep your dog on as regular a schedule as possible. She should have water at all times - don't restrict it. Some people remove water at night, but I have never recommended this as I think it's necessary for a dog to have access at all times to regulate their fluid status and stay adequately hydrated. If you restrict her water, as I had one client do, the dog may drink excessively due to thirst and then have "accidents" in the home.

I would turn the lights off at night and make a bedtime ritual. This should encourage your dog to sleep at night. Be prepared to take her outside in the morning first thing after you wake up.

Until your dog is fully housebroken, I wouldn't leave her alone at all while you are home - since that seems to be the time she is housesoiling. Watch her for any sign that she needs to go out and block her access as you already have to areas of the house that are out of your sight or where she has gone previously to eliminate.

Hope this helps - your dog is probably going through an adjustment period. So what you need to do is have her medically evaluated just to be sure there is no medical cause for this issue, and then manage your environment to keep her from housesoiling until she gets into a new habit. I am hoping that patience will pay off for you as it did for me!

Please let me know if you have any further questions - and good luck!

Cindy