Lhasa apso incontinence / behavioural

[NuckingFutz]

Can anyone help advise on how we can support our 18 month old Lhasa Apso cross with toileting?

I am literally at my wits end.

We have replaced our carpets in the house after rehoming her and her toileting in the house when we leave her to go out. We have tried all sorts:

Puppy pads
Crate
Free fun
Stair gates

She is walked regularly, we have a large garden where we leave the door open for her to access outside as much as we can. She could do the toilet as soon as we leave even if she has been outside all day and toilettes not long before. I think it's separation anxiety.

I always leave a pad out in case and the majority of the time she will use it but the excitement of hearing us coming through the door or possible whining waiting on us means she pees at the door. Every time I come home she is drenched in urine. I am showering her 2-3 times a day which is a big stress for both of us.

Please help with advice and not criticism. We love her and really want to tackle this but it is causing a lot of stress.

FYI - even with the door open the other day, she took it upon herself to come inside and go upstairs and poo!

What can I do? I luckily have been off this week but it still hasn't been tackled because as soon as I leave the house the accidents happen. I am back to work next week and I am stressed about it already.

[Confusedbeetle]

I think you need to find a dog behaviourist. This sounds very much like anxiety. Rehomed dogs often have issues when they are left and wee the min you get home

[adaline]

What are you cleaning up the accidents with?

[Floralnomad]

Is she actually properly house trained at all as I assume that you were actually present when the door was open . I’d start by going back to basics with house training and then deal with the separation anxiety .

[Maneandfeathers]

Is she incontinent/urinating while you are with her?

[NuckingFutz]

I am cleaning up with a stain and odour remover from pets at home and have also tried flash pet spray.

She is properly toilet trained but has the odd time where she will come in and urinate in the same place and the other day I caught her go upstairs to poo 😥

I have gone back to basics again today. I have a designated area in the garden. I have taken her out every 30 minutes since 4pm today plus she has had her walks. On the walks she did nothing with plenty of opportunities to sniff around. I really thought she would do something but was then distracted by noise from a car.

I take her out for 5 - 10 minutes at a time. No distractions, no eye contact, no noise. She is just sitting in the area looking at me. I have put some of her poo in the area to help her understand. I have treats to reward her if she does it. She hasn't done even a dribble.

I feel this is just anxiety when we leave the house but the odd accident and coming into the house sometimes to toilet makes me feel she is confused. So I am trying to start again but is it too late?

I have emailed a few behaviourists in the area who are local and hoping I can set up a consultation for next week.

[adaline]

It just sounds to me like she wasn't toilet trained to begin with, tbh.

[adaline]

And if part of it is separation anxiety the answer isn't to just keep leaving her because otherwise her behaviour will never improve.

[NuckingFutz]

I have been off all week. We don't keep leaving her buy it isn't always practical to take her in every trip outside of the i.e when my daughter has a 30 minute swimming lessons. Yes we take her out with us as much as we can but it isn't always practical.

[Jouska]

I think there are a couple of issues . I would take to vet for a check to ensure she has no physical issues eg infection etc. Then if giving a clean bill of health consider the following

1. She is confused re toilet training and to get over this you need to go back to basics. YOU need to take her outside every hour or so and stay with her outside until she wees. Lots of praise and bring her back in. i would SHUT the door. She is confused re outside and inside and needs to have a clear boundary between where she an wee outside and where she cant indoors. I would not use treats to reward peeing in the correct place - some dogs tend to wee a bit to get the treat and then come indoors and finish the wee inside. So gentle praise during the weeing outside is usually better.

1. Re the weeing when you come home this is very common. She is excited to see you and just can not contain it. Can she be left in a room where it can be easily cleaned up and if possible get her outside as soon as possible so she is ok to wee. This usually goes as they get older but can sometimes take a while. The less you make of this the better. Also do lots of going out and then putting the key in the lock etc so it becomes boring and she will have less of a reaction to you coming home. You can also keep homecoming calm and a non event so do speak to her but do going over the top and getting her more excited.

It will be possible to retrain but will take time - as you go out to with her to wee you will begin to get a picture of how often she needs to wee and can increase the time you go out with her. This is easier for you and her as it is clearer what you want her to do.

Also add a word to when she is weeing so as she wees " be quik" go wee" (what ever you want) and over time she will associate this with the weeing and you life will become easier.

You will get there but it does take time

[adaline]

Is there anyone you can leave her with when you go out - a neighbour or a friend or similar?

I sympathise as having a dog with separation anxiety is really hard. Mine struggles with being apart from us but we're very fortunate that we can leave him with my FIL whenever we need to go out.

I would go back to basics with toilet training and take her out regularly - lots of praise when she gets it right and ignore any accidents. Once you've cracked the toilet training then you can work on the anxiety but you're not going to solve the anxious weeing if she's not fully trained to start with.