Dear old dog wees in hall.

[higgle]

Our dog (Petit Basset Griffon Vendeen)is 15 now and showing his age. He is left quite a lot during the day and doesn't make a mess, and is clean at night, but quite often in the evenings and mornings when we are all at home he simply wees in the hallway - and on occasions poos too - he does know how to ask to go out and barks loudly to let us know where he wants to be, any ideas why he has started to do this? Poor chap is more or less blind and quite deaf, which doesn't help, but quite sprightly and enjoys his walks still.

I wonder if arthritic pain is making squatting and cocking difficult. When my Spinone became old he seemed to leave it to the last minute to defecate and the vet suggested arthritic pain might be the reason.

He never messed in the house -- but that might be because he died at 11 before the arthritis progressed.

To clarify, I mean he might be putting it off and therefore getting caught short.

He might be a bit senile, my old girl did this when she got old. We did try a couple of different pills from the vet which can help with some dogs but didn't make much difference to her. She picked up in the spring though and saw out another summer before she was PTS. She had a urinary tract infection at one point which caused the problem to recur, its probably worth a visit to the vet just to check he doesn't have an infection - she was drinking alot more then too though. Hope he improves for you.

Thanks for the advice and thoughts - think I'll take him to see the vet ( which he really hates) he is rather arthritic at the back end - but as he is already quite low to the ground he has never been very inclined to leg cocking. Given his age I try to be understanding with him, but it doesn't do wooden floors any good to be constantly soaked.