Is my dog weeing inside because he's jealous?

[LittleLady101]

Hi, if anyone can help I'm at my wits end!

I have a 2 year old black lab who was housetrained. Although since coming home with the baby he has started weeing in the house. At first we thought it was because he's excited with all the new visitors and smells and stuff but he's still doing it nearly 5 months on.

And this morning he weed all over the sofa, cushions and throw that yesterday I had down on the floor for the baby to lay on. He also weed on the coffee table and floor. Is this normal behaviour and how can I stop it.

I know if sounds awful but I'm really starting to resent my dog, with the weeing and the constant hair I find everywhere it's got to the point where today I told my other half that he needs to go! Which is a Shane because he is a lovely natured dog normally but I just can't stick it any more!

It won't be jealousy.

In the first intance you need to get him checked by the vet to rule out anything medical like a UTI.

If it isn't medical it will more than likely stress related brought on by the baby coming home and the change to his routines.

Take him back to basics with houstraining, out after every meal, after every nap, every play etc. praise when he gets it right and ignore accidents.

Make sure you clean up using something that completely removes the scent like diluted bio wash powder/liquid.

Don't resent him. It is as big a change for him to cope with as it is to you.

Is he marking his territory? Have you started using something different to clean the floor? I agree with Lilcamper - use Biotex to clean floor. Try a plug in pheromone thing?

I think it's extremely unlikely that it's a UTI. I imagine he's marking his territory because he feels he can and must assert himself. Is he neutered? That would probably help. It's going to be difficult to eradicate this behaviour after five months but I would:
take him for a vet check
get him castrated if he's not
take him for a lot of walking and give him plenty of attention
as PPs have said, clean incredibly well everywhere he has peed
go back to basics with housetraining (this will be time consuming and require rewards and enthusiasm on your part)
you can try a DAP diffuser but I'd certainly expect no miracles from it!

He is NOT trying to assert his authority. Dogs don't try and boss humans around. That way of thinking went out the window a long time ago.

Castration won't help either.

I think you are misunderstanding badly, Lil. For a start, the only person who mentioned authority is yourself. Your second remark is the most utter tosh, but since it's also totally irrelevant, let's not get diverted by it.

For problem urination, we need to consider the following: medical causes and separation anxiety, submissive urination and urine marking. Failure to ever have been truly toilet trained is often a problem but not in this case according to OP.

Given the target areas, medical causes seem very unlikely. Separation anxiety also seems unlikely. Submissive urination seems equally unlikely. It's pretty obvious that the dog is urine marking.

Here's a couple of links that go into more detail, plus an extract from the second linked article.

www.pointvicentevet.com/inappropriateurination.pml

veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com/solving-and-preventing-house-soiling-house-cleaning-canine-style-proceedings?id=&sk=&date=&&pageID=1

"Urine Marking
This is a problem primarily with males. Dogs may learn to mark while owners are away and are not seen in the act. Other than for urine marking, these dogs are usually housetrained. Castration reduces the likelihood of urine marking but does not necessarily prevent it.
History and Causes
The behavior may occur at puberty. The dog is otherwise well housetrained. The urination typically occurs on vertical target areas, often in novel places. The urination may be precipitated by visit from another dog or from stress of household changes (new boy friend, new house, etc.).
Diagnosis
Rule out separation anxiety, inappropriate urination and submissive urination. The presence of target areas usually rules out other diagnoses.
Treatment
Castrate males; about 40% undergo virtually complete resolution. Block or eliminate provoking stimuli. The alternative is to desensitize and countercondition to targets. In addition to other treatments, create an aversion to the targets. Work on eliminating the dog's anxiety, whether it be from another dog or changes in the household."

I agree with Lilcamper - nothing to do with "asserting his authority", we now know those sorts of ideas are incorrect, same as we now know the earth is not flat.

Unless his behaviour is scent marking, neutering is very unlikely to make a positive difference. This could well be stress related, but it's essential that you have him thoroughly checked by a vet (take along a urine sample). Then if all is well you need to treat him like an 8 week old puppy and go right back to square one.

He needs your help. Don't let him join the thousands of dogs in rescue because their owners had a baby and suddenly the dog is an inconvenience. Nobody is expecting you to live in a urine soaked house, but there are loads of things you can do about this.

If this dog is anxious, villain, then neutering him will be of no benefit whatsoever. And you can't stitch them back on. Much better to try behaviour modification after ruling out physical causes, and consider neutering as a last resort. Even better still, get support from an appropriately qualified behaviourist who will be more able than any of us to diagnose what's going on correctly.

Oh, I agree that the problem is almost entirely in his brain and not his testicles! (if he even still has 'em)

Thanks Dunelm. If it is marking neutering isn't guaranteed to help if it has become a habit.

I strongly suspect that this is some sort of anxiety related issue.

Thanks for all of your messages. He is castrated but that was only done about a month and a half ago. And I'm sure at the check up the vet would have said if there was any medical problem there as he had a blood test and such at the time.

I am possibly thinking along the lines of separation anxiety as in the past 2 weeks we've put a stair gate at the top of the stairs to prevent him weeing upstairs and to try and control the hair and also had to put up a fence halfway down the garden (we live In the country and only have a front garden which is quite narrow and long) to stop him barking at the postman and jumping at the gate when he puts the post in the gate letterbox and churning up the grass. The fence was at the request of the landlord because of those two behaviours. He goes on regular long walks for about an hour at a time.

So I'm not sure what it could be? Is it just because of all the changes. Also I don't want people to get the impression that I don't love him, because I do. I picked him put when he was only 12 days old and have been with him since he was 7 weeks! It's just I'm thinking about the safety of my child. If this could be any kind of jealousy I don't want it to get worse and him attack her. I try to give him as much attention as possible especially in the evenings when my daughter has gone to bed. But I just feel like I can't keep going like this.