Foster dog and a wee problem. Any advice gratefully received.

elsien

Could you keep the internal doors closed and keep him with you where you can see him till he starts to wander? Just for a bit till he starts to relearn his house training.

teachergirl

Well we had one poo and three wees overnight.:(
He went on a good walk this morning with my friend and her retriever, which is good as we are dog sitting the retriever at Christmas. Today he spends time with my parents as both my hubby and I are out at work on a Monday.(they live just around the corner) and he has been good there and was clean when they left him to have their hair cut. I shall try your ideas elsien when either my hubby or I are home all day. However I am thinking of giving him my smelly socks overnight.;)

meritaten

I have only had my current cat Barney about three months. he is about five years old and used to belong to my son. for the first week or so - he used his litter tray perfectly - but once he started to settle down he decided the bath was a better place for poo's! something my son hadn't mentioned.
its taken time and I now have a booby trapped bath/shower permanently - but, with no where else bar his litter trays (he seems to like having two - one for wees one for poos) I haven't had to clean up poo in the bath for about a month now!
The only thing I can suggest is to try 'crating' or confining him at night.

PoppysPal

Three weeks ago I adopted from the Scottish SPCA, my first wee dog in thirty years or so - a four year old Lhasa Apso. We are both learning about each other and there have been a couple of problems (ie. she has bitten me a couple of times when I tried to put on her coat, or tried to gently comb her front legs). But I've fallen in love with her and am determined we'll get over this with lots of TLC, trust and patience on my part. I now wrap my arms in thick towels before I try to put the coat on - and she's stumped!

As regards your own wee fostered dog, in a conversation with another dog walker I met today, he told me that some years ago he took on a second Rotweiller from the SSPCA and almost immediately on getting it home, found it was drinking loads of water and had blood in its pee. He contacted the charity, the dog was re-examined, given an Xray and then it was discovered it had eaten a stone which had lodged in the urinary track. There may be no connection with your own old dog, but perhaps it might be something to ask your vet about. The tip about putting an old well-used jumper in his bed at night is an old, but wise tip. Don't consider caging him, he's too old and stressed enough in his new surroundings. Just give him time and have patience. Good luck!

teachergirl

Well I gave him my old socks and we had two wees and a small poo. The poo at night is new and as he is fed at 5pm I am unsure why this is happening.
He also wee'd on the lounge carpet whilst I was lighting the fire...I certainly didn't see that one coming.
The rescue has a behaviour expert that works with them and we are currently waiting to get an appointment with him to see if he can help.
When he cuddles his bony body up to me at night it is the absolute best feeling, but I am wondering if his wee problem is what made someone throw him out. He will live here for ever now and I guess I will have the cleanest kitchen floor ever;)

elsien

Do you just feed at night? Maybe if you did half in the morning and half at 5 it'll give it more time to get through his system during the day.

Off course it could just be a dirty protest against your old socks.

teachergirl

We offer him a small amount of food three times a day. The vet said this was best as he was so malnourished. He does not always eat though. At the moment he is eating well at breakfast after his walk on the fens and then at 5 before bed.

My socks were the smelliest thing I could think of.....:D

teachergirl

aaaaargh.:mad: Here is an example of why I do get a bit frustrated. I was sitting at the kitchen table tutoring a pupil. Right next to the back door. In the hour and a half he went out the back door about four times and each time I rewarded him. I was so chuffed because on one occasion whilst he was outside he actually gave a bark to come in. The first time ever:)

I was telling my husband how pleased I was and then I discovered that in the same time frame he had done a huge wee outside the kitchen door in the hall way:mad: Why??????

elsien

Are you waiting to see if he does a wee outside then rewarding him, or are you rewarding him just for going through the door regardless of what he does when he's out there? He might be getting mixed messages about what he's actually out there for.
Plus he is an older dog, so any habits might be quite ingrained and take time to deal with. (It took me a year to get mutt dry overnight and she was only 18 months old.)
Barking to come back in is a good start though. Small steps and all that.

teachergirl

No I do wait for a wee...just how many wees can one dog have???? Thank you for the encouragement. Sometimes I think we are getting there and then... he is very restless tonight.