Help! Not toilet trained yet

[AJBrown]

Hi everyone,

In desperate need of outside advice. Our little dude Sidney is from a KC Reg breeder but unfortunately was born with hemivertabrae. This hasn't proved a problem to date and many tests and a day undergoing assessment they confirmed that although it is there, the vertebrae are not affecting his daily life.

Problem is.. Sid is not toilet trained. We have tried everything and of course we understand that this issue is a mistake in the way we have bought him up. We do not believe in any forms of harsh training eg, rubbing noses in his own dirt etc. Our vet has done a urine test and blood test with no issues found. Last week he went and was sedated where they did various tests on his bladder and kidneys with nothing showing. She has put us on Propalin as he does tend to seem like he doesn't know he is peeing. We only started on Tuesday and I am yet to see any difference in fact tonight he has been peeing everywhere and my partner has told me that he hasn't drunk a huge deal. I know a lot of medicines am take time but I have read that most people see a noticeable difference immediately.

My concern is that it is behavioural or even worse, it is his bones. The X-rays showed that the damaged bones were not near his bladder area.

Any thoughts people?

Thanks

 

[Babette]

I'm sorry you're having such a rough time with your baby. As he doesn't seem to know that he's peeing it doesn't seem like a behavior issue, but more like a health issue. Poor little guy.

Out of curiosity, do you crate train? If he is aware of what he's doing then crate training can be an amazing help, also, to prevent the scent from staying in the areas he's peed (and him returning to mark over them again) you may be interested in trying some of the doggie diapers available in addition to those special products meant to dissolve their smell when you clean up. At least then it wouldn't be all over the house and that route could be eliminated as a possible reason for him going potty in those places.

I was fortunate to be home with Babette when we got her, and I put her on a leash which I wore around my ankle (which we still fondly refer to as 'the foot leash' because we're silly) that way I could keep an eye on her and knew where she was at all times so that we could run her to the back door as soon as she started sniffing. In addition I took her out 10-20 minutes after every meal. Fortunately she was a quick learner and picked it up rather quickly (I'm sure the treats and 'good girl!'s helped)

Please keep us updated. I'd like to know if it's something medical because knowledge is power! and all that.

Best of luck to you and yours!

 

[Debra]

I too am thinking it is health related if he isn't aware he is peeing. Let me look, but one time we had a dog come into rescue that couldn't hold her pee...

 

[davidh]

Sorry, it has taken this long to respond. This is a hard one. How old is Sidney? If he is older than 16 weeks old then he should already have the potty training down, not perfect as they will still make mistakes at that age, but will be showing signs of improving. What it sounds like to me is he can't feel when he needs to go. Maybe check with a specialist to see if that's the problem. Please keep us posted, and again, sorry it took so long to get to your question.