House- trained dog urinating inside the house

Our question this week was:

I have a mixed german shepherd/lab who is about 2 years old. He is house trained and usually very good about letting us know when he need to go outside.
Recently (last few months) he now has full run of the house but two weeks ago I found him urinating on my bedroom floor and last night he got into my daughter's room and urinated on her bed.

This is very puzzling since he always has been very good at letting us know when he has to go, he has gotten us up in the middle of the night before to let him out. Can you help me understand why he does this?

Thank You

Answer

Thanks for your email. Inappropriate urination can occur in dogs and can be either behavior or medical. Medical problems can include bladder stones, a urinary tract infection or other metabolic diseases.

The best thing to do is to make sure there is not an underlying problem by having your dog examined by your veterinarian.

They will probably want to do a urinalysis and maybe blood work and other tests. Once they determine the problem, they can recommend a treatment.

I would not assume it is behavioral since it seems he was well housetrained.

Our question this week came from Debbie, from Beltsville, Maryland.

Dr. Debra

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