Hi Everyone,  I'm posting this on behalf of a friend.  She has 2 staffie bitches, 8 and 9 years old.  They both sleep overnight, together on a big bed in the kitchen.  One of them keeps weeing on the bed.  They are walked and let outside regularly. Sometimes, when the family are relaxing, watching the television, she will get down off the sofa, go into the kitchen, and a couple of minutes later start making this funny throaty noise - she's wee'd on the bed.  My friend doesn't always follow her when she does this, 'cos having been for a walk, or let out for the toilet recently, she just thinks she's going for a drink of water.  Also, overnight, even though she's been let out last thing, she sometimes soils their bed and when they get up, she makes the same funny throaty noise, so they check the bed, and sure enough, it's wet. She's doing this regularly, and it's been going on for a long time. I suggested it might be a sort of dominance thing because she has two bitches, and perhaps it would be an idea to get them seperate dog baskets and see what happens.  What do you think?

The first thing to do is to check that neither has a urinary infection.

It's highly unlikely to be 'dominance' (if you believe that discredited theory) after all these years (assuming she's had these two bitches since they were pups). You say it's been going on 'a long time'. How long is a 'long time'? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? Are they both spayed? Urinary incontinence in spayed bitches is well enough documented for there to be medications made specifically for it.

It's been going on for a few years now, neither bitch is spayed.  When I said 'dominence' I was just thinking in terms of more, attention seeking really.  They get on well together but seem very attention seeking with my friends husband.

Attention seeking is generally to do with over-submissiveness - the opposite to 'dominance'. ;)

I'm astonished that it's been going on for years without your friend having them checked for UTIs. The next thing to for them to do is to follow each bitch when she goes out of the room to see what happens - no more getting engrossed in a TV programme! If they think she's going for a drink of water they must follow her to make sure. And until this is sorted out they mustn't simply let them out into the garden - they must go with them to make sure they do both perform.

They do both 'perform' when let out into the garden, or go for walks.  It's a bit difficult for me to explain, with being a third party, but from what she tells me, Lucy is perfectly clean, but Tara does this bed soiling on a regular basis, but always makes this funny noise to let them know she's done it.  It's like a deliberate act, rather than something she can't control.  There doesn't seem to be any sign of incontinence or infection.  These are two very much loved pets and I think my friend has just put up with the inconvenience because of that reason.

i took my bitch to vets to get those drops for spey incontinence, as she was not showing any signs of infection. they did a routine urine test and it has come back that she has got an infection and is on antibiotics 4 ten days. so maybe it would be better to have them checked over just in case

Thanks, I've sent my friend a link to this page.

I think a trip to the vets will be in order and maybe a bit long overdue ;)

Lucy
xx

Hiya,

It's highly unlikely that she's making the noise while peeing to let them know what she's doing, it could well be that she's in discomfort when she's weeing though.  There could be a lot of reasons for this - it could originally have been a urine infection that had since cleared up and this has become a habit.  But as said above a trip to the vets is long overdue to check for medical reasons!

Karen

My last dog used to do this as well and she had so since I got her as a rescue puppy at around 12 weeks old.  I eventually figured out that hers was due to insecurity.  If something very slight had changed in her routine or something was moved around the house, she'd start wetting her bed.  After she'd wet her bed she'd run off and hide as she knew she'd done wrong.  to combat this I caged her overnight in our bedroom and this seemed to work (The only downside was we had a small bedroom and I constantly had brusies on my legs from banging into the cage!!)  We still had problems during the day when we were out at work with the occasional mishap but after a few months sleeping in her cage overnight, they were only occasionally.

Tell your friend to have a good look at her routine and see if the dog seems unsettled by anything or if anything has changed.  Don;t forget to look at the small things as well.  Even something like moving the sofas around could upset my old girl.

Jill