Hi Champdoggers, I'm in need of a little advice. I'll give some background on the situation. In April of this year my 93 year old grandma suffered a stroke and became unable to care for her 12 year old west highland white terrier, I was just in the process of researching breeds in order to get my first show dog but when this situation occurred I gave up thoughts of a show dog and took on my grandmas dog. Recently this dog has been urinating in the home (not something he has ever done before), I often wake up to massive puddles of urine all over my floor in the night. I promptly booked him an appointment at the vet who thought that the urination may have something to do with stress from moving home etc, however, this has only started the past 3 weeks and he has been in my home since April so I thought this theory was odd but was nevertheless sent on my way from the vets with the reassurance that he'd 'settle in' fine. As you can imagine I'm eager to seek another opinion so will be taking him elsewhere. I was just wondering if anyone has ever experienced this kind of the thing before? Sorry if my description is a little vague, I'm rather worried about the little mite and just want what's best for him.

Thank you for listening to me waffle x

Is it only at night and where does he sleep at night- close to you or away from you? If away from you perhaps he is getting anxious about that as you are now his caregiver. But it could be that he is getting confused (as the elderly can when half asleep) about where he is and just has to go- bladder control weakens with age too. If its pure panic/anxiety I'd expect to see some loss of bowel control too, though it is not always the case.

Presumably the vet did a full workup to exclude any medical reason for the behaviour?

Assuming there is no underlying illness-of which there could be a few, I hasten to add, there could be a couple of other reasons. Does the Westie ever appear a little disorientated or confused? Aside from anxiety/ separation distress I'd also look at canine dementia. If you google canine cognitive dysfunction that will give you a list of symptoms- there's no test for this, it's diagnosed on the basis of observable changes in behaviour. There is medication that is known to help some dogs.

Once you are clear with your vet I'd think about a proper behavioural assessment.