Mike’s Doghouse

Mike started marking in the house two weeks before he was neutered. He marked everywhere. The living room, bedroom, bathroom, etc. He marked a lot of things such as the bedpost, the wall, the recliner, Lorna’s bathroom towel (that about got the boy killed). The weirdest thing he marked was Sam and Joella’s raised food-bowl stands.

I asked a positive training list I am on for advice on how to get him to stop. I’d like to mention the ones that seemed to work.

- We limited (again) where he had unsupervised access. The gates in the living room went back up for several days. He stopped marking in the living room and because of various other stuff, I moved the gate that kept him from the rest of the house. We kept the bedroom blocked and the hallway to the bathroom blocked but he (and the others) had access to the outside, the kitchen, and the Cat Room (the room between the living room and the kitchen).

- We were cleaning up the marking with the vinegar and water spray just like we had been his peeing. I was advised to change that routine slightly. The idea for peeing is to put the dog outside or elsewhere so they can’t see you clean it up (I think the idea behind it is so they don’t think you are Mama cleaning the den and that it’s okay to continue). But for the marking, it was suggested I let him see me cleaning it up and to increase the vinegar amount in the spray bottle. Basically, I was showing him I could mark, too. After about 3 days of this, I started seeing Mike back up when he saw the bottle come out. He watched me spray his spots and would run out of the house. I didn’t fuss at him while I cleaned it, but I did talk to him about it. I told him I didn’t like it and marking inside the house was not acceptable. He could mark all he wanted outdoors, but not indoors. This “conversational discussion” worked on Sparky, a Norwegian Elkhound we had. Yelling did no good. But put your hands on your hips and talk to him? He’d hit the floor and act all repentant. I think this is going to work with Mike, too.

- It was also suggested to take him for short walks and praise like mad when he hiked his leg to urinate and/or mark. This is to put a cue word for hiking his leg. We decided to not use another cue word but continue to use “HURRY UP” which is what we used during his house training. We took him out on the leash for a few days again, reinforcing the HURRY UP and him hiking his leg. He never marked when out on the leash but we did catch him marking in the dog lot so we praised him then. For reference, marking is when they urinate just a small amount, usually in several places vs emptying the bladder in one long pee in one place.

Mike now only regularly marks indoors in one place: Joella’s raised food-bowl stand. We’ve moved it, thinking he was really marking the cabinet where it sat. Nope, he’s marking the stand. We’ve started spraying it down until it is soaked and removing Joella’s bowl from it after she is finished eating. No clue as to why he is doing that. Sometimes he will mark Sam’s stand and sometimes he will mark on the front of the dishwasher. We think he does the dishwasher because of Callie, our ancient cat who has decided litter boxes are not for her. He marks the back porch but as I spray those down, the location is moving further and further away from the door.

I also received two pieces of advice that I chose to reject.

- One was that Mike should be considered a “wash out” as a Service Dog. I see the point to it but I wanted to try and fix it, not be told to forget it. That male marking is often not un-learned and with Mike going into public areas, marking behavior is not acceptable. I agree to that last part but not to anything else. Mike is just 8 mos old. His house training was delayed due to his bladder issue. He is so smart that if I just could figure out how to train him out of it, then he and I could get beyond it. If the marking does not stop or if when I start taking him out in public he start marking there, then I will reconsider using him as a Service Dog.

- The other advice was to use a belly band or a diaper on him. The idea was that he would associate the nasty wet on his penis and stop marking. But I don’t consider this positive training. And I don’t think he would have made the connection between the wet diaper and the marking. Then there’s the increased risk of infections and skin irritations. I can see their purpose for older dogs who have lost bladder control. But I don’t see their purpose on an 8 mos old pup he has figured out he’s a male.

This has been covered in several posts (house training) so I won’t give much background other than links throughout this post. ‘Kay?

On Saturday, Mike had to stay in his crate about 9 hrs because I was gone and Lorna had to work. Lorna took out the divider panel from the big crate so he had more room. She also gave him plenty of chew toys. When she got home, he ran straight outside, played for just a few seconds, the proceeded to pee a river.

AND Mike hiked his leg to do it! My boy is growing up so fast! sniff

There was no pee in the crate and no pee artwork on the way out the door. This is a HUGE advancement for Mike. He’s been on the urge incontinence med for a while now and sometimes we think there is improvement, and other times we don’t see any difference. His artwork has decreased, yes, but only when he has no access to water. Jo and I were at the vet’s last week for her yearly checkup and Dr. Knepshield and I briefly discussed Mike’s bladder problems. She feels that if he is still growing, still healthy, then keeping his water amount limited obviously isn’t harming him any. If keeping his water limited is what it takes to help him get over this, then it will be fine to keep doing it.

We’ve also started letting him out the back door vs taking him out front on the leash. He seems to like this more and always does his business while out there. As soon as he does both, I let him play a bit then we all come back in. His desire to eat stuff (sticks, walnut hulls, wet bark from the maple tree, etc) means he can’t be out unsupervised. I have noticed, though, that the more we are letting him out, the less he seems to be eating. We still have to watch him closely though. The dog ramp will be fixed soon which will make it easier to get him out there more often. I don’t want him just let out without being watched as I want him to be reinforced for doing his business.

At least, we think we have a diagnosis.

Mike’s vet, Dr. Knepshield, called Tuesday. His urine culture results were negative so no weird infection going on. Combined that news with the well-within-norm blood work up, the cause of Mike’s urinary problem narrowed down significantly.

The vet thinks Mike has what is called “urge incontinence”. It is more common in female dogs but can happen in males. In her research, she came across another male pup with almost exactly the same symptoms. That pup was helped via a human medication. Basically, Mike doesn’t mess his crate at night because he’s not moving around and he doesn’t have access to water. But, once he drinks water (and he drinks a lot of it), his brain and bladder don’t communicate very well. He can empty it easily enough, but he can’t KEEP from emptying it. His bladder doesn’t let the brain know it is full, resulting in leaking and flooding upon standing. Add to it that he can’t seem to hold it long enough to even finish standing up, he probably has “bladder sphincter” issues.

I picked up the medication today and he got his first dose at dinner. If this is indeed the problem, we should see a slow stopping of the piddling (aka artwork on the floor). If that happens, we’ll start reintroducing the water until he can consume and hold. We don’t know how long he will be on it. The vet’s office has never used this medication before. We’ll be learning together.

Here I get a pup to train as a Service Dog and we can’t get beyond house training!

Linkages:
urge incontinence
oxybutynin chloride (Ditropan) 5mg 1/2 tab 2x day

Oh, and a photo to appease the masses:

(click for larger image)

Wednesday, Mike and I went back to the vet’s office. I took pictures this time of his “artwork” on the floor (see the bottom of this post). I also took in a urine sample again. After a brief discussion, it was decided to do another urinalysis and to do a blood work up. I would get a call the next day about the results.

Thursday, Dr. Knepshield called. The blood work up was normal. Kidney function, liver function, everything was normal. Good. But the urinalysis showed a lot of white blood cells. Not good. Some male dogs have raised white cell counts basically because, well, they like to play with their penises. This creates slight irritation that shows up in the urine samples. Gross, but, there you have it. What she wanted to do was have us bring Mike in the next morning and, after getting his bladder full, they’d remove urine directly from the bladder, bypassing the urethra. Ouch!

This morning, we took Mike in at about 10am. She said it would take only a few hours so we did some errands. Eventually, I was exhausted from a headache so we went home. We didn’t hear anything until after 2pm. Mike’s bladder was not co-operating. Dr. Knepshield felt his abdomen when he got there at 10. His bladder was very empty so they put him in a small crate and gave him a big bowl of water. She figured she’d check on him in two hours. At 11:30, she went to check on him and was told it was too late. They said they were watching him and he had simply stood up and peed a river. Refill the water bowl and try to catch him again. But he did it again. And again. They took him out of the crate hoping he’d show a little better sign he had to go but I think that failed, too. Finally, when they called at 2ish, they had him with a partially full bladder and an ultrasound. They needed permission to knock him out so they could do the delicate work of extracting urine from the bladder. It was several more hours before we heard back.

The sample they had was very diluted from all the water he had drank but had no white blood cells. So they sent off the remaining sample to get a culture grown from it. Not that she expects to find anything, but that the experts she will consult with will ask if it was done. And that is where we are now. She’s going to do some research and consult some canine urologists while we wait for the culture to grow. The reason for all this is that she was greatly impressed with the amount of pee Mike can produce. And how he seems to have very little control over it the fuller his bladder is. She was also impressed with our patience and humor with him. I get the feeling he was cute, adorable, but very frustrating to them all today.

My headache was exploding at that point so Lorna went to get him. She said the entire staff seemed to know him and got down on the floor to play as he was leaving. And during their mid-day lull, David, one of the long time techs there, had taken Mike out of his crate to play for a while and Mike was running all over the hospital. What is it about this pup that pulls people to him? What is it about him that makes him so damn adorable?

We have to wait until at least Tuesday before we know anything. One possibility, and I think there are only two at this point, is that they will do a dye test to see how his plumbing is arranged. There might be some sort of problem somewhere. The second possibility is that this is all in Mike’s wee head. That somehow it is a psychological problem, not physical. And even if there is a physical reason, we may still need to deal with the psychology of it, to teach him how to pay more attention to his body.

Mike’s largest art piece to date. It covers about 3′ x 8′ of floor in the living room. Starting with the bottom image, Mike stood up from where he was laying and headed toward the door. Almost there, he started to pee. He then walked away from the puddle to finish his walk toward the door where he then tried to tell us he had to go out.

A dog is considered a Service Dog (SD) when, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the animal can do one or more trained tasks that benefit the person with the disability (PWD).

(Keywords there are TRAINED and BENEFIT. But more on that later.)

Some states have Service-Dog-In-Training (SDIT) laws which offer support for dogs that are still training to be a SD. These laws offer the chance for the trainer/handler to take the dog out into Real World situations to better train the dog. I am lucky to live in a state that has an excellent SDIT law (same access as SDs). This means that I can take Mike anywhere I would take Joella even though he doesn’t know any SD tasks. But there are some common sense things that any SDIT handler/trainer should follow. These include safety reasons, health reasons, and hygiene reasons. This is why Mike does not go places. He’s not house trained yet. Reliable recall, loose leash walking, doing a solid down or stay – that means nothing yet if he can’t do the most basic of manners.

A friend of mine (coughElenacough) reminded me that Mike should not be out yet as a SDIT (meaning wear a cape). She’s right. The only place we have gone with the cape on was Waffle House a few weekends ago. He was only in there for perhaps two minutes tops. In Lorna’s pocket were some paper towels and some Clorox wipes for just in case. I took him in for several reasons. Topmost was to see how he reacted to so many new things at once. I was looking for fear or reluctance. What I got was excitement and a total lack of fear. If he were house trained, he’d be going out on every day I could manage it. He is at the age where he should start learning the basics of public behavior. But until we get him house trained, he won’t be going. Was I wrong to take him out into public wearing a cape? Perhaps, but I won’t lose any sleep over it. I had already spoken to the manager of the restaurant and gotten permission to bring Mike in. Not that I would need permission, but with his lack of bladder control, I thought it best to get it.

I think we’ve crossed over a hurdle. There are two reasons why.

Mike’s been on antibiotics for a (possible) infection. Today was his last dose. He went from making multiple small puddles to making single big ones. And today is the second day in a row we’ve not had any (major) accidents. We are still keeping the water up but once we have a few more days in a row accident free, I’ll start putting the water back within reach again. I think the infection has cleared up and Mike is now more capable of understanding what his body is telling him.

The second reason is we think Mike just wants to go out into the dog lot like everyone else. I don’t think he liked going out front, alone, while everyone else got to be off the leash and running around. A few days ago, I took him out the front door. Then, after he’d urinated, we came back in, went through the house to the back door, and went outside with everyone else. Almost every time, he and Sam would go charging across the dog lot and after a minute or less, Mike would stop, wander around for a few seconds, and poop. During the day, he and I still go out the front door except for the first time in the morning, we all go out the back. He gets to burn off energy (after being in his crate for several hours) which prompts him to do his business outside. Then, after dinner, Lorna takes them all out the back again.

We were supposed to see an animal behaviorist Friday but there was a scheduling error. We need to reschedule but we’re debating about whether we need to or not. We probably will, just to get some more input into how to best handle Mike’s late-blooming potty manners.

Regardless, we need to finish repairs on the back dog-ramp so that I feel safer going out there. The top part is safe enough but the second part is steeper and quite “interesting” to use. It kills my knees which is why I only go out there once with him. We decided to not use the front gate because we want to keep separate the “this is for play” and “this is for doing your business”. Mike has to be supervised outside not only to reinforce the behavior we want (doing his business outside) but also because the little snot eats sticks, wood, and mushrooms.

Yesterday, Mike returned to the vet’s as we try to figure out if his urine function is normal. The problem is Mike pees a lot. An awful lot. House training has been difficult. We’re now keeping the water on the other side of the gate where Mike can’t get to it. He gets all he wants 3 times a day and still he pees far too frequently. When he first went to our vet shortly after we got him, his urine was very diluted and had white blood cells. Meaning he was not concentrating his urine and he had an infection somewhere. He was on an antibiotic for a while. We took in another sample and this time the urine was properly concentrated and the white blood cells were gone. But the problem has persisted.

Mike is an interesting boy, medically. He got a rough start in life but recovered nicely. However, he can’t help but be effected by that, even though he was just a few weeks old when rescued. We humans can only try to understand just how that will manifest, if it will at all. This basically is polite talk for “it’s in his head”, or as the vet put it, is psychogenic. Mike may not have a grasp on what his body is trying to tell him (like when he needs to pee or poop).

The vet called today with some more ideas and thoughts based on her research and the input from others. Aside from the psychogenic, there are several possible scenarios. The good news is that the urine is concentrated and that rules out several diseases. Diabetes insipidus was topmost on our minds because we had a dog with it and their behaviors are very similar. But that was ruled out, thank the doggess! Strangely enough, the topmost possibility is E. coli. I found this in an Google search:

Bladder infections most commonly involve bacteria that are already normal
residents on (or in) the dog or cat. The most common infectious agent is
Escherichia coli (E. coli) which is present in almost half of urinary
tract infections in dogs and cats. This bacteria is a normal inhabitant of
the gastrointestinal tract but it does not belong in the urinary tract. It
is very good at invading the urinary tract if given any opportunity at all,
though. So any fecal contamination of the vulva or prepuce can lead to an
infection. Due to anatomy, this is more common in females than in males
(infection occurs more often).

It is very hard to clear up a bacterial infection when there are persistent
crystals or stones in the bladder, since these serve as a place for
bacteria to hide, as well as irritating the bladder and urethra, making it
easier for the bacteria to invade tissues.

(source)

The interesting thing about this is that there were crystals in the urine sample we took in yesterday.

The second possibility is Leptospirosis. Prevention of this type of bacterial infection is now included in vaccines so it is unlikely to be the culprit. However, because of the way it effects the kidneys, it is on the list. The website quoted above also has a section on Leptospirosis.

Treatment for both of these bacterial infections would be the same – a high dose of an antibiotic. The vet and I decided this is what we would do: we would start him on the antibiotic for a week starting tomorrow (we can’t get there to pick it up until morning) and continue withholding the water for a few more days. We will reintroduce the water and see how his peeing goes. If it improves even the slightest bit, we will continue the antibiotic for another 3 weeks.

We could take in another sample and have a culture grown to see what type of bacteria it is. However, almost any type of bacteria we would find would be treated with the same antibiotic unless it is a weird one or one that responds better with another type of antibiotic. We are opting to not do this basically because of time. We can’t get it to them until tomorrow and it would take 72hrs to get a proper growth. So that would be Tuesday or perhaps Wednesday before we’d get any answers. Meanwhile, if we start the antibiotic tomorrow, we’ll know by Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest, if it is making any difference.

Mike is a smart boy. Too smart to not have learned house training already. He knows the ring the bells to go out (“out” also includes going out to eat sticks and leaves). He has learned a lot from both the Puppy Class (we had our second one last night) and from our regular training here at home. So he’s not a stupid dog. It is this ability to learn that contradicts the urinary problem and makes it more of a physical thing than a mental one.

Oh! Almost forgot to tell you his weight! Mike is now 31.8 lbs! Double what he was a month ago! Big boy!

Mike is one tricky pup.

House training is still on going with some great progress and still very little progress.

I purchased an elastic dog collar that has 4 huge bells on it. The pet supply store had them on sale from leftover Xmas stuff. I can’t imagine putting this on a dog as the noise is way loud. Anyway, I was going to take off the bells and hang one or two on the door but they make enough noise as a group that I can’t miss it. I even hear it all the way in the kitchen!

When we go out, we shake the bells and say something along the lines of “do you need to go outside?” “ready to go outside?”. The idea is that when he needs to go, he will ring the bells. He can’t reach them without standing with his front paws on the door. He’s managed to take it off the doorknob twice but usually just nudges it with his nose. He has already learned that ringing the bells and/or whining gets him outside. Big step considering we’ve not worked on “touch it” yet!

However (with Mike, it seems there’s always a “however”), what he wants is to go outside and eat sticks, walnut shells, pecan shells, leaves, dirt, bark, packing peanuts (long story), and almost anything else he can find. He loves to hunt down and carry huge floppy gross mushrooms, too.

We’ve stopped the long walks and instead stand in one place with him limited to with about 5-8′ of that spot. He must do his business there or back inside we go. If I know he needs to do his business but he’s too interested in the other stuff, we go back inside and he goes into his crate. 20 minutes later, we go back outside. Eventually, he will either do his business outside or I get impatient and we go back in where he promptly poops in the living room.

As with any dog training, most mistakes are the handler’s fault. Mike doesn’t have accidents, I do.

And while we are on the subject of Mike’s weirdness, here’s another for you. Mike will chew on anything made of any material. He will even chew on my chair. He’s pulled out some cosmetic tubing ends, roughed up an adjustment knob, and he has left his mark on the metal frame. The below image is the frame above the rear wheel. That’s tooth marks on the metal.

link to bigger image

Mike’s still not house trained. We’ve spent the past 4 days catering to his bladder and bowels and still he pees in the house.

We blocked off the living room so he would be confined to the one room.
We take him out every 2hrs or less.
We take him out at the pause after a play session with Sam.
We take him out after eating.
We praise like mad when he does something outside.
We took his poop and the paper towels from pee clean up outside to show him this is where he’s supposed to do it.

Still, pee in the house. He can be outside, pee, come in, five minutes later, he pees again. We find multiple puddles.

I’m taking him to the vet to see if there’s not something going on physically. Elena and I are thinking diabetes or perhaps another infection.

Meanwhile, we start Puppy Class on Thursday.

WARNING: this post discusses canine bodily functions. Don’t read if you don’t like the words “poop” or “pee”.

Oy, what an experience this has been. Mike is roughly 14 weeks old. Old enough to learn right from wrong in the human world and terminology. But that doesn’t mean it is easy for him or me.

House training has been rough for both of us. “They” say a puppy will need to go poop about half an hour after eating. Mike, however, has gone as long as 6 hrs although his normal is between 2-4hrs. He’ll pee much more often. Like every half hour. Everywhere.

Part of the problem is that our fenced in yard is connected to the back porch. Normally we just open the door and out they go. In the summer, the door is open all the time. Off the back porch is a dog ramp. The first part is slightly sloped and sturdy enough to hold a human. The second part, however, is steeper and not sturdy. It is a project we need to finish but never got around to. It is painful for me to go down that second part, and is quite risky. I don’t go down it when I am home alone. Taking Mike out to do his business is difficult. I either have to put him on the leash and take him out front or I go down the ramp with him. When he is out front, he’ll pee but he has yet to poop.

Mike needs to learn to tell me he has to go. I have to learn to pay attention to him.

I believe Mike understands what “outside” means. I’m not sure he understands he needs to ask.

I called Elena today and asked for her wisdom. She suggest I put Mike on a schedule. Go out every 2 hrs. When he poops in the fenced yard, take it out to where I want him to go out in the front yard. This is the safest way for me. Once he learns to go there and learns to ask to go there, then we can just morph that into asking to go out the back door. But first, the pooping and peeing in the house has to stop.