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2-year-old Labrador Retriever urinating on our kitchen floor with separation anxiety

Our 2-year-old Labrador Retriever, Sally, has taken up the habit of urinating on our kitchen floor . . . not every night, but every two or three nights. This is a dog who has been housetrained for virtually her entire life. Why the new misbehavior? Some background: Sally suffers separation anxiety, sometimes severely. We continue to work on this problem as best we can. (My wife and I both work, so Sally has to stay in our back yard during the daytime.) She comes inside when we get home (after a nice walk and some ball-chasing). She tends to lie down and nap pretty much from 6 p.m. until we go to bed around 10 p.m. (I try and keep her up a little so she will sleep better through the night.) With her anxiety, Sally does not enjoy the fact that we cut her off from our bedroom overnight. She has the run of the house otherwise: our living room, dining room and kitchen. She began urinating on our kitchen floor (roughly the same area) about a month ago. The simple solution, I suppose, is kicking her outside overnight. Considering her separation anxiety, though, this would be torture. Her whining becomes louder, and she's apt to throw herself against our wooden fence. In other words, it's not a solution we want to pursue. We'd like for Sally to return to her relatively easy nights, through which she will sleep, remain docile and not urinate on the very floor where our 10-month-old daughter will soon crawl. What can we do?

First of all, I advise you have your dog examined (including urinalysis) by your vet. Even if she is found to be healthy, her wetting problem may be physically based, rather than related to separation anxiety; dogs that are kept outdoors all day eliminate randomly, whenever they feel the urge. This can create challenges for them when they are indoors and the same urge strikes; they are unused to "holding it," and may not. Because your dog suffers from separation anxiety, be sure your attempts to remedy it and modify her behavior are appropriate. The fact that your dog stays outside alone all day, and then, after a few exhausting hours intensely "bonding" with you, is expected to sleep by herself, makes me think you are reinforcing rather than reducing separation anxiety. I think your dog is being asked to spend too much time by herself. Dogs are social animals that normally would live as part of a group, 24 hours per day. Teaching them to tolerate periods of time alone is possible and necessary, because we cannot be with them every minute. But having a "feast/famine" approach to social contact seems to create social starvation, rather than satisfaction. Teaching dogs to be part of a social group, but without constant attention, helps them better handle time alone. Why do you require your dog to sleep away from your room? Because she is alone all day, it makes sense to me to allow her to sleep in your bedroom, or in one of your children's rooms, at night. This would allow for eight hours of noninteractive companionship, which would help to offset the hours spent alone during the day. If allergies are a problem, try keeping her in a dog crate; it will reduce spread of hair and dander, as well as prevent wandering and accidents.


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