Your older dog pees indoors: the practical side, day by day
The vet first, always: the vet is the one who finds the cause. Here is the rest: how to organise your home and your days while you look after him together.
If his behaviour has changed suddenly, the first step is the vet: this guide only covers the practical side.
First of all: the vet
An older dog who “gets it wrong” after a lifetime of good habits has not become stubborn: something is happening, and only the vet can say what. That goes double if he pees little and often, if he drinks much more than before, or if the change came on suddenly. This guide picks up AFTER that visit: the medical side is the vet’s, the home side is yours.
A home that helps an older dog
Shorten the distances. The toilet spot goes where he lives, not at the far end of the house: a few steps, no stairs if his legs no longer like them, a floor that is not slippery. A fixed, comfortable spot for him that does not keep changing. To choose it, the first point of the Method applies: watch your dog first, then choose the spot.
Give him more chances. With age, the time between one pee and the next often gets shorter (for your dog, the vet will be able to tell you): several short trips out beat one long walk, and a chance indoors (the toilet corner) covers the night and the hours when you cannot be there. If going out has become the main problem, there is a guide just for that.
Team up: pad below, target above. On the floor, the training pad, which he may have known since he was a puppy; higher up, if he still lifts his leg, a PIPPI vertical toilet over the corner, with the tray that catches everything and is emptied into the toilet. Together they make up for the less steady aim of a body that is getting older.
Clean without erasing the right spot. Accidents outside the corner are treated with an enzyme cleaner (here is how); the smell ON his spot, however, is the signpost that reminds him where to go: there, you do not scrub everything away.
The right kind of patience
An older dog can learn the new spot, but at his own pace: timings get longer, progress comes on good days and less good days, and every sniff counts as a step forward. No telling-off, ever: at any age it only teaches a dog to hide. And if you need a hand, write to us: we know older dogs well.
To get him used to it calmly, at his own pace:
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The PIPPI team: a small Italian company, the same one that answers on WhatsApp. These guides go with the Method: no promises and no diagnoses (those are for the vet).