Hi Jeff, > I have a 5 month old berner pup that we have had since she was 7 weeks old ( > we picked her up on October 21, 2002, for age reference)and she has a > frequent peeing problem.
Can you be more specific about "frequent"? Do you mean she pees frequently? If so, how often? When? What context? Or do you mean that she frequently pees inappropriately? If so, can you give more details of the context? > She is crated during the day and at night when we > are at work/sleeping, while in her crate she does not pee (approximate 10 > hours per day). How long is she crated between potty breaks? > When we let her out and play with her/spend time with her > she will anonymously pee in the house (not near the door to outside). Does she just pee when she wanders off or on your feet when you play with her? The reason for asking for so many details is that several different possibilities come to mind. Frequent and/or uncontrolled urination can be a sign of a urinary tract infection. If she's crated for lengthy periods, she may not relieve herself completely when you take her out to potty....then she "suddenly" has to go when she's back inside. If she's excited about being with you and playing, she may forget her recently learned control or she might be displaying submissive urination. It may be as simple as that she's not truly housetrained...that is, she hasn't yet fully learned all the aspects of this complex behavior. Housetraining involves several facets...she has to learn to 'hold it' rather than eliminate whenever and wherever the need arises, she has to learn not to eliminate inside the house, and she has to learn to let you know when she has to be let outside. Not eliminating in the crate isn't the same thing as housetrained. Most dogs will instinctively 'hold it' as long as they physically can while in their sleeping quarters. Learning to apply that to the entire house and then other buildings is a whole other thing. That part has to be learned before she can have an inkling about letting you know when she has to eliminate so you can let her outside. If there's no sign of frequent urination, her crate periods are of short duration, and she's not piddling on the spot in excitement, I'd suspect that going back to the basics of housetraining will address the problem. If you think that's the case, let me know and I can post what's worked well for me in housetraining pups when both my husband and I worked full time. -Sherri Venditti
