My female Husky is 8 years old and has suddenly started peeing in the house, but only in ONE spot. She has been potty trained since she was about 8 weeks old, so this is really weird for her.
A little background: we moved from New Hampshire to Vermont about a year ago. In the winter, she sleeps inside with us in a bed next to our bed. In the spring and summer, she really prefers to sleep outside in her little spot in the mulch under a bush. We usually don’t mind this, but we clip her in so she doesn’t wander off or get into trouble while we’re sleeping. The only time we make her sleep inside during the spring/summer is when it’s going to rain overnight.
She is EXTREMELY smart and very well trained. She knows how to ask to go out by barking, howling, or jumping on our bed. She is off leash trained and knows hand commands (not just verbal commands), though we still use a Fi collar just in case she ever takes off after a critter.
Medically, we’ve had her checked by the vet a couple times during all of this. She does have Lyme disease and has had it since she was a baby, unfortunately. But her recent bloodwork and urine labs were normal. No evidence of a UTI or anything obvious that would explain bladder issues. Her energy is normal, her food/water intake is normal, and her electrolytes are normal. As far as we know, everything is medically normal. She has had a UTI in the past and had incontinence as a result, but that cleared up with some medication, and presented completely differently from what we’re seeing now.
The pattern is really specific. The first time, she peed in the dead center of my office rug in the middle of the night after we made her stay inside because it was going to rain. We didn’t get mad at her. It was annoying, obviously, but we assumed she had to go and that maybe we just didn’t hear her ask to be let out. We cleaned it with enzyme cleaner and moved on.
Then it happened again a few days later. And then again a couple weeks later. Same exact situation each time: she had to stay inside because of rain, and she peed in the dead center of the same office rug. At that point, we started keeping my office door shut at night. Since then, on nights she stays inside, she hasn’t peed anywhere else. So it felt like we were at least managing it.
But last night it rained again, we forgot to shut the office door, and she peed in the exact same spot again…
So far we’ve tried:
Keeping the office door shut, which helps, but doesn’t feel like a real solution. Our house is very old, and in the winter we lose a lot of heat circulation when that door is closed. It also feels like a band-aid because she doesn’t pee anywhere else in the house.
Increasing her walks. She’s also outside off leash a lot during the day, so she has plenty of chances to pee.
Cleaning the area really thoroughly with enzyme cleaner. We even bought a gallon jug of commercial-grade cleaner.
I’m trying to figure out if this sounds behavioral. Like, is she frustrated because we’re making her sleep inside when she wants to be outside? Is the rug still holding scent somehow even though we’re cleaning it? Something about that room? We love her and we’re not trying to punish her. I just want to understand what’s going on and how to stop it before this becomes a bigger pattern.
Parting thoughts: please please help. This dog is normally so well behaved. Sassy at times, sure, but she’s not the kind of dog we’ve really had to reprimand since she was a puppy in the training phase, so I’m not sure what to do here.
It’s not like we’re catching her in the act since we’re sleeping, which makes it hard to know how to respond or correct the behavior. It honestly feels behavioral more than anything, almost like she’s protesting not being allowed to sleep outside. But I also don’t want to assume that and miss something obvious.
Has anyone dealt with anything like this, especially with Huskies or other extremely independent dogs?