Our Poodle’s Potty Training Problem: Diagnosing the Cause

Amber the Poodle has brought so much joy to our lives since we adopted her in September.  She is so silly and Merlin is so happy to have a playmate again! It’s so good to see my old man (12 years!) playing every day.

However, about 5 weeks into Amber’s life with us, she started peeing in the house. We were confused, because we thought she was house trained. I was frustrated at times, mainly because our efforts at re-training seemed to work some days and not others.

Thank goodness for our carpet steam cleaner.

We worked hard at re-house training Amber, letting her out every 3 hours, keeping her confined to whatever space we were in, teaching her to go potty on command outside, and all those things you do for potty training. But she kept having accidents.

I’m ashamed to admit that it took me a while to realize that maybe she wasn’t a bad dog . . . maybe she had a UTI. Sure enough, a visit to the vet diagnosed infection. We treated it and Amber’s accidents stopped.

And then the accidents started again, seemingly out of the blue. Cue the frustration and the attempts at house training again. Another visit to the vet showed another UTI.

Let’s cut to the chase. We finally realized there was a cycle. When a UTI flared up, Amber would start having accidents every 2 hours, and would wake me up during the night to go outside and potty. After 3 days on antibiotics, Amber’s accidents would stop. About 10 days after completing a round of antibiotics, Amber’s accidents would start again, and sure enough, it was always a new UTI.

It’s not normal for a dog to have chronic UTIs; it clearly points to a bigger problem. This Saturday Amber has an appointment with an internal medicine specialist for a consult and ultrasound, so we can hopefully get the ball rolling on diagnostics before the baby arrives.

In spite of all of this, or perhaps because of, I’m incredibly thankful.

1. I’m so thankful that we found Amber. No doubt part of the reason she was returned was because of accidents – and this chronic problem could have had her cycling through shelters and owners. So sad to imagine!
2. I’m thankful that Amber is actually house trained and there is a reason behind the accidents.
3. Finally, I’m thankful that we adopted Amber rather than bought her, saving all the money for veterinary care. Even if we paid full price for a purebred pup with health guarantees, expensive medical problems could still come up.

So please, let this serve as a reminder: If you’re dealing with a confusing behavioral issue in your pet, always take them to the vet to rule out an underlying medical cause.

Hopefully we’ll have some good news for Amber next week, in the form of a diagnosis and treatment plan! In the mean time it’s back to frequent potty breaks and antibiotics, which she loves because they come buried in peanut butter.