Dog peeing on carpet

[jean618]

I have a 1 1/2 year old cocker spaniel that I got almost 2 months ago. She pees on the carpet at night when we are sleeping and not always in the same room or spot. We take her out right before we go to bed. Please help!

[Redrum]

She may have a bladder infection - is the place where she has urinted smell a bit fishy, if so this would indicate cystitis, get her to the vet for a check up, is she neutered ?
If she has no infection, and she is a rescue dog, she may have just got into a bad habit - try crating her overnight only for a while to see if she improves - most dogs hate soiling their sleeping area so she will have to 'hold on' until you let her out in the morning. Let us know how you get on.

[jean618]

I had her spayed 3 weeks ago. The person I got her from said she has housebroken but she only had her for 2 weeks and said she was a rescue dog. Thanks for you advice!

[carmalee]

Jean - your dog is confused - cockers are highly intelligent working dogs and get 'hyped' if they don't have a job to do, - they need huge amounts of exercise and need to know whats going on in their lives- your dog is not a lap dog- she is a working dog and needs to be treated as such (i.e. lots of exercise) she appears to have had a very disruptive previous life and is probably feeling unbelieveably insecure! - how wonderful she's found you who cares for her. Give her time to adjust to her new life - re homed dogs have many issues which their new owners aren't always aware of - your vet will follow up with the speying and will check all is well with that, so my suggestion is, ignore the peeing at night (which suggests she's not too secure at the moment ) and concentrate on providing a stable and exercise orientated programme. to make her feel 'at home' -to be fair, she doesn't appear to have ever had this. There is a brilliant 'horsey 'expression which is 'to hurry slowly' my advice is do this with your dog as she appears to have been thrown from pillar to post.
I'm sure you'll have lots of other great advice - mine is based on a lifetime of animal welfare experience. Wish you good luck

[Schutzengel]

Hi Camalee. Just a quick question. What work do Cocker Spaniels do? I am only familiar with Springer Spaniels which are used as retrieving Gun Dogs. Thanks. Schutz.

[carmalee]

hi shutz - cockers were originally bred for flushing woodcock - they are also great hunters, unfortunately most of them are kept as pets or for showing nowadays but the instincts are there and they are known to be exceptionally active and happy dogs. hope this helps.

[carmalee]

forgot to mention they are also used a lot in field trials!

[zzxxee]

spray citronella oil dogs hate this smell should stop any accidents