Accidents with older basenji-mix
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My hubby and I are getting really frustrated with our approx. 9 year old Basenji-mix (a rescue, we think half Basenji, half ShibaInu since parts of his coat are much thicker than Basenji and the coat color pattern seems to fit). I have been reading lots of posts here about housebreaking and potty training hoping that this was a common enough issue, but it seems only much older dogs are having incontinence issues. Boomer is probably about 8.5 or 9 years old and I have had him for 7 years.
We did have some issues with potty-inside accidents when my husband moved in with us, but he seemed to get over that within a couple of months. Two years later, he is having bigger problems than before. Lots of peeing accidents (on the floor, on the sofa & blanket on the sofa…), a couple of pooping incidents in the laundry room (concrete floor, but then kicked clothes over it and wrapped the clothes around it) all within the last couple of months.
I know the peeing could be kidney issues, I am going to pick up some urine glucose strips before rushing him into the Vet to test for Fanconi. My husband swears Boomer's 'behavior' is substantially worse in the past 6 months than in the past 2 years, but I do wonder if it's health issues and/or related to changing his food too much lately. (Tried a wheat-free expensive food to see if his stomach/groin licking till he was raw was an allergy issue, but then he had those poop incidents in the laundry room and the licking did not cease, so we are transitioning back to regular food).
Any advice? I am making sure to walk him in the morning so he pees on all his favorite neighborhood landmarks and has the opportunity to poop if he needs to, then letting him out several times in the evening. But for now all we can think to do is crate him while we are out of the house at work to prevent him from peeing all over our furniture. (PS. Thanks for reading my first (rather long) post!) -
Do let us know what the vet says.
