[rachelemma]

My partner and I have recently moved in together with his 2 dogs - a male whippet and a labrador and my two children and my jack russel dog. The problem is his whippet dog. He has a heart murmour so cannot be castrated but it urinates all over the kitchen during the night. The dogs go out at 11pm and we get up at 6am to take them out again, during the day they are left from 8am - 4pm and there are no accidents, it only happens at night when we are all upstairs asleep.
He did the same at my partners house before I met him so it's not a new problem.
He's also not fussy what he urinates on, kitchen units, shoes, coats, chairs, fridge - its never in the same place.
We've used all the sprays available on the market, left a light on during the night and now we are extremely frustrated with living in a house where we need a new kitchen and darent put one in in case the dog urinates on it.
Somebody please help! He's seven years old and this cannot go on much longer, I can't put up with another seven years of this.

[starbuck8]

It sounds to me like an anxiety/excess energy issue. When you say you take the dogs out before bed, to you just take them out to pee and get their business done? Or do you take them on a good walk to drain their energy. Whippets are high energy, so if they don't have any way to expend their energy, they will exibit behaviour in different forms.

Do you have a bike or rollerblades (skate board?) that you could drain their energy faster, if you don't have time? Do you have a treadmill? A dog can be easily trained to walk on a treadmill when you don't have time to go on a long enough walk. They really need to go on daily walks. Another thing that could help on walks is buying a doggie back pack, and putting weights in it. It really sounds like this is an attention getting problem that the dog has, and I think you would really notice the difference with more excersise.

Good luck! :)

[rachelemma]

Thanks Starbuck8 for replying to my question. All the dogs go out for 15mins in the morning, unfortunately they can't be let off the lead, they then go out at 4pm for a wee before having tea then out for another 10-15 minutes on the lead and another wee before bed.
Every Tuesday and at Weekends the dogs are out for at least an hour off leads in the afternoon so they are able to run but this still seems to have no effect on his urinting habits. We can't try the weights idea because of his heart problems (our vet is v surprised that he is able to run with the other dogs and has said his heart is v abnormal!)

We were thinking of trying Doggy Bands next or a cage on a night time in case it's a insecure problem ( by putting toys and a security blanket in cage with him its supposed to give him security).
Would love to here from anyone who has tried doggy bands to know if they've worked or are they a long term permanent solution?