What to do with a senior dog who pees and poops indoors?
Hello,
A dog was dropped off this morning and I have her for the next 6 days - she’s a senior dog and has cancer in one of her legs. Her owner warned me about her mood and how she might be super active or might not be feeling well and sleep all day. She is marked as housetrained on her profile, although I understand older dogs have trouble with that sometimes. I do have experience with senior dogs but haven’t had one with incontinence problems before.
When we got up to my 4th floor apartment, this dog pooped twice on the floor within the first 30 minutes. I was supposed to leave her alone for the afternoon while I went to work (her owner approved this and said she’d be fine) and I decided to take the day off to keep an eye on her. I took her for a 45 minute walk (she peed outside) and when we got back she peed inside. Since I live on the 4th floor, it is very difficult to get dogs in and out quickly, which is why I don’t take non-housetrained dogs.
I put her in her crate to see how she would deal with that when I leave her alone tomorrow..she slept for 30 minutes, then stood up and peed on her own bed, giving no indication prior that she needed to pee. So we decided to go for another walk - this time 1hr. She peed a couple times and pooped once outside. She started to drag and move slowly so we headed home cause I don’t want to wear out her leg. No accidents for the last 30 minutes, but she’ll get up and pace the apartment which makes me nervous.
I’m concerned that she won’t be fine if I leave her alone tomorrow (and I can’t miss work tomorrow), and the owner hasn’t responded to my text messages asking for suggestions. I’m thinking she probably needs a sitter who will be home the whole time, which I make very clear I am not. Thoughts?
Her owner responded and said this isn’t a typical issue this has, so hopefully it’s not incontinence. If the dog is doing this because she’s adjusting to a new place, hopefully she’ll have calmed down by tomorrow.
Forgot to mention - I put her in her crate to take the trash out (less than 10 minutes) and when I got back upstairs she was barking and crying and pawing the crate door.