He is not in a crate while I'm away. I crated him for the first 3 or 4 years I had him, and he absolutely HATED every minute of it. He'd break out of the crate or work himself into a frenzy. I came home one day and he had managed to up-end the darn thing. Crating was just miserable for both of us. I don't even want to try crating him again at this point. He was in a no-kill shelter for 6 months before I adopted him and he had (has) some lingering skeletons for his early days. Maybe crating reminds him of his six months in a shelter cage. Anyway, it would be traumatic for him and I don't want to do that to him.

I only work part time, so I'm only away for 4 to 5 hours max at a time. I walk him 3-4 miles in the morning, and then give him another quick walk just before I leave for work to "empty the tanks." I know he can hold his pee for long periods of time because he goes all night without a bathroom break. When I'm not working, he's fine for long stretches without a bathroom break.

I had him at the vet yesterday to have his thyroid levels checked and he peed in the vet's waiting room! I mentioned this new problem to them, so they went ahead and did a full blood work-up and urinanalysis on him along with the thyroid test. Well, the vet's receptionist just called and said his blood work was excellent, and that they couldn't see a medical reason for the peeing.

So now I'm really stumped. My work is seasonal, so I didn't work over the winter and he got really used to having me home. But I've been back working for 4 weeks now and the peeing just started this week. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Here's my boy:

As my dogs aged it was very common for them to become more nervous and anxious over any changes in their environment. Sometimes is was because of neurological changes, but loss of their sight and hearing also created minor problems. Some of my dogs lost their hearing first, others lost only their sight.

The fact your dog can go all night without peeing isn't surprising. He's relaxed, asleep and nothing is happening that may upset him. During the day he's aware of your absence and may be more nervous of noises and any outside activity around the house than when you're in the house with him.

I think it's something you'll just have to work with. I would buy a high gate/barrier for the doorway(s) and isolate him to one room that he's used to being in. Put some of his urine on some pee pads or towels if you want to train him to use those during the day.

BTW, cute photo.......he looks like a sweetie!

If it was Lumbosacral Stenosis, you would have noticed other signs: weakness in the rear end/wobble and reluctance to go up stairs. It is very likely age related if you've ruled out UTI.

Don't compare nightime continence with daytime. Night time sleep is different. Do some research on Proin and then talk to your vet to see if that's an option for your handsome dog. When my Monty was 13 he had this problem and the Proin helped him without any side affects.

I changed from one large water bowl to two smaller ones that are across the room from each other and he seems content to drink one and leave the other and he is doing much better now. Taking the water away wasn't an option because I have two other dogs and because I wanted him to be able to drink when he actually needed to. Also, sometimes when he goes into one of his "camel drinks" I just walk him away from it.

I don't know whether this is your dog's problem, but it's something you might want to watch for.

I don't think crating would help that anyway.

I've dogs that did this also. I have ceramic tile floors in a few rooms and would just confine the old boy to those rooms, when I wasn't home, for easy clean up.

You may want to hire a dog walker (or a reliable friendly neighbor) to stop by midday and let him out.

My old girl had some control problems as she got older. We just went with the flow (no pun intended) and tried to encourage her to stay in the hard floor areas if she was going to have a problem. If we suspected it wasn't going to be a good day, we'd put newspaper down and she understood what that was for- probably because we put it in the area where she would always go if she couldn't hold her bowel or bladder. We could never kennel Abby either, it just wasn't conducive to her personality type; she was never abused or mistreated, but she did not like being in a confined space like a kennel. If we needed to control her location, we had much more luck with gates and fences to confine her to a given location. Fortunately we've lived in a few houses with large expanses of hard floor- she was always OK with being confined to a single room of the house for limited periods of time, providing it was decently sized and she could see out (i.e. no closed doors). If that's an option, I'd go with that, making sure to keep the room comfortable for him with his bed and such- and put down paper while he's confined there in hopes that he gets the idea that it's for peeing on.

Best of luck.

I'll look into Proin and ask the vet about it. I've never heard of it before. And I'm not sure what tests they ran on his urine. Luckily, he's pretty consistent in where he pees, so laying down newspaper or pads might help me contain it and make cleanup easier. We shut off a few rooms so he has limited access in the house. And if cleaning up puddles is the price I have to pay to have him around, I'll happily clean up puddles for as long as I get to keep him. I love this dog.

Quasifish, I don't know what breeds he has in him. I'm reasonably sure he's part lab, and I've got a few guesses for the other part -- maybe great dane (he's tall and has a big square head), maybe rhodesian ridgeback (similar head shape, maybe signs of a ridge on his back), possibly akita (curly tail, undercoat). He was a shelter dog, so I don't know much. All I know is he's pretty darn awesome.

Thanks all!!