Expert: Delores Beck - 2/25/2009

Question
Hi
We have a five month old cocker, we house-trained him quite quickly and he has had no mistakes for many weeks. He follows my commands with little bother - even difficult ones like 'come', but he has started to become openly defiant of my wife. Very recently he has started urinating on carpets and furniture - usually sneaking off to do this, but sometimes directly in front of my wife.  These events are not when he needs to go to the toilet - they are obviously defiant. He never does this in front of me. What should we do?

Answer
Your puppy may well have a urinary tract infection.  Very common - and the first thing to check.

If you think about it, he probably does thing with your wife because she's around more.

Take a first morning urine sample in to your vet.  Use a sterile container and if you can't take it directly in, then refrigerate it.

You're quite wrong about this being "defiance".  It's not how dogs
show that.  So get him checked out right away.  A week on antibiotics will fix things up.
Delores