Why My Dog Pees While Sleeping? How To Help

Why my dog pees while sleeping? When your dog is a puppy, he must be taken out every few hours to use the bathroom. But this is entirely normal. The problem starts when your dog doesn’t get up to urinate and wet his bed while sleeping. This problem occurs when the sphincter muscles in the bladder become weak so that the dog cannot control the urination.

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Why Do Dogs Urinate In Their Sleep?

They urinate while sleeping due to many medical conditions or injuries to the urinary tract.

“Incontinence” is known to be the most common cause of dogs urinating in their sleep. This problem can be caused by many different things, such as urinary tract infections, neuter/spay, and bladder stones. Age can also affect a dog’s ability to control the bladder, but this is not always the case because some younger dogs naturally have this problem.

Medical Conditions Which Lead Dogs To Pee In Their Sleep

Spaying

Although such problems related to reproductive surgery can occur in males, it is more common in females. After going through spaying, 1 in 4 female dogs loses control of their peeing and experienced severe incontinence, also known as spay incontinence. This is because their estrogen levels declined rapidly, which affects the sphincter muscle tone and leads to uncontrollable urinating.

In the male, the same weak sphincter muscles lead to incontinence. Both cases can be treated with prescription medications provided by your veterinarian. The vet also recommend using dog recovery suit after surgery/spaying to lower the chances of surgery of incontinence complications

Urinary Tract Infection

Inflammation caused by a urinary tract (UT) infection can cause your dog not to realize that he is peeping while sleeping. Due to illness, your dog loses control over sphincter muscles and pee while sleeping. Also, a dog with a urinary tract infection feels very thirsty, drinks more, and urinates more. You can use dog-medicated chews for the treatment of urinary tract infections.

Spinal Cord Disease

Dogs with spinal cord disease may experience loss of mobility or sensation, leading to uncontrollable urination when awake or sleep. Your veterinarian can assess your pet’s ability to urinate during sleep. In that case, most pet parents use dog diapers until their canine companion recovers.

Kidney Disease

Drinking too much water is a sign of kidney disease. Weakness and discomfort caused by kidney problems can mean that home-trained pets can usually have peeing accidents while sleeping. Use dog diapers while the infection persists.

Diabetes

Dogs with diabetes face excessive thirst, leading to frequent urination, which may mean that some dogs may pee during their sleep. Other symptoms of diabetes can be lethargy and weight loss, despite an increase in appetite. So you must have a canine diabetes checking kit and must check your canine diabetes every month.

What To Do If Your Dog Is Peeing In His Sleep?

When you find out that your dog is having trouble controlling his bladder while sleeping, you may want to start monitoring for any other unusual urinary habits that your dog may have. For example, if the amount of water intake increases in a day or there are signs of peeing or leakage, it can be a more serious underlying problem.

After monitoring your dog, you may want to take him to a doctor to diagnose the problem and start treatment. Although a weak bladder will not harm your pet, the situation will need to be addressed immediately if associated with any other serious problem.

Your doctor may need a urine sample to diagnose the problem before offering any particular treatment. After the test, the treatment will be discussed. Your vet may suggest you use a waterproof dog bed during the treatment plan.

Why Is My Puppy Peeing In His Crate?

If you have an overly anxious canine companion, he may pee in his crate or other places around the house. He may become very nervous when you leave him in there and may pee due to the anxiety or stress of being alone.

Some dogs, typically older dogs, may be incontinent or have an overactive bladder. So try to use a dog-friendly crate where your canine feels relaxed and stress-free.

Dog Peeing While Lying Down Awake?

Your dog could be leaving his scent/urine markings in your sheets while awake for several reasons. He might have a medical condition like urethral incontinence, be anxious, nervous, excited, properly house trained, or don’t like the new environment. The most common cause of peeing, while awake is the same while sleeping, i.e., urethral incontinence. It’s an abnormal condition.

The most common clinical sign of urethral incontinence is spotting or pooling urine underneath your dog when sleeping or relaxing. Many dog owners report finding wet spots on the bedding or floor where their dog has recently been laying down while awake.

Is Dog Incontinence Always Age-Related?

Not necessarily, but many diseases that can cause uncontrolled dog peeing or incontinence are more common in older dogs. Older dogs are also unaware that they are urinating. When a pet enters old age, incontinence often begins in dogs, but different breeds have different ages for being old.

For example, giant dogs are considered old-aged when they reach eight years of age, while small dogs are still regarded as fit at that age. Some breeds are more at risk of becoming incontinent than others, although the causes are unknown. These include Dobermans, Cocker Spaniels, and English Sheep Dogs.

What Are The Solutions For An Incontinent Dog?

Place a clean blanket and towel on your dog’s favorite sleeping area, or place a waterproof pad under his bed to absorb any moisture. Take your dog for more walks, in the morning and evening. Consider using dog diapers, which are available at many pet stores

Can Dogs Have Nightmares And Urinate?

Yes, dogs have bad dreams/nightmares. But the bad dream is not associated with urination. It’s due to age and medical conditions as we discussed above

If your dog is padding his legs and making noises of excitement, he probably has a good dream, probably about good food! But if your dog is crying, barking, or growling, then his dream may be bad, in which they feel threatened or anxious and sometimes even urinate.

Why Male Dogs Leave Odourless Wet Spot?

Naturally, dogs “mark” their territory by urinating on objects/areas or leave wet spots (without the smell). Leaving a scent mark with urine is a natural dog communication behavior.

The amount of urine for marking is usually low. This problem is more common in intact males who are not neutered, but many spayed females or neutered males also mark their area. Some dogs even mark their dog beds to tell other pets or owners that this is their territory.

Why Does My Puppy Pee On My Other Dog Bed?

This is not due to dominance but insecurity. The puppy may want another dog to ‘mother’ her or may wish to smell her on the bed, and that’s the easiest way to achieve it. It could also be possible that the puppy needs to pee at night and can’t get out. The easiest way to solve it is using a puppy crate.

Prevention Of Peeing In Dog’s Sleep

Sometimes the best form of prevention is regular exercise. Those weak sphincter muscles also need to be toned like any other muscle in the body. Giving your dog a nap before a long walk can help strengthen the muscles and give your dog plenty of time to empty his bladder along the way.

Without exercise, it is also difficult to prevent your canine urination during sleep because your dog has no control over it. See your pet veterinarian so you can help fix this problem as soon as possible.

Treatment Cost Of Curing The Dog Peeing In His Sleep

Treatment charges will vary depending on the actual cause of peeing while awaking or sleeping. For example, if your dog is diagnosed with severe incontinence, treatment costs will range from $70 to $1500 depending on its severity. Or if your dog is diagnosed with a urinary tract infection, the average treatment price is $350.

Sometimes you have to train your dog by yourself or use some professional dog trainer’s expertise to resolve that uncontrol peeing behavior.

Conclusion

The following medical conditions can bring up incontinence in dogs while sleeping:

Diabetes
Spay or Neuter
Spinal cord disease
Kidney disease
Urinary tract infection

If you notice that your dog is peeing/urinating in his sleep, it is essential to take him to a vet as soon as possible to fix the underlying problem. Although a weak bladder is not fatal if left unchecked, it can result in severe consequences. And if combined with something like diabetes or kidney disease, it may lead to death.

Your old dog may also pee while sleeping because your dog’s urinary tract muscles become weak with age, and your dog has trouble holding in urine. So provide clean blankets and sheets and take your canine companion on regular walks.

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