bottlerocket

Put some feelers out to local rescues. Nearest BC specific rescue is a few hours away, but there is a dog rescue in town that I got in touch with. Lady basically told me at 9 years old either leave him in a crate for the rest of his life or put him down. Not exactly the most promising of suggestions there.

Shelter is closed for the day. Also might not be overly helpful as I am about 5 hours away from where I rescued the dog. I'll look up some local rescues. I believe there are a couple nearby that are even BC specific I'll definitely bring that up with my vet next time we go for a visit. Thanks!

I haven't spoken to my vet here about this yet. I will at our next appointment. My fear of medication is how some described as a suppressant and that the dog still has the fear but is unable to react thereby making them feel trapped in their own body. Sounds terrifying to me but those descriptions may be unfounded. That said, I'm not entirely against it if a vet definitely recommends it. Apologies for being unclear. We rescued him from a kill shelter for 55 bucks. Highly doubtful they would offer any support unfortunately. Thanks for the reply!

Hey all. I adopted my BC Sam from a shelter back in 2009 when he was right around 2. He has always had some issues such as submissive urination and severe fear of thunder. My wife and I have dealt with these problems over the past 7 years but with our newborn on the way we want to figure out how to properly address these concerns. Some of the other things we've noticed with him are: Aggression towards other dogs when: they chase him at the dog park (he will nip/bite), have a toy he wants (he will try to steal it from another dog and often times will miss and end up inadvertently biting the other animal), and if 2 dogs are playing he will try to intervene and tackle one to the ground Aggression towards humans when: If I pick my wife up and carry her, he will start to bark and will even nip my legs, if I hug my wife he will start to bark at me Thunder fear: will tear up base boards or doors to try to get to a "safer" place, will claw at carpet in attempt to dig through it as well as the bottom of his kennel, will break out of a wire kennel using his mouth to get to where he wants to go (thunder shirts have not helped) Urination: submissive urination has stopped but now he will pee (not just mark, i mean empty the bladder) on our bed if left unsupervised for any amount of time. Its not a life I want for any dog, especially a border collie. My wife and I work so we are gone 8 hours per day. He destroys things in the house (couch cushions, baseboards, cabinets, etc) and pees so we are forced to leave him crated during the day. At night he will claw at the carpet for hours if we do not crate him when there is a thunderstorm near. And if we are not constantly watching him he will almost always run off and either pee on the bed or chew something. My biggest fear is baby coming. Our other dog, a blue heeler, is amazing with kids. I know some dogs just dont like animals that are smaller than they are, but I need to find a solution. I think most of it can be related to fear: fear biting (myself and other animals), urinating on a place that smells like me to cover his scent (fear of predators), fear of thunder. But how do I move forward?

I'll look into getting a crate for him. Its not a UTI, I just had him tested last week and this has been happening for months.

roughly 3 years

I really don't think I can take it any more. It isn't a potty training issue, he knows when he needs to go to the bathroom, he will go to the door and wait or do something attention grabbing and lead us to the door if he really has to go. He has gone for long stretches and not been out if I get held up at work or class. This is the biggest mystery to me. Even after going outside just a few hours before, he will sometimes pee in the house, or even poo in the house. And its not just a little bit either, I don't know where it comes from. I don't force him to hurry when he is outside. I wait until he is ready to go back in. It does not happen often, but probably once or twice a week at least. We could be ignoring the dog completely or be calling him over to us. There is really no pattern to it. Last night I took him out at 3am before going to bed, and this morning at 9am I woke up to him squatting and pooing all over the carpet in my room. I jumped out of bed and stopped him immediately and sent him out of the room. I got the carpet cleaning stuff and quickly got to work before it really set in. After I finished I called him in to my room again to put him in the bathroom where it has vinyl flooring so I could leave him there for a minute while I got dressed incase he had another accident. I did not even have an angry tone to my voice, I called him nicely like I do every time. He came in but immediately went to the other side of the room and suqatted and peed right infront of me. He was outside of my room away from me for a good 10-15 min while I cleaned and didn't pee once, but as soon as he got into my room he went. I'm out of options

Well I have been taking everyone's suggestions and he's progressing it seems. He has the occasional accident, but every time he gets "submissive" (rolls and lifts his leg) I just turn around and walk off. I think he's learning to not get that way as much now. Seems to be working!

Sam is a stray rescue, so his history is unknown. He doesn't have a problem holding his pee unless he gets excited As for harsh scolding, I am definitely not harsh at all. I never hit him, yell at him or get in his face. I'll just use a firm "no", sometimes even not so firm as to not scare him. He is rolling over most times when he does this. He NEVER will just stand and pee. He will always lay on his back and will pee, or when he jumps up on you he'll pee as well.

I'm at the end of my patience. I have had Sam for about a month and a half now and I cannot deal with the constant urination. He doesn't have trouble holding it, but he will pee when he is excited, gets in trouble, lots of people come over, etc. Unless everything is standard, normal and nothing is going on at all, he'll pee. I have tried constant positive reinforcement but it hasn't shown any change. He pees all the time and I cant take the amonia smell any longer. I have go to do something. I cant keep coming home to a house that smells like urine. What do I do?

I took Sam to the dog park today to play and he did great. On the way out, though, he was limping just a bit. He was chasing another dog and hit a trashcan pretty hard so I figured that was his problem. But I tried putting pressure on the front leg that he was trying to stay off of and he didnt complain once. But when I checked out his paws, the large pad at the back was worn down and a little bloody. The other one was similar, but not as bad. He was running on all grass and occasionally dirt. We were out there for a couple hours at most and I wasn't pushing him at all, he was just playing on his own. Could this be a symptom of something worse or what can I do to prevent it? Also anything I can do to help him out now?

I just got back from the dog park and Sam is exhausted! I took him in with the big dogs (30+lbs) and he had a great time. He spent the first half hour or so just running the fence and chasing the dogs on the other side at the lake, but then he finally got bored it seemed and went to play with the other dogs that were in the same area. I still have to work on getting a solid recall with him, but that all comes in time. At least he got to get out and run and play with some other dogs today. Enjoy the pics!

Well for those of you who don't know, Sam is my rescued BC I got about 3 weeks ago. It's been a roller coaster with him lately, but I'm working through every setback. It seems like he has finally accepted that he's a part of the family now and gonna be staying here for good. I took him to the dog park today for the first time and he had a blast. I went with my buddy and his BC/American Blue Heeler mix and they got along great. I took him to a sectioned off space since I wasn't sure how he would do socially, but eventually I got him in with a couple other dogs (pitbull and an aussie). My only issues with him at the park is his focus. Sure he's in a confined space and can't get away, but the trouble is actually getting him back to me. He just wants to keep running. Second is his attention span. I can throw a ball and he goes after it very quickly, but he'll drop it in a few seconds and just run off in a different direction. Otherwise we had a great time and I'll definitely go back tomorrow! I'll take some pics tomorrow too and post them up

His name is Sam. I'll give the ignoring thing more of a chance and see how that works out. Thanks for all the advice

It all actually started within the last few days. He hasnt had any problems the first couple of weeks. This is a new development.