Causes of Urinary Incontinence in Male or Female Dogs

My 2 year old dog has a tendency to dribble urine when he becomes over-excited. He does not seem to know he is doing it because he will tell me when he needs to go outside.

Many apparently house-trained adult dogs have an occasional accident or slip of concentration and forget their manners once or twice in their adult life. But when such occasions become common or seem to be unintentional, medical attention is required. The first thing to do is to monitor how often your dog is doing this, and whether or not the blood is clear or if it contains any blood or pus.

Adult females are prone to minor urinary tract infections because of their anatomy, and will tend to display secondary signs such as licking and staining of the area. These dogs will also tend to accidentally release urine when in a relaxed state, such as sleeping or relaxing. This kind of infection can normally be relieved by antibiotics, but a full examination, urinalysis and blood work will determine if there are any more serious concerns.

Adult male dogs may occasionally scent mark indoors, but they will never intentionally release urine while playing or any other activity. If they begin to do this, the prostate gland should be examined. Older male dogs have an extremely high chance of developing prostate disease – such that most male dogs will at one time experience some problem, but unlike in humans this is very unlikely to be cancerous. Swelling of the prostate in dogs will also result in pain and difficulty during defecation, and sometimes your dog will walk slightly differently. Affected dogs with advanced prostate disease will also begin to suffer from blood or pus in their urine.

In either case, male or female, if the incontinence is as a result of an anatomical problem, such as a loosening of the urinary sphincter muscle, there are now dog-only drugs available that have been known to effectively treat such a condition.