We’ve had Greta for about three months now. In that time, she’s transformed from a super skittish rescue dog to a super clingy Mama’s dog, and charms both Mister and myself on a daily basis with her big brown eyes. We’ve dealt with house training, health issues, and all the other fun stuff that comes with adopting a rescue dog. Once we seemed to have things settled down a bit, another problem pops up.

One night as I was getting ready for bed, Greta excitedly jumped in bed as she always does. She seems to think that when I get into bed, it’s time to jump on top of Mommy and lick her face. I don’t know what happened this particular night, but I was walking in and out of the bedroom, and when I walked back in, I smelled the unmistakable odor of urine.

I started looking around, not happy that I would be cleaning up a mess before going to bed – especially since this particular night was one in which I stayed up way too late, unable or unwilling to tear myself away from the internet. I looked and looked, and did not see wet carpet anywhere. That’s when it dawned on me. Greta didn’t pee on the floor.

She peed in our bed. The one I was just about to get into.

Mister helped me change the sheets, and I got out the mini carpet steamer that we have (one of the best purchases ever). I used it to suck up as much urine as I could. We turned the mattress so that the wet spot was at our feet instead of our heads, and I sprayed it with Febreze before putting a towel down on it to soak up any additional damp. New sheet, old crappy comforter, and I was ready for bed.

Since then, we’ve had a few more bedwetting incidents. Greta would either pee in our bed when I was getting ready for bed, or in the middle of the night when she was sleeping. Once I got up at 2am to take her out, where she did #2 before coming back in and peeing all over my side of the bed. Mister said he thought I was going to drop kick her that night. I was NOT a happy camper.

I didn’t think a vet visit was necessary since I had brought her in just a couple weeks before this all began for the issue of not finding any evidence of her having peed at all. He took a urine sample, which left me feeling broke and my poor dog feeling violated, and prescribed a new dog food and antibiotics for the crystals he found. She hasn’t had much issue going since then, so I’m not about to repeat that adventure. I’m sure Greta is in full agreement with me on that one.

Anyway, I asked my trusty friend Google what was going on with my dog. And believe it or not, since we ruled out medical, this isn’t a training issue. It’s more of a development issue. Greta’s a rescue dog, remember, so even though she’s about 4 years old, there are some developmental things that were missed, like trust and socialization. I found this post on why dogs pee in our beds. It confirmed my theory that this was not a training issue, and I came up with some ideas.

After going through the change the sheets in the middle of the night routine one too many times, I decided that enough was enough. I bought a waterproof mattress pad. I bought doggie diapers that I put on Greta right before bed. The mattress pad is not hot and not uncomfortable to sleep on, which is a plus for the humans who sleep in the bed. The diapers look silly, and Greta seems to think she’s an invalid when she’s wearing them, but our bed has stayed dry.

The first night we had the diapers, I woke up when Greta got a case of the wild in the middle of the night. I heard her jump off the bed, and instinctively sat up. She got all excited because woo hoo! Mommy’s up! Time to play! I just laid back down without acknowledging her. She got over herself pretty quick, and instead of jumping back in bed, decided to bed down in the pile of dirty clothes on the floor next to me. It gave me an idea.

I decided to see if I could transition her to sleeping in her own bed. She has 2, one in the office where we spend most of our waking hours, and one in the living room, where we currently spend as little time as possible because it’s too cold, thanks to our state-of-the-art, builder basic unbalanced heating and cooling system. I took her downstairs bed and put it on the floor next to my side of the bed, and went to bed as usual. Greta had her diaper on, did her usual jumping on me routine, and I finally fell asleep after I was able to nudge her off me. When I woke up the next morning, Greta was asleep in her bed, and I was cuddling with Mister.

(That’s another issue – Greta likes to wedge herself between us at night so we can’t cuddle. Mister was getting more and more displeased with this habit of her not letting anyone near her Mom.)

It’s only been one night as of this writing, but so far it shows promise. I want my dog to feel secure with her humans and her new home, and I want to feel secure knowing that I will get a full night’s sleep on the same sheets I started with. We’ll see how it goes. As much as Greta might not think so, I really do need my sleep.