https://www.barkandwhiskers.com/2016-05-30-nl-proper-dog-housetraining/
https://www.barkandwhiskers.com/p/1af99c44-d9b2-42f7-81d9-beeee38e245f/
By Dr. Becker
You love your dog and everything about him, except maybe his penchant for urinating around the house. This is a very common problem with multiple causes and you need to understand whyyour the dog pees in the house is essential to stopping this behavior.
Unfortunately, some pet owners give up their dogs too soon; up to 25 percent of dogs abandoned at animal shelters by their owners are relinquished due to housebreaking problems.
I hope you understand that, as difficult as it may be, you owe it to your dog to resolve such problems instead of just abandoning him.
Fortunately, this is not a problem that you simply have to learn to live with because, in most cases, your dog can learn to stop urinating in the house and/or it can be resolved with proper medical treatment or behavioral training.
5 main reasons why dogs pee at home
There is a lot reasons why your dog may urinate indoors. It is essential to know your dog’s reason before addressing it.
1. Excitement
Some dogs drag on the ground when they get too excited. This can happen when you get home from work, when a new visitor arrives, or while your dog is waiting for a coveted toy, treat, or activity (like a walk).
Often, your dog may squirm, jump, and continue his excitement while urinating.
2. Submission or fear
Urination may be a submissive behavior that your dog displays when he is frightened or overwhelmed. Although submissive urination occurs most commonly in puppies, it can occur in dogs of any age, usually after your dog has been scolded or placed in an uncomfortable or frightening situation.
3. Cleanliness issues
Dogs need to learn the appropriate place to go potty. If your dog hasn’t been properly trained, he may urinate indoors simply because he doesn’t know any better.
4. Marking
Does your dog release small amounts of urine in specific areas of your home, like the corner of your couch or on a pair of shoes you left by the door? Your dog marks its territory and asserts or maintains its social status in the pack.
Dogs may also overmark or countermark, that is, mark another dog’s urine. If you have multiple dogs, once one dog starts marking, it can trigger other dogs to mark as well.
5. Medical problems
Any time a dog urinates in the house, especially if it is a new behavior, medical problems should be ruled out. Urinary infectionsbladder stones and crystals, cystitis, kidney diseaseCushing’s disease and diabetes are examples of health problems that may cause your dog to urinate in the house.
Arousal-related urination and submissive urination are behavioral problems
If your dog is urinating because of excitement or submissiveness, it is not a housebreaking problem, but a behavioral problem. If excited urination occurs, helping your dog learn relaxed behaviors, such as lying down or sitting quietly to greet people, can help.
You should also greet your dog calmly (and ask visitors to do the same) to keep him quiet. It may also be helpful to give your dog frequent walks and opportunities for rigorous exercise and play.
This will help him expend some of that spent energy. If you know that your dog will meet many visitors, for example at a party at your house, let him socialize outside so that accidents also happen outside.1
If your puppy exhibits submissive urination, he may break out of it. Do not punish your dog for this behavior, as it is a natural method of communication for young dogs; it’s their way of letting you know that they’re not challenging “the boss.”
Punishing your dog can actually make submissive urination more frequent and likely to continue into adulthood.
In older dogs, a trainer can help teach confidence-building protocols, such as directing his nose toward your hand during greetings (this is a more assertive behavior). A positive training class can also improve communication between you and your dog.
You can also reduce this behavior at first by completely ignoring your dog when you arrive home, then turning your body to the side during greetings, avoiding direct eye contact, and waiting to touch him until that he was installed.
When you kneel down to touch it, it may help to scratch it under the chin (not the top of the head or the back of the neck).2
How to solve cleanliness problems
There are three keys to successful housebreaking, whatever the age of your dog:
- Consistency
- Positive reinforcement
- Patience
Additionally, there are four fundamental principles that will teach virtually any dog the proper place to go potty, provided you apply the three keys above. They are explained in detail in my video above but here is an overview:
- Stay with your dog at all times. If you leave your dog unattended, it gives him the possibility of having an accident. When you can’t give your dog your full attention, let him stay in his crate. If your dog is outside the crate, I recommend attaching the leash to your belt buckle, so you can keep a close eye on him as you go about your life.
- Feed your dog on a schedule. This creates a more predictable schedule for when your dog will need to go outside.
- Reward good behavior. When your dog eliminates outside, immediately praise him with words (spoken in a gentle, affectionate tone) and offer him a treat within three seconds of finishing his work.
- Avoid punishing accidents. Yelling at your dog for a mistake will not teach him appropriate behaviors; This will only confuse him, scare him, and possibly make the problem worse.
What to do if your dog marks indoors
This is another behavior problem that can be difficult to correct, but it is entirely possible. Positive reinforcement behavioral training is key to stopping urine marking in the house, and it’s the strategy I used to save my dachshund Lenny – who marked the corner of every piece of furniture in our house when we we brought home.
To reduce this completely unwanted behavior and reinforce healthy housebreaking, we put a belly band on him. We called it his loincloth (and Lenny became known as “Lenny Loincloth”). A belly band is a small diaper that holds a dog’s penis to its abdomen.
Dogs don’t naturally want to urinate on themselves; they want to pee and mark things. By bandaging his stomach, we reinforced good behaviors like going potty outside and not marking in the house. I’m proud to say that within a month, this strategy helped him largely get rid of his marking habits. Constant positive reinforcement was definitely needed with Lenny, as it is with all dogs.
If you’re not sure why your dog is urinating indoors, have him checked by a veterinarian
There are a number of medical reasons why a dog might urinate indoors, and it’s important to rule them out if your dog is urinating indoors and you don’t know why. If your dog has been trained his entire life and suddenly starts peeing in the house, it’s safe to say that there is likely a medical problem that needs to be identified and treated.
Diabeteskidney disease, Cushing’s disease, bladder infection Or bladder stones can all cause urination problems, as can certain brain diseases that cause your dog to forget his potty training skills. A visit to your veterinarian will be necessary in this case to obtain the necessary medical attention.
If medical issues are ruled out, then you can assume the problem is largely behavioral and apply appropriate positive reinforcement strategies. You may want to seek help from aprofessionalfor indoor urination problems, and please don’t give up or turn to fear-based negative punishments that usually make the situation worse.
With correct and consistent behavior modification, most dogs can learn to relieve themselves appropriately outside and, in the rare case they cannot, the use of pads, pet gates Pet and belly bands can protect your home from dirt.
Related Articles: