Why Is Your Pet Urinating in the House?
Do you ever wonder, sometimes throwing your hands up in exasperation, why your housebroken dog still pees in the house? Well, you’re not alone. Dogs have always been, and will continue to be, territorial animals. They have a tendency to stake claim to particular spaces, areas or objects by marking them.
Marking is Not Soiling
It is important to differentiate between marking and soiling. House soiling is when your dog empties his bladder inside the house. This may happen because he’s not properly housebroken, has a medical issue or is very scared (a good example is fireworks or thunderstorms.)
Urine marking, on the other hand, is a territorial behavior. In this instance, your dog feels the need to assert his dominance or ease his anxiety by claiming his boundaries. He does this by depositing small amounts of urine on anything he feels belongs to him. This may include the furniture, walls, your son’s soccer bag, etc. Leg lifting is the primary way of marking, but your dog can still mark without lifting its leg. The small amount of pee is primarily found on vertical surfaces, but dogs do sometimes mark on horizontal surfaces.
Think that because you have a female dog that you’re in the clear? Although marking is most often associated with male dogs, females can do it as well.
Marking Out of Jealousy?
Dogs don’t mark out of spite or jealousy. If your dog pees on your niece’s backpack, it’s probably because the backpack’s unfamiliar scents are stressful and he feels the need to reaffirm his claim on his territory. Other instances of marking may occur when:
- Your dog isn’t not spayed or neutered
- There’s a visiting pet in your home that isn’t spayed or neutered
- There’s a guest in your home with unfamiliar smells
Whether your dog has marked or soiled in the house, fear not! The SENTRY Clean Up stain and odor remover product line, available in February 2014, features odor-control technology that traps and destroys pet odors to help ensure that your pet takes his business outdoors.
Is your dog a chronic marker? Here are some tips to help stop your dog’s irritating behavior!
Editor’s Note: Another excellent way to help with inappropriate marking and unwanted pet behavior, is to use SENTRY Good Behavior Pheromone Technology. SENTRY brings you solutions to some of the toughest behaviors. Problems like inappropriate marking, scratching, digging and even separation anxiety can be reduced and eliminated using these pheromones – chemicals that animals naturally produce and use to communicate information to each other. For more information go here: http://www.sentrypetcare.com/goodbehavior/.
-Photo Credit: From flickr by M Glasgow
Dog behavior is an ocean itself, as much as you learn, the little you know! So, this article helps out a lot pet owners like me who doesn’t knew the difference between marking and soiling. It’s great to know the pet product that can help clean up dog marking, and I hope this will make an incredible impact.
What will prevent the dogs from remarking the same spots after cleanup? The scent of the product will be unfamiliar and they might remark it.
Vicki, the good news is that many of today’s stain and odor products not only make cleaning easier, but removes traces of the accident. After all, the goal is to neutralize the odor in order to deter repeat visits. For example, SENTRY Clean Up Ultra+Pheromone Stain+Odor Remover is a professional-strength formula with pheromones and extra enzymes that rapidly remove urine, vomit, blood and feces to deter your pet from marking again. I hope that helps!
just want to say I walked on to Yer page 20 mins. ago and im spreadin the News!! Thanx You All
Thanks, Larissa – Great stuff! Don’t forget to visit your trusted family veterinarian if your dog or cat is consistently urinating in the house – this could be a sign of a medical issue like bladder stones, urinary tract inflammation or diabetes.
Also you can add Cushing disease which my dog has.
I have a female dog that I rescued from a shelter 9 months ago. She does have a history of being abused. When we leave the house, she will poop on the floor, always around the same place. I have tried numerous things to stop this behavior, which currently she is being crated when we leave. She does have high anxiety, which I have been using different methods to control that from medication to natural products. I have used other products that claim to reduce remarking, however, they fail. How would your product be different?
Hi Lisa. In this instance it may be in your best interest to try a calming collar. The collar will help minimize her stress of separation, which is probably the cause of her marking in the first place. You can learn more about the calming collar on sentrypetcare.com.
Lisa the pooping is probably cause she can’t get and is not fully house broke. Make sure to take her out for a good walk before you leave. Creating is good. There are some natural anxiety drops at pet stores I would use on my dog got her as a puppy and was never abused anything but loved went ever where with me but was very scared. Would give her a drop and she slowly got better and I could stop the meds. I would create until she us fully house broken abd use white vinegar where she goes it takes the smell out they can’t smell it so the don’t remark there. I’d she a small dog some dogs bladder is smaller and cast hold as long. Just make sure you take her out. And give her something with your smell on it when your gone so she feels like you are there
I have had my 4.5 pound dog for over 2 years, he will still not come to me, stays under the bed. What to do
Peggy Sue – Behavioral issues can often be very complicated and require a very thorough history. Hard to say if there is an anxiety problem/self confidence issue or other complicating scenarios. You can either consult a local trainer/behavioral specialist in your area or visit an on-line service such as the one with this link. http://www.petbehavioralproblems.com/index.htm Good luck.
Peggy Sue – This kind of behavior can also be caused by exposure to BPA which is found in the lining of cans. Especially the pop top kind. If you are feeding canned food or allowing your dog to lick the inside of dog or cat food cans. The smaller the dog the more sensitive they seem to be. Bisphenol A is the chemical name. I learned this by accident. Had been allowing my Chihuahua to lick cat food cans. She developed this hiding behavior and seemed to avoid light. She demonstrated the behavior at the vet’s office and was put on Phenabarb. I thought she would die on the med. so I took her off and started to think about every detail of her life. Decided to look for possible toxins. Three weeks off the cans she began to improve. It has been over a year now and she no longer hides. She runs and plays and lies in the sunshine now.
Your reasons don’t apply to all situations. My fathers dogs pee in his apartment because he is 85 years old and it takes him 15 minutes to make it to the door to let the dogs out. However it only takes the dogs 1 minute to get to the door and when they have to go, they have to go. He is too old to walk them and even though they get walked 3 times a day by a walker, they still need to go out. My father is not allowed to install even a removable doggy door in his door or on his sliding door. The dogs run to the door to go out and wait – but they can’t wait 15 minutes. My father has inhome help a few times a week but there is no money for a 24 hour live in who is hired just to let dogs in and out of the apartment. Sometimes dogs make messes in the house because the owner isn’t able to get to the door in time – or at all. Please know that not all peeing in the house problems are due to lack of training (or marking territory).
I have 2 yorkies. They continue to pee and poop in house. I think they are confused?????
They are both spaded. One is 2 1/2 and the other is 1 1/2…help
your reasons also do not apply to our older dog, who is about 8 years old and is a beagle. She knows that she needs to go outside to do her business, but she often sneaks down to our bedroom and empties her entire bladder right on our carpet that we had put in last year. there are also times when she pees in the children’s bedroom. I don’t know how to get it through the dog’s head to not pee in the house, esp. on the carpets!
Our dog was urinating because of heart desease that was discovered because he was peeing so much and all over.
I need help. Have a 3 yr old Catahoula leopard dog mix and recently got a 4 mo old male black lab. She seems to accept him but is now peering all over the house. Not sure what to do. Please help.
Melissa – Dr. Tony suggests making sure that it’s not the new puppy peeing in the house. This seems more likely than a previously house-trained dog urinating in the house. If you determine that it is the older dog, bring him to the vet to make sure that there isn’t a medical reason is job #1. This means a urinalysis to look for infection, possible X-rays or ultrasound to check for stones, polyps or tumors. If that’s all clear, then going to a behaviorist or re-homing the new dog are probably the next step. Try using a Calming Collar or Calming Diffuser from SENTRY as well.