You always know that face –the guilty, sad look your dog shows when he has been caught being in the house. The first thought that may come to mind is to scold your dog, but is that really what’s going to stop your dog from peeing inside the house again? In most circumstances –NO.
If your dog is constantly peeing inside the house, it can be so frustrating. Improper urination is actually a condition that must be addressed immediately. But the first step that you should take is knowing why your furry pal is peeing inside the house.
In this post, we are going to discuss the reasons why dogs pee inside the house, as well as the different ways to stop your dog from doing it. So without further ad, let’s get this started!
Reasons Why Dogs Pee In The House
Your dog peeing in the house is a rather common problem in dogs, yet it is commonly addressed during its puppyhood. In case your dog is still a puppy, then its training may not be done just yet. In fact, house training might take a while.
Moreover, if your dog is certainly house-trained and the improper peeing begun well after training was already complete, there might be some other reasons for it. It is necessary that you discount health problems first before even investigating behavioral causes for it.
Here are some of the usual reasons why dogs urinate in the house:
1. Incontinence & Health Problems
Incontinence or urinary incontinence is so common with senior dogs. However, it can also happen in young adult dogs. In case your dog is dribbling or leaking intermittently or leaving urine puddles on the floor or in its bed while napping, incontinence might be the reason.
If so, it is necessary that you know that your dog does not actually realize that it is happening and it has no control of the situation. Luckily, it may be treated with proper medications sometimes. On the other hand, when your dog pees large amounts consciously in improper areas, it is perhaps not due to incontinence. You should pay your vet a visit to talk about it.
2. Urinary Tract Conditions
Aside from incontinence, there are some other urinary tract issues that may cause your dog to pee in the house. In fact, these issues are the most common reasons for improper urination. These are also the most often seen health conditions in dogs.
Before you even get angry at your dog peeing inside the house, you should first see a vet for a checkup. They will want a urine sample for your pooch for its urinalysis. If it is true that your dog has some sort of urinary tract condition, antibiotics prescription will follow.
3. Behavioral Problems
When there is no medical condition that associates with the peeing of your dog inside the house, it is possible that your dog has a behavioral problem. One more possibility is that your dog may be showing excitement or submissive urination. It might happen when something or someone is intimidating your dog. Further, dogs might also urinate improperly when they are anxious and stressed out.
Examine your situation at home, in order to determine if something is really triggering your dog to do this behavior. It is also possible that your dog is anxious about a certain situation outdoors, which may lead to improper urination.
4. Aging
Old age may also be a reason for your dog to pee in the house. Some forms of senility or dementia may happen in aging dogs, which also lead to house soiling. These dogs might forget their house training or just forget where they are.
Some other health conditions like kidney failure tend to add to old age too. In some instances, dementia may be managed with necessary supplements and medications. A lot of people who live with aging dogs also use dog diapers for their dog’s peeing.
How To Stop Your Dog From Peeing In The House?
There is no easy way to stop your dog from urinating inside your house, but don’t give up on this battle. You got this! What you need to do is to take it one step at a time. Below, we have different ways of how you can stop your dog from urinating inside the house.
Clean the accident properly. You should clean every accident (pee) immediately using a cleaner, which gets rid of the smell. Of course, you do not want your dog to recognize the smell of its urine and think that inside the house, it’s alright to pee.
Do not yell or hit your dog. You should never hit or yell at your dog for peeing in the house. Rather than learning that urinating inside the house isn’t right, your dog might think that people are so unpredictable or unsafe to be around with. Hitting your dog will make it afraid to pee in front of you –that might just lead to more accidents inside the house.
Know what triggers accidents. You should try to know what is the stimulus or trigger inside the house, which prompts your dog to pee. Get rid of this trigger if possible. If you can’t, then you can teach your furry pal how to live with it or find a way to calm it.
Increase potty breaks. You should take your dog outside to urinate after eating, drinking, and waking up from naps. When it pees outside, reward your dog.
Retrain your dog. Since your pooch was house trained before, it might be beneficial for you to revisit the training and repeat the necessary steps.
Get professional help. If you have already tried everything that you can and your dog is still not able to make any changes and still keeps on peeing inside, you should consider getting help from a professional behaviorist or trainer.
Things To Avoid
For the best results, there are also some things that you should avoid doing when trying to stop your dog from urinating inside the house. First and foremost, people say that rubbing your dog’s nose in the peeing incident is a good thing –this is not effective at all. Well, your dog will never understand why you are doing that to them, hence it is a useless thing.
Furthermore, as we have said earlier, you should never hit or punish your dog for doing something like peeing inside the house. Again, they aren’t capable of understanding why you’re hitting them and what they’ve done wrong.
We know how frustrating this is, but it is the best that you avoid making much fuss about it. What you should do is to follow the proper ways to train your dog that we have discussed above.
Final Say
The key to success in stopping your dog from peeing in the house is to follow the different ways on how you can stop your dog from urinating inside the house. Even though it may take some discipline and patience, we promise that these tips will work. It might be very frustrating at times, but you should have faith in your dog’s capacity to learn and do not give up –good luck!