Having a dog in the house is one of the best thing that have happened to me! He have brought laughter to the family with his cute looks and actions. My dog has been also an excellent companion especially at times when my little sister is afraid of been alone at home. He is an excellent listener especially at times whereby I need a listening ear but do not want to worry my family. The list of benefits goes on but one of the problems which is causing dissatisfaction within my family is regarding the problem of house soiling. House soiling can means either peeing or pooping in the house. What concerns me most is why does my dog pee in the house?

Why Does My Dog Pee In The House?

Based on a pet health article written and approved by veterinarians, it stated that “House soiling is a common problem, affecting up to 37% of dogs diagnosed with behavioral problems.” After reading this statement, I felt a strong mix of feelings; Should I be happy that I am not the minority that is facing such problem or should I be worry that my dog might have behavioral issues? Regardless of which, I would still like to understand why does my dog pee in the house in order to seek corrective actions. I learned that house soiling is generally categorized into two types, behavioral house soiling and house soiling due to health problem.

House Soiling Due to Health Problem

This type of house soiling is a result when our dogs pee inside the house due to health-related issues. This is common reason why you find that a house trained adult dogs will pee in the house suddenly; hence it is essential to rule out a medical cause first, especially so since many those medical causes can quickly become serious for our dogs. Bring your dog to visit the vet to omit medical cause as a possible reason. They might have lost control of the muscles in their bladder or sphincter, or there may be an infection or other condition that is making it difficult for them to hold their waste before they reach the designated area they are trained to pee. A urine sample from you dog might be needed to analysis if there is an infection.

Here are some of the common medical causes:

• Bladder infection (a.k.a. Urinary Tract Infection)
• Bladder stones
• Bladder or urethral tumors
• Incontinence (Unable to hold urine in the bladder)
• Cushing’s disease
• Diabetes
• Kidney failure
• Kidney tumors
• Prostatic disease in intact male dogs
• Pyometra infection in intact female dogs
• Vaginitis in intact female pupples
• Arthritis

Behavioral House Soiling

Behavioral house soiling takes place when there is no underlying health problem that leads to our dogs peeing in the house. An example of behavioral house soiling is when your dog pees when he is excited. You may notice that in such situation, your dog will be seen wiggling and jumping around while they urinate. As a result, you find drips of pee everywhere. Another kind of behavioral house soiling occurs as a result of submission. Submissive urination is commonly seen in puppies though it could be seen in dog of all ages. This kind of behavior can be triggered by a human – for example the dog owner or a stranger – or another animal. When the interactions with the other party gets too scary, your dog would show submissive behavior and may urinate.

Marking, is another possible cause of behavioral house soiling. In my previous article, I have discussed about the act of marking which you may refer to it here. Once a dog starts to mark, it can quickly become a pattern and may also lead to other household dogs to mark; hence, such behavior should be quickly rectified.

Corrective actions

Above you may find several possibilities to explain why your dog pees in the house. However, if you did not train your dog on the correct procedure to follow when he needs to pee, you cannot expect your dog to know that he should not pee in the house. You can only expect your dog to do what you have trained him to do. In additional, in case your trained dog pees in the house, do understand that no amount of punishment is going to change that. Instead, it make things worst. You should however understand the reason why your dog is doing so and correct this inappropriate behavior. Always remember that a dog learns better through positive reinforcement than punishment.

What should you do to stop your dog from peeing in the house? Refresher course is one method! Sometimes, your dog just needs a little reminder on what was been taught to instill his good habits back in place. Another method is to bring your dog out to pee in a fixed time-slot; if you decided on this method, do stick to the time-slot everyday! For cases whereby your dog tends to pee in the same area, this could occur because your dog smell pee and thinks that this is the right place to pee. As such, for may like to consider the use of enzymatic cleaners to eliminate smells. Regardless of which methods you decided on, it is vital to reward and praise your dog when he pees in the correct place.