Why Does My Dog Pee In the House?

Guest post!

Urine marking is innate in dogs. Though marking is not a bad thing, it usually ends up spoiling your rugs, furniture, or flooring and smelly home.

Although stopping dogs from marking their territory can be very difficult because it’s instinctual, there are ways to reduce or completely eliminate the behavior.

You can take some preventive measures to reduce your dog’s anxiety; investigate the potential causes of this behavior and try to address them.

Possible Causes

New environment

As much as humans engage in marking behavior like hanging pictures on bedroom walls or naming the things we own, your dog’s marking helps him/her mask all unfamiliar odors with his/her scent, by making a completely new environment smell just like home.

Additional territories

A great number of animals use their pee – sometimes their poop! – To mark the areas they declare ownership at. These areas are then now considered to be their “territories”.

Moreover, even if dogs have been living the life with humans and are domesticated, like the majority of animals, dogs still have their innate territorial behavior. Your dog’s territory marking lets other dogs know his/her presence.

Triggering social situations

Any exciting or stressful social situation for your dog can prompt his/her urine marking behavior. Some male dogs mark the presence of female dogs in heat. Or even on the simplest thing that causes anxiety in dogs like new things on the dog’s “marked territories” or a visitor at home.

Possible health concerns

But aside from the reasons stated above, your dog’s marking can also be caused by some medical conditions. It can be a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) or prostate problems for your male dogs, which are caused by some serious health issues. It’s best to seek out help from your veterinary when the need arises.

Preventive measures 

Taking preventive measures and properly training your dog can help reduce or even eliminate his/her marking behavior altogether. Take heart the following measures to limit marking.

• You must catch and interrupt your dog while they’re trying to mark their territory. Close supervision and consistently stopping their actions can help you break this habit.
• You must praise and appreciate your pooch for peeing in the right place.
• Make sure you limit their access to the spots or things where they mark. You can use barriers to stop the marking. This includes putting treats or food on their marking spot or putting them in a crate or placing their dog bed in the area where they mark.
• Try to keep other animals away from your home as seeing another animal around often triggers the marking behavior.
• Clean the area your dog has marked and make sure to neutralize the odor in that area.

Managing to mark

Your dog’s barking can be extremely hard to handle and train your furry friend will take some time. But of course, there are still options and high-quality incontinence products that’ll save your house (and your sanity) big time!

• Spay/Neuter You can always go with this one. This will reduce your dog’s urine marking and in some cases, this might even stop it
• Dog Belly Bands You will need to prevent marking from happening inside your home and avoid messy indoor accidents by having your male dog wear a washable belly band that you can change out regularly.
• Dog Diapers Having your female dog wear dog diapers will keep her away from marking on unwanted places in the house and will save you from crazy clean-ups!

Marking behavior is a learned behavior and once your dog starts doing this, it is very difficult to stop them from doing so.

It is much better to prevent your dog from marking in the first place than to correct the behavior once it has started so that your fur buddy won’t be creating any crazy mess and everyone’s comfortable, dry, and happy.

DISCLAIMER: DogExpress does not endorse or take responsibility for the content in the guest post.

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