At some point during the lifetime of your dog you may experience problem peeing, where a previously reliable fully housetrained dog starts urinating indoors, on carpets, on the sofa, on the bed or even in the car.
This kind of lapse in housetraining is different to the problem of incomplete housetraining and it is unfair to expect a new puppy or dog to be housetrained in anything less than two weeks after they join a new household or start a new routine, and often housetraining takes a month or more. There are many methods for housetraining, although they're not detailed here, but please only choose a housetraining method that involves positive motivational techniques, no rubbing noses in messes or using rolled up newspapers please!
Problem peeing is characterised by several different things:
"So what went wrong?"
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There are lots of possibilities for what happened, but the simple thinking from the dog's point of view, without assigning blame, could be said to be:
They had to pee and either couldn't control it, or thought that where they were was not too bad a place to pee.
A puppy of 8 weeks of age can sometimes have trouble holding their toilet functions for more than half an hour, but an adult dog of 2 years of age should normally be able to hold their bladder and bowels for many hours, and up to 10 or 12 hours overnight while sleeping.
If your dog was even halfway housetrained they would already have developed a preference to toilet outside, probably on grass, but just becuase they haven't soiled indoors in the last few months (or even years) doesn't mean that they will never make a mistake in the future. Everyone and every dog has their limit, and for one reason or another their limit was exceeded, and their ability to hold their urine was compromised.
Lapses in toilet training don't always have to be due to some physical cause, psychology and motivation also play a part, but it's also not fair to say a dog didn't want to hold it in any more if they pee in an inappropriate place. It's just that their motivation not to toilet was less important at that time. For some reason.
It's up to us as their owners and their trainers to understand that nothing is ever a guarantee and it is our job to maintain toilet training and brush up on any areas that show signs of problems.
Some of the practical reasons why toilet training lapsed are given near the end of this article below. Often the cause is not one single reason, but a combination of factors, and many of the reasons given below may start to ring true.
"So what do I do about it? Where do I go from here?"
Toilet training a dog is a well-understood principle and any book on puppies or motivational training or dog problems in general will give good information about how to go about it. The suggested course of action with any lapse in toilet training is to rule out medical reasons and then return to Toilet Training 101.
Dogs are amazingly specific and situational learners, and amazingly bad generalisers. If you change the colour of your carpet at home you may find toilet training takes a step back for a short time. Just becuase your dog is reliable in one part of the house doesn't mean they are fine in other rooms - and that goes for chew toy training as well as toilet training. And just because a dog is reliable on the floor of one room doesn't mean they are reliable on the sofa in that room. Everything is situational.
The main rule is not to trust your dog's toilet training in any unfamiliar situation until you have had time to follow normal toilet training rules to establish a pattern of not toileting in that area.
And very importantly be sensitive to the fact you should not place your dog in a stressful situation where accidents may happen; don't set your dog up for failure. For example, don't leave your dog alone in an unfamiliar place such as a friend's home, unless you are absolutely certain they have a completely empty bladder and you're not leaving them there for long.
As with any kind of training, to ensure your dog's toilet training stays reliable, start with small steps and work up to the bigger picture. Start with short times in easy situations before expecting your dog to hold their urine for hours in a new situation.
If your dog does toilet in the wrong location, you have the best chance of changing their behaviour if you catch them in the immediate act. It's no good catching them even five seconds after they finish peeing, or at best it is much less effective to show then an alternative behaviour after the event.
To help cope with the occasional times in your dog's life when they do make toileting mistakes, it's best to have some emergency supplies on hand. Preparation is everything. Make sure you have a number of old cotton towels and paper towels on hand to help with immediate cleanup, have some non-ammonia-based cleaners (for example citrus based cleaners) on hand to help with stain and odour removal, and in the event your dog pees on your bed, try to keep a spare set of sheets and blankets handy. There is nothing worse than spending a cold night because your regular blankets are soiled and you have no others!
Some of the reasons for problem peeing.
Medical reasons. Although unlikely, obvious medical causes of incontinence (such as poisoning) should be ruled out first. If your dog presents any other signs of illness, such as lethargy, panting, frequent toileting or dark coloured urine you must seek veterinary advice immediately.
General incontinence. Just like humans, as dogs get older their ability to control their bladders gets weaker, and it is very common to hear of stories of older dogs who spontaneously start peeing indoors. The best strategy here is management, keeping the dog in an easily cleaned area, or kenneled in an appropriate sheltered area outdoors, or possibly even using incontinence aids like doggy nappies. Your vet should be able to give you helpful advice on all these options. General incontinence can also be caused by a temporary bladder infection. If any part of the urinary tract becomes infected and inflamed, loss of bladder control sometimes results. Sometimes infection doesn't present with any other symptoms and can only be detected by propert tests.
Diabetes. This is not a condition that usually develops overnight, and owners are usually aware of their dogs' needs well in advance of the onset of diabetes. Symptoms in a dog can include excessive drinking and urinating, and general loss of condition, degenerating vision and a lessened ability to heal. There are standard and well established tests for canine diabetes, and these days the condition is quite manageable.
Submissive peeing. If everything else seems normal in the situation, submissive peeing probably isn't the underlying cause, but do consider it as a possiblity if you enter the room and the dog immediately jumps up on the bed and pees. If you suspect submissive peeing is the cause, immediately end any training involving punishment and start to build your dog's confidence with motivational training. Getting in touch with a professional dog training organisation will most certainly help set the right direction for this.
Incomplete house training. This is a much overlooked reason and starts with the idea that dogs don't generalise well. Just because your dog hasn't ever peed on the bedroom carpet doesn't mean they never will pee there, or on the bed covers given the chance. Every situation must be trained for, and the wider your dog's experience with toilet training in all situations, the better the chance they will be reliable in all situations. Sometimes the original housetraining was not taught properly, and occasionally returning to first principles can help pick up and correct any potential problems.
Lack of a clear toileting signal. It may have been that your dog was in fact desperate to pee but had no established signal to let you know about it. Training your dog to scratch at a door, ring a bell, sit near you and bark or paw at your leg when they need to go outside to toilet can pay invaluable dividends in avoiding housetraining disasters later on. Very few people train their dogs to give a signal when they need to toilet, however most motivational training books will give some information on how to do this.
Vigorous exercise. If your dog has just come in from vigorous exercise, even for a few minutes they are likely to drink a fair amount quite quickly, and so their bladder may also fill quite quickly. Make allowances for this and try to avoid exercising your dog in the hour before they go to sleep, and let them out more often than you normally would for the first hour or two after exercise.
Changes in diet. If you recently changed your dog's diet or gave them more than the usual amount of special treats today, their digestion may have been upset. A sudden change in diet can often cause temporary diarrhea, leading to consumption of large amounts of water, which can in turn lead to more urine production. If you suspect your dog's diet has changed, allow them more access to their regular toileting area for at least the first 24 hours. Sometimes it's the things you don't know that your dog has eaten, the things they find out in the garden while you weren't looking that cause the worst upsets.
Diuretics. In humans coffee is a strong diuretic that increases the production of urine. Although we don't feed our dogs coffee, there are some things that we do feed them that also stimulate urine production. The worst offender is human junk food. Foods that are high in sugar or salt can, in extreme cases, double or triple the normal rate of urine production. Feeding your dog more than 10% of their normal food ration as human junk food can seriously impact on their health. Blood chemistry and urine production will quickly return to normal after your dog ingests a diuretic, and again the solution to excess urine production is to allow your dog greater access to toileting areas and fresh clean water.
Stress. Stress is a general category for anything that upsets your dog's normal routine. Psychological stress just by itself is enough to give your dog diarrhea, although other causes of stress can include changes of environment and temperature, an argumentative household in which there is lots of shouting, interrupted sleep patterns, a sudden change in routine, heat stress and overexercising. Whatever the causes of stress, the indicators are sometimes hard to pick, although a lapse in all kinds of behaviours such as obedience, personality and toilet training can often occur. Usually these behaviours bounce back to normal once the stress levels reduce. In the case of toilet training, the course is clear, reduce the stress level and allow your dog free access to toilet areas.
We expect a lot from our dogs and sometimes are intolerant of when apparent 'rules' get broken. The dogs that thrive live in an environment free of stress and violence and attitudes of intolerance. If toilet training lapses it is often just an inconvenience, and even the worst cases won't bring about the end of the world. Whatever the situation, it's not fair to punish our dogs for their natural behaviour. They are not us, and after all we are the ones who invited them into our world.
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