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When Dogs "Go" in the House

We've seen a rash of housesoiling dogs lately. While housesoiling is a somewhat common problem, we see far more aggression and separation anxiety cases, so we're not sure what is accounting for this latest rise in calls about this issue.

In two recent cases, both owners called complaining of a urine-marking problem. This is an assumption about motivation that we need to verify in the behavioral interview. Don't fall into the trap of thinking any urination in the house is due to marking, even if it involves a male dog lifting his leg. Males can lift their legs and urinate in the house for reasons other than urine-marking.

To conclude soiling is due to urine-marking we look for: a) stimuli that commonly trigger urine-marking, such as conflicts between dogs in the family, the addition of a new pet, visitors to the home, neighborhood dogs coming into or passing by the property, frequent bouts of fence running with other dogs, or any other stimulus that a dog could perceive as a territorial intrusion, b) small quantities of urine deposited usually against vertical surfaces (although small amounts of urine can also be indicative of a urinary tract problem) c) soiled areas that may be near doors, windows or on objects new to the house such as grocery bags, visitors' suitcases, new furniture or drapes.

There is no evidence that urine-marking is correlated with social dominance status. The claims that dogs urine-mark to show their "dominance" and that "dominant" dogs are more likely to urine-marking have no basis in fact and have no supporting scientific evidence.

Urine-marking is also unrelated to housetraining. A dog can be very well housetrained, if what we mean is he voids his bladder and bowels outside (or in another designated area) rather than inside, but still urine-mark. Marking and elimination are two different functions.

A pet peeve of ours is the use of the more traditional term of "housebreaking", which implies a dog has a bad habit that must be broken. Breaking habits in turn implies punishment or discipline, which has no place in basic housetraining.

Housetraining is the process of helping dogs establish desirable surface and location preferences for where and on what they want to relieve themselves. For help with housetraining, we recommend our video "Housetraining: A Plan for Success", available at your local PETsMART store.

Of course any time a dog begins urinating in the house, the first step is to see a veterinarian to rule out urinary or other medical problems. There are no magic bullets for a urine-marking problem. Changing the behavior requires trying to identify the triggers for the behavior, and then either 1) remove the triggers, 2) prevent the dog from being exposed to the triggers, and/or 3) change the dog's reaction to the triggers.

Sometimes it can be very difficult to identify the triggers, and also logistically difficult to implement any of the three techniques above. That leaves trying to manage the behavior by not allowing the dog access to the areas he likes to mark or talking with your veterinarian about medication.

Medications for urine-marking in dogs have not received much attention from veterinary behaviorists. Buspar has been shown to be effective in decreasing urine-marking in cats, but no clinical trials have ever been conducted with dogs. The drug is a bit expensive, which may be one reason why no one has taken an interest in investigating its effectiveness for dogs.

Another management approach is the diaper-type products, some of which resemble the pads used for female dogs in season, and others that look more like ace-bandages that wrap around the dog's belly. Some dogs inhibit their behavior when wearing these items, but other dogs just urinate in them, which means a cleaning project when you remove them. We've never known these items to result in a generalized change in behavior when the dog wasn't wearing them.

Of course odor-neutralizing is another important component in decreasing urine marking. Our favorite product is Anti-Icky-Poo, but we've also heard good things about Urine-Off, carried by Premier (800-933-5595). Both are a bit more expensive than products in the big box pet stores, but we think they are superior.

Urine-marking problems are among the more frustrating behaviors dog owners experience. Our male Dalmatian Mocha used to occasionally lift his leg on a small Dalmatian statue by the front door after a barking bout at a dog walking by, and on a shelf of my sweaters that rested on the floor in the bedroom. We never once saw him do it, or invested the time to try to change the behavior. But we were lucky - during his middle age, Mocha just stopped. If you have a urine-marking dog, we wish you the same positive outcome!!

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