Dog urinating in the house.

Dr. Marie replied:

Oh, sorry to hear that Titch is having this problem. It is really a frustrating thing when a dog wants to pee on everything.

My first question would be to ask whether or not he is neutered. If not, then having him neutered has a really good chance of stopping him from urinating on things. Testosterone can cause a dog to want to mark his territory and usually once we castrate a dog that desire goes away.

The next thing I would advise is to have your vet check a urine sample from him. Quite often when a dog is urinating in the house it is because there is a medical problem. One such problem would be inflammation in the bladder from a chronic infection, bladder stones or crystals. All of these are fixable problems. Another possibility is something that would cause him to produce extra urine such as diabetes or a kidney problem.

If medically he checks out ok then there are some good training things you can do to help. I really advocate crate training. What this means is that he stays in his crate all day long other than going outside for walks. When he urinates in an appropriate place give him lots of praise. It usually takes about 1-3 weeks of crate training for a dog to retrain his brain that outside should be his toilet and not inside. After 1-3 weeks then you can start allowing him small time periods outside of the crate and gradually increase the amount of time he is allowed out.

It will also help to thoroughly clean any area where he has urinated.

I hope things improve soon!

Dr. Marie.

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