All housetraining problems are frustrating, but the good news is that it’s often easy to fix with a little thought and care. Some tips:

Sudden changes in established habits
If your dog has been fine with its housetraining up till now, there may be several reasons for it to break with its training.

• If there have been no major changes in its life, your dog may very well have a medical problem, such as kidney trouble. Have your vet rule out possible medical causes.
• It may be trying to defend its territory if you have a new animal in the household. You will probably need to separate the pets for a while, and reintroduce them gradually. Provide each with a retreat area.
• It may be generally upset or anxious if you’ve just moved and trying to assert ownership of the new territory. Mark your territory first: scatter dirty laundry around the house to tell your dog YOU’VE claimed the territory and your dog should subside. After a few days, you can pick up the laundry.

In dog training terms ‘Scent marking’ is where a dog ‘marks’ his or her territory with urine. Technically this is not actually a house training problem, since it’s based on the dog training issues of dominance and territoriality rather than insufficient house training. A dog can be perfectly house trained but still feel the need to mark inside the house.

However, because – since the problem centers around the unwanted presence of urine in the house – it seems logical, in a way, to link this problem with house training. Since this is one of the most widespread problems among dog owners, we as dog training professionals thought it worthwhile to include some practical advice.

What is it a ‘submissive urinator’?

A ‘submissive urinator’, in dog training terms, is a dog that urinates on the floor and himself (and sometimes on you or any guests you may have!) in situations of extreme excitement or stress, like when you return home at the end of the work day or when the dog is being told off for some bad behavior.

Why does this happen?

Puppies are the most usual candidates for submissive/excited urination, but it is also not uncommon to see this behavior in adult dogs as well. Usually, these are highly sensitive and timid dogs, and/or ones from a shelter/with a history of abuse (often these last two go hand-in-hand and one of most common things we see as dog training professionals.)

The puppy is new and oh so cute. You cuddle with it every day and love to chase it around the yard or play tug of war with the stuffed animal that, in a year will probably be missing most of its limbs. However, all is not fun and games in the house with the new puppy. Now comes the hard part, house training the dog.

As the new puppy does one of two things to relieve him/herself in the middle of your new white carpet you find yourself wondering why it is so difficult for the dog to understand that you do not go in the house. You think to yourself why would anyone, animals included, go to the bathroom where they live? Would they not want it as far away as possible? You think your puppy must just be thickheaded, anyone with a dog has looked at their animal at this stage and said ‘you stupid dog’. However, then you remember that for a couple years after you were born you not only went to the bathroom where you live but actually in your pants and you feel slightly bad for being so frustrated with your dog’s seeming lack of intelligence.