How To Stop Your Dog from Peeing Indoors Successfully

Our canine companions are usually pretty good about getting us to take them outside when they have to go, at least once they're old enough and we've trained them properly. Sometimes, though, accidents happen. Whether you're distracted and they can't get your attention, or you're delayed in coming home and don't get to let them out, or they're sick and can't hold their bladder any longer, it happens.

The question is, how do you handle it?

For the purposes of this post, I'm going to assume we're not talking about very young puppies that haven't finished their training yet. Accidents are reasonable and can be expected when potty training isn't even finished, after all.

Instead, I'm talking about dogs that should be trained well enough to hold it, but for some reason or another, don't. Those are the accidents that cause problems, and not knowing how to handle them can reinforce bad behaviors or damage your relationship with your pooch.

Punishment Doesn't Work

Before we get into the proactive steps you can take, I need to discuss something here: punishment doesn't work.

There are all kinds of punishments you might think of or have heard as advice to deal with these kinds of issues.

• Yelling at them

• Scolding them

• Locking them in their crate

• Rubbing their nose in the mess

• Slapping at or hitting them

None of these will work. At best, all they do is instill fear in your pooch, fear of you. They'll be afraid of you, but they won't really know why they were punished. Yes, even if you're doing something "obvious" like rubbing their nose in it, they still won't really connect those dots in a positive manner.

At worst, if the reason they're going in the house is a behavioral issue, you'll make it worse.

This all comes down to how animal psychology works. Operant conditioning helps explain this, but the simple version is just that dogs (and cats, and other animals, and yes, even people) tend to have a harder time associating punishment with the cause, and often, the fear of punishment isn't associated with more positive outcomes.

Instead, the key is pretty much always going to be a combination of positive reinforcement and redirection.

Basically, if you notice your pup is about to go, you do something to redirect them, like grab their attention, and bring them outside. When they do go there, you reward them for doing so. This helps tear down any associations between inside and potty, while building more positive relationships with outside and potty. It's the key to pretty much all animal training, including potty training.

Determine if the Issue is Medical or Behavioral

While there are a bunch of different reasons why your pup might be leaving messes in the house, they can broadly be categorized as either medical issues or behavioral issues.

Medical Causes of Indoor Peeing

Medical causes of indoor urination (or full potty) can be age-related or they can be temporary. Usually, if your dog is having accidents due to medical issues, a vet trip is in order.

A lot of medical causes will have secondary symptoms. Things like:

• Blood in the urine

• Unusually smelly urine

• Excessive hunger or thirst

• Lack of appetite or thirst

• Signs of pain, like limping

When you see these, your first thought should be a medical problem, and you'll want to bring them to the vet as soon as you can.

Arthritis, for example, is a common cause in older dogs. Dogs with arthritis may find it difficult or painful to get up and walk to the door, and once they reach a point where that pain is bad enough, they simply can't hold it any longer and go where they are.

Cognitive issues that cause accidents are also common in old dogs. When they reach their senior years, they can develop a kind of doggy dementia and lose a lot of their training. Some regress to more puppy-like behaviors, while others lose the associations they had for various behaviors. This can compound with arthritis and other medical issues, too.

Incontinence is another medical issue that is itself defined by being unable to hold it. It's most common in senior dogs, but can happen in young dogs, and in dogs right after they have a surgery as well. Some cancers can also disrupt parts of the bowels and cause incontinence, too.

Urinary tract infections and similar urinary tract issues are perhaps the most common cause out of anything on this list. Any time you encounter an unexpected mess indoors, your first thought should probably be UTI, because they can be that common. Again, vet trips are the norm here.

Metabolic diseases are also a common cause of indoor peeing. Some drugs and medications that treat canine issues can cause incontinence as a side effect. If your dog eats something toxic, it can also cause problems. Plenty of diseases also cause it, including diabetes, Cushing's Disease, kidney problems, prostate problems, liver problems, and more.

Behavioral Causes of Indoor Peeing

The behavioral causes all come down to some more social or mental element that is disturbing your dog and causing them to go indoors.

A big one is fear or anxiety. You see this a lot with small breeds that have anxiety problems, but even larger dogs can suffer from anxiety. Loud and unexpected noises like fireworks or a particularly strong thunderstorm can be enough to trigger it. Having a bad encounter with an animal or person outdoors can do it. If you reprimand or scold them, they'll also develop a fear response.

Bad weather other than thunderstorms can also be a trigger. If it's rainy and unpleasant out, or snowy and cold, or very hot out, or even just very windy, your dog might not want to go outside at all. If they have to go but they don't want to go outside, there's only one place left.

Stressful situations can compound with anxiety and cause accidents as well. A big one is a significant change in the home that makes them uncomfortable. New pets or new roommates (or a new baby) can cause it, but sometimes even something as simple as rearranging the furniture or bringing in new furniture can do it. Home renovations can also cause it by being disruptive.

One behavioral issue you ideally won't experience is marking. Marking is part of territorial and mating behaviors, but it's most prominent in intact dogs. Once your dog has been fixed, they'll be less inclined to mark. Sometimes, though, a new neighborhood dog or new person nearby can trigger a territorial urge to mark.

Another common behavioral quirk is the so-called "happy peeing," where your dog is just too excited and overstimulated to keep control of themselves. It's most common in puppies, but it can happen at any age with sufficient overstimulation. If you've ever noticed an accident in the middle of a house party, that's why it happens.

One you might encounter in a multi-dog household, or they come from a previously abusive household, is submissive urination. Dogs that have an ingrained fear and anxiety response will demonstrate submissive behaviors, and one of those behaviors is peeing. It can be tricky to realize this is happening, and if you're prone to yelling (even if it's not at your pup), it can reinforce the behavior.

Addressing Behavioral Causes of Indoor Peeing

If you've thought about it and you're pretty sure your pup is peeing indoors because of behavioral issues, then your job is to figure out which issue that is and solve it.

Think about schedules and timing. Think about stress in the environment. Think about conflicts with people or other animals in the household.

Sometimes there will be an issue you can solve. Ways to calm anxiety, ways to reduce conflict with other dogs, ways to acclimate them to a new environment, and so on. Occasionally, if it was triggered by a new person coming in or rearranging the furniture or the like, all it takes is getting used to the change.

Other times, you'll need to embark on more training. I already mentioned this above; watch them, and if they're about to go, redirect them and bring them outside. Reward them for going outside.

The downside is that you have to dedicate the time and effort to this, which can really get in the way if you have to spend hours out of the house for work every day. There's really no way around it, though. It's training or nothing.

Well, that's not entirely true. You can bring your pup to the vet for certain behavioral issues as well. They may have training suggestions, or they may be able to prescribe something like CBD tinctures or an anti-anxiety medication that can help. This is especially helpful if the cause is something like fireworks, which you can usually predict at least to some degree.

Sometimes the cause may just be that your pup needs to go out more often, and that's simple enough to handle; just take more potty breaks.

Addressing Medical Causes of Indoor Peeing

Medical causes range from minor to severe, and from illness to age. All of them are addressed in the same way, though: by taking your pup to the vet.

Most of the time, this isn't an emergency vet trip, but it is an ASAP vet trip. You want to bring them in within a day or two, depending on the severity of the symptoms and frequency of problems. Sometimes an emergency vet trip will be warranted, but you can usually call and verify if they think it's bad enough to bring them in immediately or not.

Depending on the actual medical cause, it may be as simple as giving your pup some antibiotics, or it might require deeper intervention. No one wants bad news, but at least it isn't too likely.

Additional Tips and Info for Indoor Peeing Problems

Finishing things off, let's add in some details I didn't have the opportunity to mention above.

One big one is cleaning. When your pup has an indoor accident, you'll need to clean it up. The issue you might run into is that, even if you think you've cleaned it up pretty well, your dog might still be able to smell it. Once they've gone in one place, they'll be more likely to commit a "repeat performance" there, because it still smells to them.

My number one recommendation is to keep an enzymatic cleaner on hand. These cleaners break down the compounds present in urine and other waste, leaving nothing to emit even the faintest smell for your pup to home in on.

Another thing worth mentioning is puppy pads. These are absorbent pads that are meant for indoor use, usually for puppies before their potty training is complete. While they can seem convenient, they can also muddle training and teach your pooch that it's okay to go inside as long as it's on a soft surface. While that may be fine if it's the pad, it's a lot less fine if it's your bed.

I view puppy pads as a necessity for very, very young puppies and for incontinent senior dogs, but they generally do more harm than good for the pups in between.

I've also had people ask: how likely is indoor peeing to be a symptom of something severe? Fortunately, most of the time it's going to be a behavioral issue or a UTI. While UTIs can be dangerous, they're far from the worst medical cause on the list, and they're easily treatable.

Sometimes your vet will check and discover the real bad news, but most of the time, that won't be the case. It tends to be more likely in older dogs, for obvious reasons. Generally speaking, though, you're just in for some training, some cleaning, and some positive reinforcement, and you'll get through it.

Any other questions? If so, let me know!