There are only 3 reasons why a dog would pee in the house:
1. They are very sick
2. They have not been taught / trained properly by the human
3. They are acting out of dominance, this is marking
Dogs are very clean animals and will very seldom soil in their homes. This is not a post on potty training your dog, since this is something so simple to do that you should be able to research that anywhere. I may in the future write an article on it, however, I’m really trying to focus my blogs and articles on serious issues. I’d like to stress that once a dog marks in the home, he is likely to continue to mark that area until the scent is gone and / or until he is retrained.
I’ll focus my attention here on #3 from the list of reasons above. Its quite common that a dog will mark a carpet, chair or something else, sometimes right in front of you. Often times this will happen when we start retraining a dog for dominance. If he’s “testing” you, he may look right at you and pee on something. This requires immediate correction and serious consideration.
Remember, establishing yourself as your dogs leader does not imply being a bully. If you would like to learn how to be a good alpha role model for your dog, just peruse my other posts and articles, as they are full of this information. Leaders in the dog kingdom, don’t yell or get upset. They handle the situation in a quick, strong and fair manner. If your dog is questioning your leadership by marking, etc. it simply means you have NOT clearly established yourself as his leader.
If during dominance struggle / retraining your dog starts marking in the house, I would suggest confining him either by the use of a tether or a crate. If the dog is tethered and you see him begin to mark, you can use a sharp correction on the collar and bring him outside. The correction should be strong and sharp: no yelling, no hitting. Hitting is not part of dog training. If you are using a crate, then the dog stays in the crate until he learns that marking in the house is totally unacceptable. He will learn this through understanding that you control his freedom and his life. If a dog marks in the house, he should not be left out of the crate in the home until this problem is solved. If you make this mistake, your dog will find areas to mark that you will never find until they start to smell so bad that you can’t get the smell out.
In order to remove the smell from an area that a dog has marked, use copious amounts of an enzyme based odor eliminator such as Natures Miracle. You will not use too much. The area needs to be soaked and the liquid needs to be absorbed into the fabric and or flooring. Do not try to spot clean urine markings. Your dog will find that spot from down the street.
Another important note to mention here is that if you come home and your dog marked the house, only a moron would tell you to rub the dogs nose in it. It would do you better to rub your own nose in it than your dogs. If he marked in the house, its too late, and its your fault for not properly training your dog. Dogs should not be left unsupervised until they are properly trained. Confining a dog in a crate for a few hours when you are out is not the worst thing to do to them. Spend the time to properly train your dog and it will pay off in spades. Do it halfheartedly and you will spend the dogs entire life trying to fix it.
Pack structure and obedience training is something that you establish once and continue to develop over the lifetime of your relationship with your dog. Its a relationship based on love and fairness.