House coaching is one in every of the areas of dog possession that’s most subject to misunderstanding, confusion, and simply plain dread!
These days’s newsletter goes to deal with two of the most common issues surrounding the difficulty of house coaching:
- Submissive/excited urination
- Scent marking
Common house coaching downside one: Submissive / excited urination
What’s it?
A ‘submissive urinator’ is a dog that urinates on the floor and himself (and generally on you and any guests you will have!) in situations of maximum excitement or stress – like when you come back home at the end of the day, or when he’s being told off.
Why will it happen?
Puppies are the same old candidates for submissive/excited urination, however it’s not uncommon to see adult dogs with the problem yet: usually, these are highly sensitive and timid dogs, and/or ones from a shelter/with a history of abuse (typically these last 2 go hand-in-hand.)
When will it happen?
Things when an excited/fearful dog is likely to urinate:
- Greeting time when a chronic absence
- Play time
- The arrival of guests
- Stressful things at home, eg arguments
- During a correction (you’re telling him off)
- Sudden loud noises (thunder, fireworks)
What can I do concerning it?
Fortunately, it’s not tough to “cure” your dog of his submissive/excited urination.
Initial of all, you ought to take him to the vet to create sure there’s no medical reason for the issue (like diabetes or a bladder infection.)
Next, it’s time to take management of the matter:
- Limit his intake of water to assist him management his bladder more effectively. Don’t prohibit his water intake over a chronic period of time, but if you recognize there’s a situation returning that would normally end in urination – as an example, you’ve got guests coming over, or are coming up with on a play session soon – take his water bowl away for a amount of your time (maybe half an hour to an hour) before the event.
- When greeting your dog, keep it calm and mellow. The additional excited he’s, the harder it is for him to control his bladder, so don’t encourage him to urge worked up: ignore him for the primary few moments, or provide him a neutral “hello”, a quick pat, and then go about creating yourself at home.
- It’s necessary that you simply DO NOT punish or harshly correct your dog for this behavior. It’s not one thing that he can easily control, and he’s certainly not doing it on purpose. When you catch him within the act, you’ll interrupt him (a firm “No!” followed by praise when he stops ought to suffice) but don’t punish him. Keep your cool, and attempt to be sympathetic: he doesn’t mean to try to to it, when all!
- If he urinates out of fear (submissiveness) when scolding him for one more offense, attempt to require the strain levels down a notch by keeping a firm, authoritative, but not angry tone. Keep in mind, you’re dealing with a sensitive, highly-strung dog: if you get angry or worry him more, the matter can worsen.
Common house coaching drawback a pair of: Scent marking
Scent marking – where a dog “marks” their territory with urine – is technically not actually a house coaching downside, since it’s based mostly on problems of dominance and territoriality instead of insufficient house training (a dog can be perfectly house trained but still mark within the house.)
But, as a result of – since the problem centers around the unwanted presence of urine within the house – it looks logical, during a manner, to link this problem with house coaching: and since this is one in all the foremost widespread problems among dog homeowners, we tend to thought it worthwhile to include some sensible advice.
Scent marking and lack of house training: a way to differentiate between the two
Your dog’s in all probability scent marking, instead of genuinely relieving himself, if:
- The amount of urine produced is comparatively little, and tends to be directed against vertical surfaces (walls, doors, etc)
- He’s male, unneutered, and at least 5 or six months old. Unneutered dogs are a lot of more territorial than neutered ones –if you have an unneutered dog within the house, you can pretty much expect a certain quantity of scent marking. (Unspayed females conjointly mark, however it’s less common; spayed and neutered dogs will conjointly exhibit marking behavior, however it’s comparatively infrequent)
- It makes little distinction how usually he’s taken outside for a rest room break
- He frequently targets things that are new to the house: new possessions, guest clothing/footwear, etc
- You reside during a multi-dog household and there is conflict between two or a lot of of the dogs
- There are more, unneutered or unspayed pets in the house
What to try to to about the matter?
First things first: spay or neuter your dog(s) once you probably can. If you’ll be able to do this early enough – ideally, at six months of age – this often halts marking altogether; however if your dog’s been marking for a chronic period of time, he or she may continue to try and do therefore once being spayed or neutered, since a pattern of behavior will are established.
Clean soiled areas thoroughly. Use a non-ammonia primarily based cleaner (as a result of it smells just like pee) and stay off from vinegar too (it smells just like pee.) Oxi-Clean mixed with heat water is particularly effective; there are also masses of business cleaners designed specifically to raise pet stains and odors, that you’ll purchase from pet stores and some supermarkets.
Because dogs tend to re-mark the same places, you’ll want to redefine the places that you recognize he’s marked to prevent repeat offending.
You’ll be able to do that in an exceedingly variety of ways:
- Feed him next to or on top of the spot
- Play with him there
- Groom him there
- Place his bed over or next to it
- Pay time there yourself: suspend out with a book or sit down and work
If there is rivalry between dogs within the household, you’ll need to require steps to resolve it. Any conflict is seemingly to be hierarchical in nature (a “power struggle”), that means that each one you have got to try to to to stop the tension is pay attention to which dog looks to be a lot of dominant than the other one (that one eats first, gets the toys he/she wants, “stares down” another dog), and reinforce this position.
How to do this: feed the dominant dog first. Pet him/her first. Provide him/her a toy before anyone else gets one. This makes it clear to all dogs in the house that one extremely is that the dominant dog – and when this hierarchy’s been recognizably established, territorial/dominant behaviors like scent marking often vanish overnight.
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