My dog pees on the couch and on the bed, but only where the cats have been. Could this be a dominance thing? Or what else is happening and how can I stop it?
Brianne
Answers:
Dog Peeing on Couch
My dog pees on the couch and on the bed, but only where the cats have been. Could this be a dominance thing? Or what else is happening and how can I stop it?
(01/04/2007)
By Brianne
Dog Peeing on Couch
Your dog may have a problem with bladder stones. A trip to the vet would be a good idea, just to check her for any problems. At least you'll know where your dog's health stands. (01/05/2007)
By Jill
Dog Peeing on Couch
Since I bought a house and moved my dogs from living mostly outside to living mostly inside, I also had the fun experience of the dog(s) peeing on my couch and bed, as well as that special treat, peeing in bed in the middle of the night while we are all sleeping in a puppy pile. They were housetrained before we moved. I also have a cat. I did a lot of laundry, bought a lot of cleaner, and spent a lot of money at the vet's.
Here's what we came up with:
- Both dogs understand house training and are willing to use the doggie door. They will pee on grass outside on command, most readily in their designated peeing area.
- Neither one had any infection.
- One dog turned out to lose her bladder control as soon as she closed her eyes. Now she takes a pill that helps her with great success.
- I know it sounds nuts, but sometimes they are just so sound asleep they don't wake up to pee.
- Both of my dogs mark their territory. We always knew this, from before they were a year old, even though they are females and were spayed before six months. The clincher was the day I saw my little darlings hop up on the couch to see out the window. The very moment they saw a pair of Pomeranians walk by outside they peed right on the couch where they were.
- One of the dogs has been nosing open the curtain by our communal bed to spy on dogs walking by outside and peeing on the bed when they do.
- Both dogs will mark inside and on top of their doghouse outside, as they have done most of their lives.
So, how did we manage this situation?
- I put the medically incontinent dog on daily medication. I don't like to pump all those drugs into her twice a day for the rest of her life, but there were two factors that made me choose this: we have wood floors and the vet assures me that constantly leaking urine would over time lead to irritation, broken skin, and infection in that area of the dog, as her problem was tending to get worse over time. If medication were not an option then I would have put down vinyl flooring over my wood floors.
- I make sure they pee well before we all go to bed, and if I wake up in the night I also wake them and send them out to pee. They learned a special command for this so I can stay in bed.
- I was not willing to fight Mother Nature over my sofa. I exchanged it for one made of wood with removable cushions. The dogs stay off the wood, because they can't get steady footing, and I keep the cushions in a nearby closet for when I want them. As my own seat is naturally padded I tend only to bring out the cushions for company.
- Of course I bought a waterproof mattress cover, the kind that goes all around the mattress. Experience shows it is necessary to have that kind of plastic cover, itself covered by a quilted/cushiony mattress pad to protect it from getting torn by their nails. Just trust me, the bed sheet is not enough protection. Of course I did buy two quilted mattress covers for times I might need to toss one in the wash and also get some sleep.
- I planned to tape the window shade by the bed to the actual window frame to prevent the spying behavior, of course I never got around to this and so still sometimes have a puddle.
- I am also unwilling to fight Mother Nature over the dog house, and I do believe it must be emotionally rewarding for my dogs to mark their house. I let them do as they please out there.
There are two related issues of note:
- There are two spots in the carpeted area of the house where the previous owner's dogs marked and stained the carpet. After two years, my dogs will readily mark these spots if allowed to do so. They are prevented from entering these seldom-used areas of the house. If I ever need my dogs to be reliable in these areas I will most certainly remove the carpet and possibly that section of flooring, and even so I would want to watch them well, at least to start out.
- Regarding territorial behavior- After being allowed to bark out the window at passing dogs, over time, my dogs have cultivated an objectionable intolerance for strange dogs, although they do tolerate dogs always in closeby neighbors' yards. A booklet titled "Feisty Fido" outlines a training method to redirect the dog's attention from passing animals to their own owner. My dogs learned the concept almost immediately and although I gave them only a weekend's worth of training several months ago, they retain as much as I gave them. It boils down to "if you see a dog walk by, just come see me and get a cookie". Now I have a pair of dogs who mostly race to the window, bark once or twice, and then race to the kitchen for a cookie. It is a vast improvement on the bark-fests of last summer, although it does not help at all if I'm not there to pass out cookies.
I really hope if your dog is medically incontinent or flat out territorial you may gain some new thinking points from my post. Best of luck to you and your dog(s). (02/25/2007)
By PuppyMommy
Dog Peeing on Couch
A necessary part of the solution (other than getting rid of the offending pet or pets) will be to eliminate the urine odor. Pets have a much more acute sense of smell than people do, and they like to "go" where they can smell that they (or other animals) have "been" before. It could well have been urine residue from the cats (perhaps with their own territorial squabbles) that started this whole process. Anti-Icky-Poo is a brand of urine odor remover that I can vouch for. It took tom cat urine odor out of my carpet and the tom cat does not return there any more. (03/19/2009)
By Dan
