ADULT HOUSE-TRAINED MALE URINATING IN THE HOUSE

Dear Jubilee,
I have a 3 year old male terrier who has recently decided he has urinate in the house, particularly things and places related to me. I see it as an attempt to dominate me and get my attention. What suggestions do you have to extinguish the behavior?
Fed Up in Frisco

Dear Fed Up,

If a well-housetrained adult dog starts urinating in the house, don't assume a reason like dominance even if it appears that he is mainly soiling things that relate to you. We cannot know what dogs are thinking, and such assumptions are just guesses.

The first thing I would do is have the dog checked out by a vet. He might have a urinary infection (UTI). Take the dog to the vet, and don't settle for a quick urinalysis because those can come back negative even if the dog has an infection. Ask for a culture which will take a couple of days. Then if there is an infection, treat it according to the vet's recommendations.

If it is not an infection, your vet may suggest (or you may ask about) using one shot of female hormones while you are trying to break the behavior because it may lessen the urge to urinate in the beginning of the re-training period. But this is not something to do on a regular basis. Again, listen to your vet.

If there is no infection, then you need to do two things: (1) eliminate all odor of urine from your house and (2) re-housetrain your dog.

(1) Eliminating all odor: You need to use an enzyme urine odor remover. Bleach, household cleaners and ammonia will NOT work. Your dog's sense of smell is thousands of times more sensitive than ours and even if you do not smell urine, he will. And where he smells it, he will cover it with fresh urine. Do not use ammonia: it ends up breaking down into a smell that smells like urine and your dog will cover it with his own urine.

(2) Re-housebreaking requires that you supervise, supervise, supervise. This takes: (a) confinement, (b) scheduled outdoor time, and (c) a special place outside near the door where he will get rewarded for urinating.

(a) Confinement: if you cannot supervise your boy, he must be crated. His crate should be in a family kind of room (kitchen or family room that members of the family spend lots of time in), and if you work at home, the crate should be in your office so he still feels part of the family. Retraining using a crate is something that many people don't want to do with an adult dog, but it is necessary with this kind of problem. Most people who use a crate to re-train find that the problem is gone within a month or so. Try it and see: I feel pretty sure that if you follow this program of confinement and going out that the problem will resolve itself.

Remember: you must take the dog out far more often than you might think is necessary, and you may have to stay outside with the dog upwards of 20 minutes each time. Do no punishing and speak calmly: crating and retraining are not punishment: you are helping your dog relearn his training.

(b) Scheduled outdoor time: Follow a similar schedule as you did when you first trained him as a puppy: take him out on a leash when he wakes up from sleeping, after he has eaten, whenever he has been excited (like when company comes), after drinking water, and every 20 or 30 minutes when he is playing. Be sure to walk him four or more times a day . Take him to the place where you want him to pee, and after he pees, then walk him around and give him plenty of opportunity to urine mark enough to empty his bladder (males may hold some back just in case they need to mark something!). When you bring him back inside, if you can supervise him, allow him some freedom but only under your watchful eye. If he starts to lift his leg, say sharply "Eh-Eh" to divert his attention, and take him immediately outside. When he lifts his leg outside, praise and treat. Put him back in his crate if you cannot watch him. Repeat this whole process frequently.

When you start giving him more space than his crate, you really have to supervise him carefully. You can tether him to you with a six-foot lead. If you see him sniffing or circling (indications that he is looking to mark), then take him immediately outside on a leash to his bathroom spot. When he eliminates, praise him lavishly and reward him with a treat.

After an hour or two of confinement in his crate or a small area (an area too small for him to want to urinate in), take him out to his bathroom spot and praise and treat when he eliminates.

(c) Special place near the door (but far enough away to not cause any problem for you). I read somewhere that using a marking post is a good idea: get a wooden fence post and install it in the part of the yard that you want him to use as a bathroom. Get your friends to bring their male dogs over to mark it, giving your guy an incentive to use it. When you mop up his urine in the house with paper towels or rags, leave them at the base of the marking post for awhile to show him that this is where you want him to urinate.

Don't punish your dog after the fact. Even a minute is too late because your dog does not understand why he is being punished. Dogs are not people: they do not do this out of jealousy or spite or other emotions. I doubt that they even do it out of any sense of trying to dominate you.

They do have a drive to cover urine smells with their own (and they will cover the smells made by any other pets and they will even cover their own urine smells); they do mark things that smell unfamiliar, like new things or even things that smell of other people, and this is a territorial drive: they are re-establishing that this is their territory. If he marks something that belongs to a visitor, he is just viewing the visitor as an intruder and is letting the intruder know that the space belongs to him.

Finally, if all else fails, you can consider using a belly band. This is a cloth band that is wrapped around the middle of your boy. It is secured with a velcro closing. A woman's sanitary napkin is put inside. If your dogs lifts his leg and urinates while wearing one of these, he will wet himself. Don't remove the pad immediately: they do not like having to stay wet. But don't leave it on too long either: you don't want germs to grow in it and you don't want his skin to be irritated. You also do not want to rely on it all day long because it can irritate the tip of the penis and bacteria can grow there. But it is fine for occasional use around the house when you want him to have more freedom or if you have to run to the store and don't want to confine him. The belly band is a reminder to your dog to stay dry.

Jubilee