Your fully house trained dog has started to wee wee in the house again. What gives? In today’s blog post we look at possible reasons why your dog might have started to eliminate in the house again, as well as some ideas on how to curb this unwanted behaviour…again…

There are a couple of medical or behavioral reasons why your furkid might have to wee wee and just could not hold it, to mention a few obvious ones

Diabetes. See if your furkid drinks a lot more water than usual, if they do, they will have to go to the toilet more often. Have your dog tested for Diabetes.
Bladder infection. Bladder infection might cause your dog to want to go to the toilet very frequently because his/her bladder is irritated. In this case, some straining will be seen.
Incontinence. Older dogs, or sometimes dogs who have had large surgeries become incontinent. You will often find their bedding is wet or urine wherever they were lying down for a while.
Anxiety. Changes in routine, atrauma in the household or big changes in a dog’s environment could lead to anxiety that would cause him to eliminate in the house. Punishing a dog for this will add to the anxiety he is feeling and he would probably eliminate in the home even more.
Marking. Dogs might start to mark when a new fur-friend arrives, sometimes, they’d even do it when new humans join a household. They will probably urinate but they could also poop as a way to mark. It’s also very common for females to mark as well.
Fear or excitement. Dogs who are pushed completely over the threshold, whether they are scared or excited, will urinate then and there. They really can not help it, it just happens.
Training regression: Sometimes, it’s just easier to pee in the house because they are comfy. Especially during cold or rainy weather. Not having to go out in the cold is rewarding, understandably. If this is the case, it’s time to grab those training treats and make wee weeing outside fun again.

Yippee!

To make it fun, I use the word Yippee! When I want to mark and reward when a dog wee’s and want to put it on cue. It’s so much easier when you have limited time for some reason and you need your dog to hurry up. So you can teach your dog to wee wee when you ask him to. To start teaching this, say the word Yipee! As soon as your dog relieves himself outside, and yes, give him a treat. Your timing is going to be really important because you want to mark (excuse the pun) the exact correct behavior. Think about it as if you are waiting to take a picture with your camera at a precise moment, one second too late, and you’ve missed the shot. (The things we do for our dogs).

Keep this up until your dog associates the word Yipee! With him relieving himself. You’ll knofw he knows what it means if he can do the behavior when you ask for it. If he can’t, keep capturing the behavior and giving those treats.

For more information on the use of rewards during training have a look at one of our previous blog posts: Reward your dog – determining the value