If you have adopted an adult dog the first few days he may relieve himself indoors or have trouble adapting to walks. It is normal, he must adapt to a new house, schedules and routines that you must set and help him follow. You should bear in mind that if you own an adult dog and he has been with you since he was a puppy, if he does not relieve himself where he should, it may not be due to a lack of learning, but to a he alth or behavioral problem. It is much easier to teach a puppy how to act than an adult. But with consistency and patience anything is possible.
Why does an adult dog urinate in the house?
If you have adopted an adult dog, the most important thing in the first days is that you give him his space It is normal that in the first moment I am fearful, it all depends on the personality of our new friend. So it's not strange that the first few days he doesn't know that inside the house he can't relieve himself
Think about how he lived before coming to your house, if he lived with more dogs in an enclosure, if they took him for a walk… Some of them even urinate at the beginning to "mark" that this is his new territory. Do not scold them and allow, despite yourself, to leave traces of urine. With patience and love, your dog will adapt to his new life without problems.
Below we explain the most common causes of inappropriate urination:
- Marking or pseudourination: the dog is not urinating, it simply marks different areas of the home with urine. At first and after the days of adaptation, the dog will stop carrying out this behavior.
- Poor socialization: If the dog has been quickly separated from its mother and siblings, it is common that they have not learned to urinate correctly
- Poor Learning: In this case, the dog's previous owner has not spent enough time learning the puppy. It is common in dogs that have lived away from home, in the garden, for example.
- Lack of inhibition: dogs that urinate in their bed or feeder usually have a poor prognosis, it is common in dogs that have been bought in a store and it is very difficult to redirect this behavior, professional help may be needed.
- Disease: especially elderly dogs suffer from it, however there are many dogs that, due to the pain of some disease, can urinate in an irregular way. uncontrolled.
- Sensory deprivation syndrome: usually occurs in dogs that have been confined for a long time at home, especially since their puppy stage, these dogs, apart from fear, have never learned to urinate in the street.
If you've been to the vet and were able to rule out any he alth problems, then you can start teaching an adult dog to do the her needs outside the home
Techniques to teach an adult dog to urinate in the street
1. Create an emergency zone at home
It is important that, once you have identified your dog's preferred place to urinate, you cover it with newspaper, pads and even with a piece of artificial grass. You should never allow him to urinate on the same floor of the house. This trick will help us to be able to move the behavior to the outside.
two. Create a fixed exit routine
It is very important to draw up a calendar with the dog's departure times. Although it is difficult for us to detect, dogs know perfectly well what time we usually arrive or when we put them to eat. In addition, routines improve the dog's well-being, fundamental in this case.
You can start with many frequent walks, eg 4-6 a day. Little by little you will reduce this number. Do not forget that they should all be done at the same time, to help the dog understand that he has a marked routine in which he can take advantage of to urinate.
During the walk, wait for him to urinate and, once he's finished, congratulate him with kind words and even a treat. Allow him to have a long and calm walk, in which he can sniff in a relaxed way all the stimuli he finds. Also remember that you should avoid going home once you urinate, otherwise you may be associating urination with the end of the walk. We will positively reinforce the dog every time he urinates on a tree, on the lawn or in an appropriate place for it.
3. Anticipate and supervise
It is essential that during this process you anticipate whenever you suspect that your dog has the urge to urinate. It is usually in the morning, after eating or just after intense physical activity. Take advantage of these moments to go out quickly to the street and be able to reward him.
Also, try to always supervise your dog, limiting the areas of the house that he can access (at least while he is learning to urinate). We will continue to facilitate access to the outside every 2 or 3 hours, until we observe that the urination at home decreases.
It can be very useful to make a "urination diary" for the dog, in which we control the frequency of urination per day. This way, we will know if the process is working or not.
4. Avoid scolding your dog
Sometimes, when a dog has been reprimanded a lot for defecating or urinating in the house, it may wrongly associate this act. He understands that he should not defecate with his owner in front of him and avoids doing so on walks. They hold on until they get home or to the garden and hide to do so and they can even eat the feces, something very unpleasant. For this reason you should never yell or get angry at him when he relieves himself at home. Please clean it immediately and ignore that error.
In addition, scolding a dog causes stress and discomfort, making learning more difficult. It's best if you encourage and congratulate him every time he relieves himself away from home. The first walks when an adult dog comes home are very important. Remember that positive reinforcement is essential. You can reward him the first few times he relieves himself on the walk. When you do it without problems remove the rewards
5. If after 1 or 2 months your dog does not learn, go to a professional
Generally many owners are reluctant to go to the specialist, however, if we do not want our dog to continue carrying out this behavior, it will be very important to know the opinion of a expert, which will guide us appropriately towards good management and help us avoid errors that perhaps we did not know we applied. You can go to a canine educator, ethologist or trainer.
Home hygiene
It is very important to note that bleach or ammonia can make your dog urinate more, instead of using these products look for those that do not contain bleach or use products enzymatics, such as Sanytol. You can also use a mixture of water and vinegar, then rinse well.
