Many people, although they like the situation, wonder why their dog comes with them to the bathroom. A dog's attachment to his human companion is a natural fact and denotes a good relationship between the two. However, this situation always raises certain doubts and, therefore, it is totally normal to ask yourself this question.
When a dog accompanies its tutor to the bathroom, it must surely also accompany him to many other places in the house where he goes, but what is almost imperceptible to the tutor in those cases becomes evident when he goes to the bathroomThis is due to the connotation that it represents for people to go to that place of absolute privacy. For this reason, in this article on our site we will explain why your dog goes with you to the bathroom
Canine Behavioral Characteristics
Dogs belong to a gregarious species This means that they are evolutionarily adapted to living within a social group. In the beginning, this was an indispensable condition for the survival of the individual in question and that is why dogs have the tendency to be close to another individual of their social group so deeply rooted in their brainwith whom, obviously, they have a good emotional bond. There are statistical studies of behavioral observation in dog communities that have shown that a dog can spend more than half of the day within 10 meters of some other member of its social group. Something similar has also been observed in groups of wolves.
It is easy to understand, knowing these previous concepts, the answer to the question asked by many dog guardians who say “my dog does not separate from me” or “my dog follows me everywhere”.
Why does my dog follow me to the bathroom?
All of the above, by itself, would not explain why dogs accompany you to the bathroom, since there are many dogs that have an excellent relationship and a very good emotional bond with their human companion and They are not watching him at all times or following him wherever he goes inside the house they both live in. The behavior of the species helps us understand why our dogs want to stay by our side in all areas of the home because they are animals used to living in groups and are very protective. In this way, he can accompany you to the bathroom to protect you, just as he feels protected by you. This is also why it is common for your dog to look at you when he poops. At this time dogs are vulnerable and seek support from their social group. Although it should be noted that this is not the only cause of this behavior, check out the others here: "Why does my dog look at me when he poops?".
Then, your dog may follow you to the bathroom for the above reason, in the same way that he follows you to other rooms in your house, or for the reasons shown below:
Behavior acquired since puppyhood
As we say, what the previous explanation allows is to begin to understand the genetic basis that originates and maintains the behavior of the animal. So why, if there are numbers of dogs that get along with their human handlers, don't all of them follow them to the bathroom? In the early stages of a dog's life, that is, when it is a puppy, the animal is at a stage of its behavioral development that is and will be fundamental in his current life and, mainly, in his future life as an adult dog. It is a stage where all the experiences lived will deeply mark the behavior of the animal, they are called " early experiences", which have a great impact on the behavior of the individual that experience them. These experiences can be both negative and positive for the animal. The behavior of a puppy that experienced a traumatic early experience will not be the same as that of a dog that had pleasant and positive early experiences.
If he has been used to following you and accompanying you while you are in the bathroom since he was a child, it is completely normal for him to continue this behavior during adulthood. He has acquired that behavior and for him the strange thing is not going with you. Now, it can also be totally normal that he has not acquired this behavior and, therefore, does not follow you or has learned that he is not allowed to enter that room.
Hyperattachment
The dog is not aware of knowing that the bathroom is a very private place for humans, for him it is just another space in the home. If he has acquired this behavior since childhood, but the relationship established with us is totally he althy, the dog should not be bothered if we do not let him inand close the door. He will probably follow us and return to his resting place seeing that he cannot pass. Now, there is another situation in which the dog can stay behind the door crying, scratching or barking so that we let him pass. In this case, the dog shows symptoms of stress and anxiety due to not having free access to the bathroom. Why does this happen?
The reason why he does it has to do with an excessive attachment generated with his human partner. From the inherited tendency of dogs to generate links and attachments with the members of their social group and with some of them more than with others, what generally happens is that their guardian has been very affectionate or at least has given them a lot of care. attention and perhaps a lot of physical contact when the dog was a puppy. This generates in the dog a strong bond with his human companion, something that is totally correct, but that in some more predisposed domestic canines leads to hyperattachment. One thing is that the animal has an attachment with its guardian and another is that it generates an excessive attachment, because this means that at times when it is not with its responsible fork, the dog enters a state of excessive anxiety that leads him to exhibit unwanted behaviors.
In short, that a dog generates a good attachment and emotional bond with its guardian is something plausible, beneficial and pleasant for both, but care must be taken that this attachment does not go beyond so that it does not Possible behaviors are generated on the part of the animal that make life in common between them unpleasant. As always, the ideal is neither too little nor too much, but just enough.
How to handle this behavior of my dog?
If your dog follows you to the bathroom and does not show signs of anxiety if you do not allow him to enter, it is not necessary to intervene because the animal already understands that he cannot enter and nothing happens for it. Now, if your dog goes with you to the bathroom because it is very dependent, that is, it has developed hyperattachment, it is essential to treat it to restore the animal's emotional stability. The dogs that develop it generally show other symptoms such as crying or barking when they are left alone, destroying objects or furniture, urinating inside the house and even vomiting, crying if they cannot sleep in their guardian's room, etc. They are also signs of separation anxiety.
Once this hyperattachment behavior of a dog with one of its caregivers has been generated and established, the only way to reduce it is through what is technically known as Withdrawal of social attention, that is, generating a detachment from the animal by not paying excessive attention to it. Correct handling of a dog is a question of the attitude of its guardian. Letting the dog spend time alone with a toy that you can put food inside is an excellent idea because it allows him to entertain himself. Likewise, taking him to a park and letting him interact with other dogs and even allowing other people in the house to walk the dog and spend time with him are great options. In any case, on many occasions the dependency is such that without knowledge it is practically impossible to try to correct the situation, so it is advisable to go to a canine educator or ethologist
