Why does my adult dog keep peeing in the house? A story about how potty training my chihuahua felt impossible until it finally didn’t!
This is a story about my dog, Jinya, peeing in the house for the last 3 years. And yes, I am a multi-certified dog trainer who has (well now had) a dog that pees in the house.
Backstory:
March 10th, 2022 Jinya was dumped outside of my house. My husband and I found her around 7:30 pm in the culdesac we live in. She was in a tiny carrier filled with poop, she smelled like pee, and it was going to freeze that night. We brought her inside, checked for tags, posted her in all of the lost dog groups, and reported the incident to our local animal control.
I knew deep down that she wasn’t lost and that she would be with us for the rest of her life. But here is the problem…
She was dumped at 6 months old. That’s traumatizing for any dog.
Even if the home she ended up in was one that was equipped to meet her needs and provide her with safety, love, and a life filled with joy.
And then more traumatizing things happened to her…
The day after Jinya was spayed she was stung on her vulva while going pee outside in the grass. We rushed her to the vet and this started her trauma and intense fear around vet care but I’ll save that for another post.
A few months later she was stung in the foot outside while going pee in the grass.
And then she got smacked in the back by her big brother, Goose, while they were running down the hallway together.
And guess what, shortly after that she was stung again and her face started to swell which required emergency vet care.
So then going pee outside became really stressful.
At first I would stress and try so hard to get her to pee outside. Because that’s what she HAD to do, right!? And then one day I was like I’m stressed, you’re stressed, no one is having fun, and you’re peeing in the house anyways. So, I decided to lean into it and just put pee pads everywhere.
Even with pee pads everywhere, Jinya was peeing on the rugs, the tile, the hardwood, my bathmats!
But I knew she had a really rough start at life and I cleaned up her messes, joked that I was going to send her back to the culdesac, and carried on. Now, I wasn’t completely ignoring the problem. I was trying to get answers.
We ran multiple urinalyses, we did sedated x-rays of her back, we did pain meds after the injury, and kept her on gabapentin long term. I felt stuck, confused, overwhelmed, and embarassed. I went through this with my cat when she was a baby, why is it also happening with this tiny dog!?
More pieces to the puzzle started to come together…
I noticed that Jinya would have more accidents when there were changes in her environment, mostly if one of us left the house for more than 4 hours.
She started heavily resource guarding her space and our bed from the other animals in the house.
And sleep has always been a nightmare. Getting her to fall asleep took setting up the environment perfectly. And she would constantly wake up to any sudden noise or movement. Which progressed to screaming if you moved too close to her.
And then one day on a walk she barked, lunged, and screamed at a person when they stepped out of their front door.
Which she never did before.
I immediately made an appointment to consult with her vet about pain meds and a daily anxiety medication. We decided on 30 days of an NSAID and to start her on a daily SSRI. I didn’t have high hopes that it would fix our pee pee problem but I knew she needed relief from the anxiety and the pain and that’s what mattered most.
We finished the 30 days of her NSAID and it’s been 6 weeks (now 3 months) since we started the SSRI.
And here is what has happened:
Jinya is sleeping more! And finally getting good quality sleep!
She is less “frantic” during training sessions and has looser body language.
Changes in her environment aren’t causing her to pee more.
Her resource guarding is much less intense and almost non-existent. (she even lets our cat, Potato share our bed with her now)
She has had her first successful week of only peeing outside!!! (now it’s been a whole 3 months of peeing outside with only 2 accidents inside!!)
I want to remind you that anxiety, pain, medical issues, and behavior are all connected!
And that your dog doesn’t do “naughty” things like pee in the house out of spite, even though it can feel like that sometimes. There is ALWAYS an underlying cause for behavior.
If you’re struggling with your dog’s behavior please get curious about that root cause, consult with your vet, consult with qualified credentialed behavior professionals, and really listen to what your dog is trying to tell you!
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