House Soiling
- Canine
188 Boundary Rd
Bardon 4065
House soiling is urination and/or defecation in a location that the owner (you) finds
inappropriate. The cause of house soiling may be behavioural or medical.
Behavioural causes of house soiling:

Lack of/incomplete house training

Marking – especially intact males

Submissive urination,

Excitement urination,

Separation anxiety, noise phobia etc.
Medical causes of house soiling:

Arthritis or other degenerative diseases making it difficult to go outside

Urinary tract infection, crystals in the urine, bladder cancer, diabetes or other
metabolic diseases causing the dog to need to urinate more often

Incontinence
Step 1. Observing urination/defecation:
The first step to determine why your dog is urinating inside is to observe them. Are
they urinating normally? Are they straining and producing small amounts of urine
with or without blood frequently? (possibly indicating urinary tract infection/crystals)
Are they urinating (and drinking) more than usual? (could be a sign of an underlying
disease) or are they apparently unaware of the urination? (incontinent dogs often
urinate when asleep or relaxed and appear unaware they are doing so) Are their
stools of normal consistency or do they have diarrhoea/blood present? If your dog is
showing any signs of abnormal urination or defecation bring them to the vet for a
check up as soon as possible.
Step 2. Identifying a behavioural trigger:
Does your dog show any other signs of behavioural problems such as separation
anxiety, urinating when excited or submissive or during thunderstorms etc? If so
these behavioural triggers will need to be corrected. Please contact your vet to
discuss behavioural problems and appropriate treatment. Some old dogs can lose
their toilet training as they develop a syndrome similar to dementia in people.
Intact males may urinate to mark their territory. Depending on how long this has
been occurring this behaviour may or may not be resolved with castration.
If your dog has no underlying medical problem and no underlying behavioural issues,
it may be that your dog was never completely toilet trained or has had an occurance
that has led to a loss of toilet training (ie being locked inside for a prolonged period)
Our priority is your pet’s well being.
House Soiling
- Canine
188 Boundary Rd
Bardon 4065
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Toilet training (and re-training) tips
Pets usually urinate and defacate after sleep, exercise and after meals. Time
your toilet breaks appropriately. It may help to keep a diary of when and
where your pet toilets, to identify time and area preferences. In the initial
phase of training, your pet may need to be taken out every 1 – 3 hours. If your
dog does not toilet within 5 minutes, bring them inside for 10 – 20minutes then
take them out again.
Supervise your pet when they are outdoors to ensure that they are actually
evacuating their bowels and bladder. PRAISE! PRAISE! PRAISE! when they
go where you want them to! This is a very important part of toilet training.
Praise must be given within a second of the elimination for it to be effective.
Once your dog is back inside the praise is worthless. If desired you may give
your dog a signal such as “toilet”.
Prevention of further accidents – the more your dog toilets in a particular area,
the more they’ll want to go back. Confine your dog to one area of the house,
use a playpen lined with newspaper or use barriers to barricade areas of the
house you don’t want them to go in. Only let your dog have free range when
you are there to supervise. Crate training may be beneficial in this situation.
Punishment is a no-no. In anxious dogs it may even aggravate the problem,
or teach them to toilet in hidden areas. If you come home to an accident,
ignore it and clean it up. Despite what many people thing your dog has no
idea what it has done wrong and punishment after the fact is of absolutely no
use. If you catch them in the act, you can startle them (ie with a clap) and then
immediately pick them up/lead them outside and praise them once outside.
Become familiar with signals that indicate your dog has a full bladder or
bowel. These may include panting, pawing or staring at you, standing up or
sniffing around the floor.
Switching from free choice feeding to meal feeding may help to regulate
defecation to 30 – 60 mins after eating. Exercise also triggers urination and
defecation, twice daily walks may also be beneficial.
Remember to be patient and ignore the any setbacks. Your dog is considered
“toilet trained” when they have not had an accident in 6 weeks. It may take
weeks to months of monitoring and training before your dog’s behaviour
changes.
Our priority is your pet’s well being.