Pissed (what we polite people call “pee” or “urinate”)
I have heard of it, but I have not now, nor have I ever had a dog that has “pissed” (what we polite people call “pee” or “urinate”) on me or anything else I would deem inappropriate. IMHO your dog is a spioled brat that needs some discipline. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. This is a positive reinforcement list, so I say, treat dogs for urinating where they are supposed to, dont give them the chance to urinate on you or other places where they are not.
As a friend of mine and dog trainer once told me “When the dog pees in the house {or other inappropriate area} then take a news paper, roll it up as tight as you can, and then hit yourself over the head saying ‘I didn’t pay enough attention! I didn’t pay enough attention!’ and try again.”
Your dog peeing in the house is one thing, but peeing on you is a sighn that they do not think of you as another member of the pack, but as an inanimate object, and you need to reconsider how you bonded trained with them…
How big is the dog? how old is it? how spoiled is it?
I have an 2yof, spayed alaskan malamute that my husband has been keeping because of difficulty getting along with my smaller dog. Actually she is going back to rescue this week, but has been displaying a behavior I am not familiar with.She ocasionally slept in my husband’s bed and sometimes on the floor. If he did not get her out early, she peed on the bed or on the floor. She did this while she was asleep.I had her checked out for a bladder infection and she didnt have one. The vets said it was behavioral.
At one time she was living with me and did not do this, but I didnt cater to her as much. She knew she wasn’t getting me up at 5 am.My dogs know they get to go out when I wake up and do not try to wake me unless I REALLY oversleep or they are ill. My husband also allowed her to paw him for pets, which I didnt do. She has become pretty obnoxious with this since going there to live.I do want to comment here that i did caution my husband against some of the things he was letting her get by with. I also gave him a copy of the book by patricia mcconnell “How to be the Leader of the Pack…” I have been told this peeing might be a dominance behavior. I guess I don’t understand a lot of things about dog’s minds. I always thought a dog doesnt want to sleep in their pee or poop. This really has me baffled and am wondering if there could be another physical possibility or if this really is dominance behavior.
I just hate to send her back to rescue without medical needs being taken care of, if there are any.
In the wild, with wolves, urination is alright. Sometimes the alpha will urinate on all the pack members to mark them as part of his pack. It is a sign of territory and dominance. In the human world, if your dog marks you, he is saying “I own you” which is not proper. What is a dog doing when he marks trees when you go for a walk? He is expanding his territory. If your dog marks you he is saying your his territory. In the wild, if a wolf marks you, it is a compliment because the wolf is accepting you into his pack.
Nycole thanks for your sharing of wolf information.
I’d like to suggest list members that just can’t read enough books about dogs and their behavior go out and get Ray Coppinger’s book “Dogs” it’s a wonderful, thought provoking book.
Often when training dogs and interpreting their behavior we use wolves as a model and genetically wolves and dogs are closely related their DNA is nearly identical. Yet dogs are not wolves …when we bred them and came up with all the different flavors and models well quite frankly most of them don’t resemble wolves anymore do they?! They have inherited short legs, floppy ears, curly tails, short coats and curly coats, spots…wrinkles and smooched faces. So if they no longer look like a wolf why would we think they inherited all of the behavior of the wolf?! These are some of the things addressed in Coppinger’s book.
Anyway often we have no idea “why” the dog does the things it does. When we search for reasons as to why a dog is peeing on us or inappropriate spots we search for answers. Dog is stubborn, spoiled, dominant, status seeking and on and on. These interpretations often are emotional…no one wants a dominant, status seeking dog it makes us angry, hurts our feelings etc. No one wants to be pee-ed on humans consider that rude who knows how a dog considers the behavior.
It sets up very often “a confrontational relationship” with our pet.
Until my dogs begin to howl to reassemble the group or begin stalking caribou I am not going to assume they are wolves nor will I interpret their behavior with a “wolf model”. They are not wolves, they are dogs.
Why is the dog peeing in inappropriate places? I dunno. But that doesn’t matter in the least – “why” doesn’t matter. “How” or “when” it occurs is helpful to me. “How” well I wasn’t paying attention. “When” he does it when surrounded by a group of strange dogs, when he is in a new place, when he is in an area where many dogs have eliminated etc. When I know “how and when” then I can use supervision and training to teach the dog that the behavior is undesirable “in my opinion”. Dogs don’t consider any of their behaviors problems…we do.
So teach/train the dog when it’s behaviors are appropriate and when some of these behaviors are not. Leave “why” alone who knows why and the dogs can’t tell us… another excellent book is called “If a Lion Could Talk” taken from the quote… “If a Lion could talk we wouldn’t understand him”.
I tend to think that dogs have a lot more of the “wolf-like” instincts than some people give them credit for. I’ve seen “domestic dogs” get loose and hunt down deer and other animals in packs – very much like the wolves do. However, in training, that’s not truly the issue!
In training, it doesn’t really matter what the dog does. What is important is how you react to it. The “why’s” are not typically the point – unless it is you that is doing something that is confusing the dog.
If the dog pees in the house…what do you do? You back up to before you had that problem! Does the dog have a urinary tract infection? Does the dog have a sphincter muscle problem? NO? Then it is time to reduce the amount of freedom in the house. The dog has earned “moderated status” (grin). The dog is never unsupervised in the home loose. At night, the dog may need to be crated or penned. The dog needs to be taken outside on a schedule and praised for pottying when told. Don’t give the dog an opportunity to make a mistake.
Dogs that urinate in their sleep often have an incontinence problem stemming from the relaxation of the sphincter muscle when in a deep sleep. This can be treated with medication. This is extremely common in females – especially older females. Dogs that urinate in their sleep are not trying to be dominant or to test you or to do anything other than just sleep. They do not need punishment, reprimand, etc. for this behavior – it is involuntary behavior.
Until rectified medically, the dog should be provided with a “safe pen” where the dog can sleep and not get into any trouble if she urinates in her sleep. A place where it won’t damage the floor, is easy to clean up and there is enough room where she can move away from the spot if she happens to wake in the middle of the night after having urinated. She should also be bathed regularly – or at the least, rinsed down daily. Urine left on the skin can cause burning and irritation.