The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs

by Patricia B. McConnell

Dogs who urinate or defecate in the house have a hard time resisting the chemical “sign” on your carpet that says “Go here!” Just because it’s written in odor doesn’t make it less compelling. Even dogs who were actually “house-trained” have pottied in the house because the dogs defined “house” differently than their owners. We define “house” as bordered by walls, but most dogs seem to define “house” as where you spend your time and therefore where the pack’s scent is the strongest. Many of my clients’ dogs only went in the back guest room, a place with none of the familiar odors of the family. In most of those cases, simply eliminating the odor of urine and then marking the area with a different scent can get the dog going in the right rest room again. Once the area is odor-free and clean, sit down on the carpet with your dog and a paperback and spend a little time each day there. In just a few days, that place will smell like a living room instead of a toilet to your pup. It also helps tremendously to give your dog a treat every time that she goes outside—right after she goes, not after she trots back to the house. I’m always a bit surprised at how resistant so many owners are to doing this. Once our dogs are no longer puppies, we seem to have some sense of entitlement that grown-up dogs should go outside, because “they should know better.” But if they’re going to the bathroom in the house, you can either get upset about it and put on a threat display as any agitated prim...