Dog peeing on the beds

[Sleepinggreyhounds]

Hi
We have a 10 year old rescue dog who is fully and reliably housetrained. She is not allowed upstairs, but will sneak up when she can. The problem is if she gets on the beds she will often pee on them. She doesn't pee anywhere else. She knows she isn't allowed on the beds so I do wonder if she does it in shock when she is discovered, but we don't shout at her etc. so she certainly isn't scared of us. She doesn't do it when caught doing other things. We've taken her to the vet and there are no issues that they can find. We got a new mattress and we thought that might help as there is no dog smell, but she peed on the new one. She's just peed in DD's bed for the first time. We use the deodorizing spray but it makes no difference. She has always been impervious to any of the sprays supposed to deter dogs. Apart from this issue she is well-behaved. She was a rescue dog and used to be extremely anxious, but this has improved hugely over the years, and she is now happy and settled.
Other than keeping the bedroom doors closed (which we obviously try to do, but there are occasionally lapses) is there anything else we can do? It's becoming a real problem. It's when we are in the house with her - we keep her in the kitchen when we are out.

Does she do it in front of you?
The reason I ask is that when we moved house with our dog he started weeing on beds in front of us and I spoke to a behaviourist (who runs his classes) and he said it's most likely anxiety - he did it with us watching.
Anxious dogs can tell you're annoyed/ anxious even if you don't show it. She might have done it once by accident and now when you see her she's nervous.
Not your fault, they're very empathetic!
Close the doors. That really is your best solution.

Yes, just try to keep the door shut. You don't want the beds damaged

Agree with PP. Sounds like she may be anxious when caught on the bed. Not to insinuate you are reacting horribly towards her at all! Just that, as a rescue, do you know much about her background prior to being apart of your family? The bed and her owner finding her could be a trigger for her, resulting in her peeing perhaps?

Keeping the doors closed, as you are already doing seems like the best option for now.

You could also maybe take her upstairs once a week with you, to see if she reacts any differently? She could just pee when found as an "oh no, I've been caught". But if you take her upstairs with you, I would think it would maybe help change the her perspective. Not suggesting you change your rules and allow her upstairs, but just think it may help give a different outcome if she happens to sneak up again?

Hi. Thanks for the responses. @hermionee no she jumps off the bed when she hears someone coming so doesn't do it in front of us. She doesn't do it when she's doing anything else she knows is wrong and is generally quite brazen these days 😀I don't know if it's a mixture of possibly being asleep (or very relaxed) and jolting out of it knowing she's going to get caught?

I wonder if it's a scent thing. My dog loves to roll on the bed when I've got out of it, presumably to make herself smell of me. So maybe your dog is doing the same as they do when they wee where another dog has been, and it's an attempt to 'all smell the same'.

Maybe automatic door closers could be the answer?

I expect it is marking behaviour.

Very common for dogs to wee on owners beds. It stinks of human smell and they just add their odour to the mix.

Some dogs mark more than others. Loads of theories as to why some mark and others dont. I would accept you have a marker dog and to keep doors shut at all time.

Theories bounce around that anxious dogs mark more than confident dogs and then you get another theory saying that confident dogs mark more than anxious dogs - I guess we will never actually know

The only other way to deal with it is to have the dog in the rooms more and their smell will become stronger and they have less need to mark (however that is not the option I would use).

If your dog is actually weeing on the bed as opposed to marking behaviour then I would say your dog is not toilet trained for those rooms.

Stairgate and shutting the doors is really the only option.

Stop the dog going upstairs with a stair gate if you can’t train not to go upstairs. We’ve never allowed any of our dogs to go upstairs and it makes life a whole lot easier for this and other reasons - but we did this as puppies which obviously you haven’t been able to with an older rescue. Stair gate cheaper than new mattresses!

I think she doesn't understand that upstairs is part of the house, iyswim.

You've taught her not to pee downstairs but as she's never allowed upstairs, she's never been taught that she can't pee there.

You need to just block her access to upstairs.

I second a stair gate. It’s what we used when training our dogs not to go upstairs. I, too, think it’s scent marking rather than an anxiety issue.

Just get a stair gate and shut the bedroom doors surely?

Thanks - we had a stair gate for several years but found it a huge pain with carrying things etc. and when we had elderly relatives staying who could never seem to open it. May have to look into it again.