Dog keeps peeing on my bed - help!

[MummyRuns]

We have had him for 3.5 years. We are often away and when he stays with our good friend who dog sits, he always sleeps overnight in the bed with them. At ours he sleeps downstairs in the kitchen in a pen. He is allowed in DCs rooms and more recently on my DDs bed - never overnight. He regularly has accidents in my room (peeing on carpet) so he is not allowed in my room - although it’s hard to keep him out 100%.

Last night I realised he had peed on my bed, on top of my duvet - this is about the fourth time. Anytime he gains access to my room he pees - the bed soiling is the most upsetting.

I don’t want our dog in my room and definitely not sleeping in my bed.

Any advice appreciated.

How is he getting in your room?

You need to get rid of every trace of the smell, which will be really hard to do but not impossible.

Prevention is better than cure, keep your door shut.

It’s just impossible to keep the door shut all the time. The kids will wander up and open it while I’m downstairs etc.

Is it the smell that keeps him going back to re-mark his territory? I am feeling like it’s a personal attack for not letting him sleep in the bed but maybe I’m over analysing?!

Wash everything in bio liquid or powder, after spraying with Simple Solution from Wilko's or Amazon. Stair gate across the door, looks like keeping him out is the only way it's going to stop. I sympathize as we had an ex puppy farm mum who was the same - banning her from the bedroom was the only way to stop it.

Stop the dog going upstairs at all. You can use a stairgate. It is far easier to prevent the dog going up there than stop them pissing once they have.

I am feeling like it’s a personal attack for not letting him sleep in the bed but maybe I’m over analysing?! dogs tend not to do premeditated things!

Does he do it when he goes to your friend's house?

I would be taking dog to vet to check for UTi

Could it be a dominance/territory marking thing? He might see your bed as the top spot in the house and is trying to mark it as his place?

I've read this and it might be rubbish. Could you talk to the vet or a trainer about it?

Ha! Yes probably not premeditated, but it is a big contrast to my friends where he can spend up to two weeks (on a fairly regular basis) sleeping in the bed. And no he doesn’t do it there. He is then relegated to the dog pen when he gets home!

That’s gross, of course he’ll keep going back and peeing in same spot. My cats aren’t allowed on the beds as I have a phantom pisser so they stay downstairs with the dog.

Use a stair gate as someone suggested my dog manages to not go into bedrooms and lives a nice life without ruining soft furnishings etc it’s not nice and lastly is there a reason your dog pees on your carpet etc is he not toilet trained or he is probably just peeing where there is a pee smell you need an enzyme cleaner to take the smell away permanently and the minute you see or realised he’s peed somewhere he shouldn’t take him outside use cue words/treat to reinforce where you want him to pee almost going back to basics with toilet training.

Do lots of people with dogs have stair gates? Seems like a big inconvenience to be regressing back to toddler days and maintaining a stair gate for the next 10+ years. I suspect the kids might make it into a game smuggling the ‘poor dog’ upstairs etc

I had one, you use it to train the dog not to go up he doesn’t even look at the stairs now
you also tell your children the dog is not to go upstairs. I have 4 children and no one sneaks him up just tell them no. Or would you rather have a pissy bed?

Any other deterrent sort from a stair gate?? Scent, electric pulse (that does no harm to kids or dogs!!)

The room needs to be re-carpeted now on reflection. It is just horrendous - and so expensive to rectify. That can be trigger for the very hard line on dog upstairs with kids.

Unfortunately, the reason you dog is peeing in your room and on your bed doesn’t really matter. He’s probably scent marking, but trying to work out why isn’t going to get you anywhere.
You just need to prevent him having access to the bedroom, and preferably upstairs, so that he can’t do it again. If the dog isn’t allowed upstairs the problem will simply resolve itself. If that means being much stricter with the dog and with the children and putting barriers in place that’s what you need to do. None of my dogs have ever been allowed upstairs.

I think you might have all your reasons there sorry.
Dog sounds unsettled and is a sleep-in-the-bed-with-its-owner type dog.
Could you set up a crate in one of your children's room? Or on the landing? It sounds to me that he at least needs to sleep nearer his people than he currently does.

Consistency and training using barriers
once you have trained the dog and made sure your children do not take him upstairs you can remove said barrier I’m sure that’s cheaper than new mattresses and carpet?
Gates aren’t pretty but less so than smelly pee all over your upstairs and you can remove them when your dog is trained

Has your dog been checked for a urinary infection by a vet?

Put a lock on your bedroom door. My dc were never allowed in my bedroom without knocking and being invited in. If I wasn't in there then they didn't open the door. If not a lock put the stairgate on the bedroom door and tell the dc they are to stay out and leave the gate closed.

Beds are one of the places where our scent is strongest and they often want to mix their scent in with ours - it's why they often like to sit in our dirty laundry or sleep with clothes that smell of us.

The obvious solution is to not allow the dog in your bedroom - and yes, that might mean using baby gates if your children can't be trusted not to let the dog upstairs and in your space. Alternatively, you could lock the door with high-up bolt that your DC can't reach.

Another thing you could do is allow your dog free-roam of the house so that being in your bedroom is normal and somewhere he's free to go to nap or cuddle with you - it may mean he no longer feels the need to pee (and mix his scent) because he's allowed to sleep there and mix his scent that way.

Personally I don't understand why you're objecting to baby gates - they're a great way to keep your dog safe and out of certain parts of the house.

As others have said, preventing access isn't impossible. If all else fails then a lock will do it. Stair gates better of course.

Ultimately it will be the smell which keeps the appeal, so this will likely recur until you decide that preventing access is less of an inconvenience. Sorry, but your choice is binary.

He doesn’t have a urinary infection and doesn’t have accidents anywhere else in the house. He’a trained and ‘asks’ to go outside normally. This is opportunistic peeing when he manages to get access to my bedroom - ranging from carpet soiling to peeing on top of the duvet

Maybe an auto closing bedroom door would help. So it’s never accidentally open.

One of the benefits of kids getting older is not to have to deal with stair gates hence why I’m reluctant to go back to those days…

But you also chose to get a dog - and that means managing their environment like you would a toddler or small child.

Our beagle is five and we still have baby gates up in the kitchen as well as child locks on the cupboards - they'll stay in place until we no longer plan on having more dogs. It's so much easier than having to supervise him constantly and it means we always know he's safe.

You know your dog pees on your bed - surely installing a baby gate is much better than having a piss-soaked mattress?

One of the other benefits of the kids getting older is that they can follow simple instructions like 'don't open my bedroom door' or 'don't take the dog upstairs'. Sounds like if you train the kids the dog problems with resolve.