Boyfriend's dog peed on me

Question

So my boyfriend has an almost ten-year-old pom/Yorkie dog. Before moving in with him he did tell me that she didn’t really like females but she seemed to like me.

Well, when he lived with another girl the dog was potty trained and has been her whole life. He told me he never really had to train her. She just used to let him know when she needed to go out and she's using a pee pad if no one was there to let her out.

When he started living alone and going to work he’d leave the dog with his mom and then according to him he doesn’t know when she started peeing in the house. She just kind of started and (in his words) “I guess she just thought it was the new normal to soil the house” because no one stopped her or got onto her.

We are about to move into an apartment with carpets and I told him I want her potty trained before we move in. He says he can’t potty train her because he’s at work but he refuses to let me get on to her when she soils the house he wants me to just leave her alone and let her do her thing.

Me and her have never had a problem and I give her pets and love all the time. She just kind of ignores that I exist like if I call her she just ignores me and even when I pet her I feel like she’s just ignoring that I’m there she won’t even play with me.

I decided I was going to potty train her anyways. I started getting onto her this week when she would soil the house and I try to get her to go outside.

Well this morning I wake up about 3 am because I feel wetness under my side I get up and she peed on the bed all the way down from my waist to my feet. The mark she made clearly showed the puddle where she started and then the line going down the blanket (where I was laying) where she was walking while she peed and the small puddle at my feet where the pee line ended.

I was so ticked I woke him up and told him the dog peed on me and he insists that she didn't do it on purpose and that she just must have really needed to pee (yeah I’m not buying that). And then he stated that there’s no way she did it on purpose because she never did anything to the other girl and she hated her.

On top of this, she won’t do her business outside unless my boyfriend is here. If I take her out she tries to leave the property instead of doing her business. When I asked him why she tries to leave he said that she’s trying to go find him and that she will do that if she is taken outside while he’s not there.

But I noticed she is very sneaky about soiling the house. For example, there have been a few times where the dog will be laying in the same room as me and I will change the babies diaper and I notice she will leave the room. I try to be quick with the baby but by the time I’m done the dog has already come back to the room and sure enough, she’s left a mess in the house. Or when I go to use the bathroom or get something to eat I will come back to a mess.

So I guess my question is did the dog pee on me out of anger or was it an honest old dog accident or other things that could be wrong with it? And if it was anger how do I make it stop before it’s another problem? And how can I potty train this dog or is her refusal to go outside just her age?

Answer 1

This is a complicated situation with lots of aggravating factors!

Step 1: Vet

Firstly, a trip to the vet is in order for your 10 year old dog to make sure that she is okay and doesn't have a medical issue that is causing her to have issues. If your dog has a medical issue and you just try to house-train again, it will fail because of the issue and the dog will be all the sicker.

Step 2: Get on the same page

Secondly, you and your boyfriend need to be on the same page with the dog training, or else your boyfriend will undo all of the training that you have done. It sounds like your boyfriend might be sleep-deprived and feeling hopeless in the situation, so try your best to outline a plan and the both of you stick to it.

100% of dog owners who go to work still have house-trained animals, so his excuse is absurd. It is not okay for the dog to go to the bathroom inside, especially when you have a young infant. It's really gross to have animal waste on the floor everywhere like an episode of animal hoarders! If your boyfriend does not care about the dog anymore, it would be better to give the dog up for adoption. I would also try to alert him or have him clean the messes every time that one happens so that he is aware of how big a problem that it is - he may think that it only happens once a month when this is a once-a-day issue. House training a dog is not that hard, it just takes 100% consistency.

Step 3: Clean the messes with special cleaner

Next, all of the spots where the dog has fouled the house need to be cleaned with a special pet cleaner that contains Pet Enzymes. If it doesn't say that it contains those enzymes, even if it says "pet", then the cleaner isn't good enough. Now, if the dog keeps going in the same spot each time, that means you need to have a professional carpet cleaning crew come out and treat that spot, because the dog can still smell that an animal has gone potty here (herself!).

Step 4: Potty training - again!

Next, the dog needs to be re-potty trained all over again, so this is going to mean several months of the dog either being in a safe spot, or being actively watched. I strongly suggest getting a large kennel that will be like the dog's "room". This will also give you a break when you need to go to work, or to take care of something with the baby. Personally, I have found even that trying to actively watch my dog, I forget, and it wanders away, so I got a long leash that gave the dog access to water and everything else, but not long enough to go find a place to hide an inside potty-accident.

Step 5 : Making it easier to go outside

Later, when your dog is house trained again, the next step is to make sure that your yard is escape-free, so you can let your dog out. Maybe even you might want to get a doggie door. Maybe you want to get a flood light that turns on automatically so that dog won't have to be in the dark. But if you simply do this now, your dog will continue to have accidents because it has forgotten its house training and it's nicer to poop inside on the nice clean floors, rather than outside.

Also, the dog hides its business inside because she knows that she will get in trouble.