I am sure that as pet owners; you have at some point experienced these scenarios. You have your house-trained dog who suddenly have accidents in the house. Your feline companion who always used the litter box suddenly urinates in odd places like the bathtub, in the sink, and even sometimes the bed! I am sure the first question that comes to mind is why are they doing this? Is it a behavioral thing? Is there a medical reason behind all of this? This article discusses reasons why your pet may pee everywhere.
Does my pet pee everywhere for behavioral reasons?
Though not the most common reason for a pet peeing everywhere, it is a reason that has to be considered. Between dog and cats, cats seem to experience behavioral changes that cause this the most. Here are triggers for these behavioral changes in cats.
Litter box: Let’s face it, some cats are sensitive about their cat litter. So any changes can affect their bathroom habits. Things like a new fragrance, a change in the substrate (e.g. sand, pebbles, paper) and even a location change can be a trigger.
Change in environment: Some cats don’t like change. So some demonstrate their disdain by urinating inappropriately. Examples of changes in the environment can include new pets, new people or a change in living spaces.
For dogs the most common trigger for them peeing everywhere would be a change in environment. Anxiety due to separation, or sound phobia also are common triggers.
Does my pet pee everywhere for medical reasons?
There are quite a few medical conditions that cause pets to urinate frequently. Here are some conditions you have to consider if your pet pees everywhere.
Diabetes: This is a condition where the body cannot regulate its blood sugar either due to a lack of production of insulin or a lack of response to it. This causes accumulation of sugar in the blood stream and urine. The accumulation of sugar in the urine attracts more water in the bladder leading to frequent urination.
Urinary tract infection : This is caused by a bacterial infection inside the bladder. The bacteria produce inflammatory substances that irritate the bladder causing your pet to pee more frequently.
Crystals or stones in the bladder: These can form due to previous infections in the bladder or dietary changes that affect the PH of the urine. Crystals themselves cause irritation in the bladder. Stones will occupy the space in the bladder limiting how much urine it can hold. This leads to more frequent urination.
Cushing disease (Hyperadrenocorticism). This condition is mostly an issue with dogs. With this condition the adrenal glands either over respond or over produce natural cortisol in the body. This leads to excessive drinking and urination.
Conclusion to question why does my pet pee everywhere?
As you see if you ask why does your pet pee everywhere, you need to determine if it is a medical condition vs a behavioral one. This will involve having the blood and urine analyzed to rule out any of the medical conditions mentioned above. Once that is determined, you can be on the way to stop your pet from peeing everywhere!
One of our dogs used to pee all over the place, and it was such a pain for all of us! My grandmom got so sick of it that she eventually put the dog up for adoption. 🙁
Thanks so much for all of this information. Pets seem to do a variety of things for a variety of reasons. The more we know, the better we’ll be able to help them and ourselves.
I had no idea there were so many reasons that a pet would pee like that. I always thought it was just related to marking their territory.
Thanks for sharing this. I have cats and a dog and sometimes one of our cats pees in the bath or on the floor by the litter box, she even sometimes goes on my daughters bed. I think it is stress related since we got our dog.
Yes Cats are known to hold grudges. So cats love to show their disapproval by soiling on bedding.
It’s so important to make sure we look at things from every angle. It isn’t always a case of naughty pets!
crystals? i knew about stones but i had no idea about crystals.
joy at http://www.thejoyousliving.com
This is great info. As “parents” of a new dog, this is great info to have. Very well explained.
I’ve always wondered this. Not that I sit and ponder the question, but, when I see a dog or cat constantly peeing everywhere. Now I have some insight! Great information!
Thank you for sharing this information. Although I have not noticed this in my dog, I will be more vigilant in looking out for these signs.
Oh it is a good thing that you dog hasn’t done this as of yet. You know that if that changes then something is definitely wrong then
I wasn’t even aware that an animal could have Cushings. That’s so sad; I’ve seen what that does to humans (some of them wee-wee all the way home too, so makes sense 😉 )
Thanks for sharing, ihad a dog once but i didn’t had problems like that because he loves staying outside and when it times to do his things, we immediately took him to the backyard.
Great information! Often times I worry that something my animals are doing is behavior or medical and I want to make sure I am not overlooking something critical!
I often wondered why so many pets, not just pets only, many stray animals urinate everywhere. I thought of something else, but you may be right about the points which you have mentioned. Now I wonder, even with all training, why pets do it everywhere. Will keep this, it may come in handy.
Very useful post! I don’t have a dog as my pet. But my sisters dog do pee everywhere. I will share this with her.
Such a great and informative post. Honestly, I am annoyed with my husband dogs because they pee everywhere in the house. But now I know why and do I need to understand them? lol
I am actually wondering why pets are like that. I am thinking if that really their nature to pee everywhere. Thank you for sharing this informative post 🙂
Eek, this wouldn’t be fun! I just have two cats, and thankfully they pee in their box. However, one cat likes to poo outside of the box, which gets old pretty quickly.
Really dogs They can be silly sometimes, but we us humans or owner we should understand that their well being is not as good as ours. So we should take care of them, know their needs and love them.
I can understand how tiresome sometime it could get to teach your loved dog to learn where to pee and where not to. But once they used to it they will understand what you are saying and will obey your command. You just need to love and instruct.
I’ve had dogs practically all of my life and didn’t know there were so many reasons why they peed literally everywhere. Thank you for this information!
Very interesting to know! While our Pete don’t pee all over the place when we take our dogs for walks they must pee on every thing in sight!
This is really helpful! My dog doesn’t pee everywhere but this is great to know. Thank you so much for sharing this!
Thank you for this helpful information. It is good to keep in mind that these actions can have underlying causes as well. I will be sure to keep an extra eye on my fur babies.
These are great insights. Having 3 cats and 3 dogs, our female cat used to pee everywhere during her heat phase.
This is some really great info on why pets may do this. I never really thought of it as being some sort of medical relation.
Great info. I started fostering dogs back in April and some of these dogs come with lots of anxiety and not so much training. I definately can agree that anxiety can be a big trigger for dogs in a new place
These are great tips! Ihave a dog too so it’s good to know the signs of illnesss!
This was a very interesting read. I love dogs and I love learning everything I can about them. Thank you for this.
This is info I need! We are hoping to get a dog this month and I’ll have to keep an eye out for these signs.
I never thought there could be medical reasons behind this, I thought it was behavioral. Thanks for sharing!
Whenever I go out of town and have to board my dog, he gets revenge by peeing indoors the first few days we’re back home. It’s very frustrating.
I have not had a pet, or been close to anyone who has one, since I have been a child. I had no idea for any of this (other than some of them pee everywhere).
I dont even know that there could be these many reasons for a pet to pee like this! Thanks for making us know all these!
I have owned pets all my life. I had never had an experience with stones, until we came home one night to find my cat looking like he was dying. It was because of bladder/kidney stones. The recovery process was filled with peeing in strange places and often. Thanks for sharing great information.
Wow! That was so great information you shared to us! I will surely share this blog with others. Thanks so much ♥
I don’t own a pet but I really loved the information. I think I can pass this on to my friends who have pets and face this problem.
Great tips. My dogbise to do that when he was really stressed animals are super sensitive.
I didn’t know there was a way to determine if it was behavioral. Years ago we got a rescue dog who would pee everywhere. It was definitely a challenge. She did it every time we left, even if it was for a few minutes. I never knew if it was anxiety or if she was just mad at us for leaving.
That is interesting, I never realised that this was something that can happen with dogs and cats. I grew up with dogs but they were 100% outside. We also had rabbits, a parrot, chickens, fish and even a tortoise at one point.
One of my dogs like to pee on her sister, not sure why but I’m guessing it is a behavioral problem.
I always wondered why my cats did this. We recently moved their litter box and I was so worried they would not be happy and pee everywhere. They did well
My cat doesn’t like peeing in her litter box and always goes in the garden now. She walks around for ages trying to find a nice spot bless her. Thank you for sharing the other medical reasons too, these are really important to know 🙂
Wow I never thought about a dog having these issues. I will keep this in mind. I’m getting a pup soon.
I never knew some of these reasons. I am hoping to get a dog in the future so this is quite useful information.
Interesting, I am going to have to pass this info on to my cat owning friends. I never knew there were so many reasons for pet urinating.
Oh dogs really pee everywhere, i had an untrained dog years ago. And i didn’t no that these could have issues. I should have been more educated.
My dog seems to wee everywhere but she is not sick, I was wondering if it was a way of leaving her own track of the places she visited?
I am a dog lover and it is very useful for me. Thank you for this wonderful information.
this is really informative, I used to have dogs and i must say close supervision is necessary. we must be dedicated to stop the marking behavior of your dog and it must be consistent. out of norms actions should be look at asap.
We dont have a pet but I remember living at home and getting a small puppy …. it left puddles literally everywhere for weeks!!!! lol lol lol I laugh now but it wasnt funny at the time!
This is a well informative post. I am so enlightened by the content. All pet lovers must get into this.
Thanks for answering a great question that pet lovers everywhere are surely asking. Now they will be able to answer why their pet displays certain behaviors.
Ugh!!! This is one reason why I am glad i don’t have a dog. I love dogs but I remember growing up cleaning pee in multiple places 😖
Because your dog is confused. Dogs do what they believe their supposed to. If your dog pees in the house it doesn’t fully understand it’s suppose to go outside. People think their dogs know it’s bad to pee inside because when they pee they act guilty or look as if they did something wrong. The reality is the dog knows there’s something bad about pee in the house but not the fact that it’s wrong to do. Owners will scold or yell at their dogs when they see pee so the dog learns to associate pee with a pissed off owner but has no clue exactly why it’s bad . Most trainers are clueless with zero understanding of how dogs think. Dogs lack the ability to be bad in the way humans understand bad. They only do what they believe their meant to do or have the right to do.