Thursday, October 21, 2010

Training Rant ~ Housesoiling


Funny thing that I want to share ... about a year ago, I started offering dog training to people and the most common thing I get called in about is HouseSoiling (followed closely by Aggression and then Separation Anxiety). If they are bringing me in for housesoiling, it almost always turns out that the dog has other issues as well that they would like to work on (but didn't bother to tell me about).



The number one complaint from dog owners is housesoiling. However, housesoiling is NOT the most common complaint. The most common is aggression. (Campbell WE: 1986 - The prevalence of behavioural problems in American Dogs: Modern Vet Pract 67:28-31)



That means that although aggression is more common than housesoiling, people complain more about the housesoiling. People would rather have an aggression problem than a housesoiling problem in their house! Seems odd to me, but I suppose if you couldn't figure out how to resolve the housesoiling problem and you can manage the aggression problem (for example, by isolating your dog) then the aggression would be the lesser of two evils.



Interesting, no? For those of us involved in rescue, this is probably not a big surprise. How many of the foster dogs we bring into our homes are housetrained?? And yet ... in the majority of cases, how easy is it to do?



So there you have it. That's your tid-bit of useless information for today. So here's my question ... if aggression is more common than housesoiling, then why is housesoiling the number one complaint?

4 comments:

bbes tribe said...

House soiling is messy to clean up & can leave smells. However, I think aggression would be MUCH worse because if or when it gets out of control, the person could be held liable for any damage done to either people or other pets. Not a good thing. Could even lose the ability to have insurance.
Ernie,Sasha,Chica's Mom

Flo said...

I think, as you said, aggression can be handled (or ignored) by isolating the dog, etc. Housesoiling is right there in your face and can't be ignored. One of my dogs, who is 2 1/5 years, has an accident every once in a while. We have not been able to figure out the cause and it is driving me wild. It only happens at night and we do all the right things; no water after 8, a trip outside where we stay until she goes, etc. In spite of all that every so often she goes in the middle of the night. We have had the vet check her and they can't find anything wrong. It is extremely annoying....

Student Accommodation said...

Housesoiling for dogs is an essential part..It cannot be ignored..

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