When your cat pees on your dog’s bed, it usually means that it is marking its territory or there is an ongoing rivalry between your pets. Cats are very specific when it comes to their hygiene, so if they pee anywhere but their litter box, there is usually a good reason for it.
If your cat is peeing on your dog’s bed and you need suggestions for how to stop the behavior, keep on reading.
Why does my cat pee on the dog bed?
Territory
Cats, like dogs, love to mark their territories with their urine. For a cat, the dog bed may seem a comfy place to secure. This can be resolved by giving the cat territory all to himself, like a cat tree or tall bookshelves so the cat does not have to touch the floor when it moves around the house. This should help minimize the territorial disputes, and hopefully keep the cat from peeing on the dog bed.
Medical problems
Sometimes, the habit of peeing on the dog bed can warrant a visit to the vet for your cat. Cats that pee outside of the litter box may be suffering from health issues, such as being unable to control their peeing.
A bladder infection or diabetes can cause incontinence in cats, and these issues need to be sorted out with the help of a veterinarian. When the underlying illness is treated, the cat may very well stop using the dog bed as a bathroom.
Too few litter boxes
If you happen to have multiple cats, one of your cats may use your dog bed as a litter box if there are not enough litter boxes for all the cats. Ideally, there should be one litter box more than there are cats in the house.
Be sure to sift each litter box everyday; if they get too dirty, none of your cats will use them. Cats like to go to the bathroom in private and choose to do it in a secluded place away from everyone else.
An unliked litter box
Even if you bought the correct number of litter boxes for your cats, you may still find one of them peeing on the dog bed. It is possible that your cat feels that its litter box is not to its liking, so it would rather go somewhere else to pee. The good thing is, the solution is simply to buy them a new litter box that looks kind of like the dog bed.
Anxiety
Cats have to deal with their emotions in their own way, and peeing can be one way to reduce their stress.
Your cat may be peeing on the dog bed due to anxiety. But usually when this is the case, it will pee in multiple spots around the house.
In this situation, the best way to stop a cat from peeing on the dog bed is to address the stressors that are causing the cat’s anxiety. When the stressors are gone, the cat will be less anxious and more calm and may very well self-correct its peeing habits.
How to stop a cat’s from peeing on the dog bed
Clean the dog bed thoroughly.
A cat will instinctively return to a place it has urinated before. Their marking instinct is quite strong and they will refresh the mark on their territory as often as they can.
It is vital that you act quickly. As soon as you notice the cat pee, take care of it, because the smell will only get worse the longer the dog bed goes unwashed. Sometimes, when left unwashed too long, the smell can no longer be removed by simple soap and water.
Mix one cup of warm water with one cup of vinegar and pour it on the pee stain on the dog bed. Let it sit until it dries, then sprinkle a thick layer of baking soda on the surface. Vacuum the baking soda. Repeat these steps once or twice if the stain still persists.
You can also use enzyme-based cleaners to clean the stains more thoroughly. The enzymes in the cleaners break down the acid in the urine and effectively removes the smell and the stains.
Neutralize the odor.
Because cats are repeat offenders when it comes to peeing, removing the smell of their pee from the dog bed will help make it a neutral zone. This will also be great for the dog, since it will no longer sleep on a smelly bed.
Make sure the odor eliminators you buy do not contain ammonia, since that smell actually attracts cats.
Use Cat pheromones.
One of the main reasons your cat pees on the dog bed is because of its marking instinct. You can keep your cat away from the inappropriate peeing places by spraying pheromones into the room they frequent the most. Pheromones will help calm your cat down and reduce its anxiety. It will help keep them away from the dog bed while making them feel less anxious.
Use pheromone sprays, along with the cleaners and odor eliminators, to triple the effectiveness of stopping the cat’s behavior.
Keep the dog bed away from the cat.
One of the easiest solutions to this problem is to keep your cat physically separated from the dog bed.
It may be difficult to keep your cat from a specific area in the house, but if you keep the cat’s litter box and the dog bed on opposite ends of the house, that should do the trick.
Replacing the dog bed if it resembles the litter box too much may also help fix the problem.
Train your cat.
No matter how frustrating it can get seeing your cat pee in inappropriate places, remember that punishing your cat will not do either one of you any good. The best thing to do is to retrain your cat on how to use the litter box properly.
If you think the cat’s behavior is due to stress or anxiety, get them a tall cat tree so they have a safe place they can always escape to.
Conclusion
Your cat may be peeing on the dog bed because it is marking its territory, it is having medical issues causing incontinence, there are too few litter boxes, it does not like its litter box, or it may have anxiety brought on by stressors in the environment.
You can correct this behavior by cleaning the soiled dog bed thoroughly, using an odor eliminator, spraying cat pheromones, physically distancing the cat from the dog bed, and retraining your cat to properly use the litter box.
Image: istockphoto.com / Frank Anschuetz