Please Help Me! My Dog Marks His Territory! Randomly!?
Filed under Care & Training Q&As
Please can someone give me some help? I have a westie who is fully house trained, but if something is out of place in the house or something is put somewhere odd he will pee up it!
Today he done it again TWICE!!! My daughter had her friend stay over and this morning the other child put her sleeping bag on my sofa folded up ready for when she goes home, and the dog peed on it. Tonight I decided to get my clothes airer out to dry some stuff and I have just gone in to the room and he has peed up that too. He has not done this for weeks and when he does it, he only does it when I am not in the room. He can go weeks without doing it and then he will just do it out of the blue. He is now almost 3 years old and he was castrated since he was young as he was awful. I have tried everything but I now I feel I have had enough. I have a 7 year old german shepard girl and she would never dream of doing anything in the house!
Please don’t suggest that I catch him in the act because unless I have him shut away that is not going to happen as it is so sporadic. I have used sprays but how can you spray when you have no idea when or where he is going to do it.
Please please someone help me.
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You need to figure out why he is doing it – is it dominance, insecurity, incontinence….. you get the picture. Is he trained? Exercised regularly?
First step would be to take him to a vet and check his urinary system is normal – urinalysis and a culture. Sometimes a UTI or a hormonal problem can cause inappropriate urination.
Next step – if that’s not the cause, only let him in the house when you are home and can catch him in the act! Sorry, I know its not what you wanted to hear…
is he neutered?
you can get little canine diaper’s at your local pet store. some dogs are just dominant and mark when they need too. the potty pants will help =]
put his face in it and poke him like on the side with ur fingers firmly.
Go to http://www.petedge.com and get a male wrap for him to wear, that will help cut it down.
tell him no treats
You have to approach the problem from the angle of “how do I show my dog what he *should* do?”. Trying to teach him what *not* to do is too difficult.
So how do you teach your dog what to do? Recreate the situation, and stay in control. Put something out where it doesn’t belong, make sure your dog sees it, and most importantly give him some sort of command – it doesn’t matter what command but use the same one consistently, “sit” and “stay” should be fine. Keep repeating this at least once a day, with different objects including some that he has peed on before. If he pees on anything, reprimand him as quickly as you can (and since you are putting the things out deliberately to train him, it’s possible that you will catch him in the act).
There are two ideas you want to get across to him: 1. What he *should* do when he sees something new. 2. That you are the alpha dog and it’s not *his* job to mark territory (it’s yours. But don’t pee on things yourself – that would be gross).
Hi,
There is a really cool website http://www.animalattraction.weebly.com that my friend Raina owns and if you go there and click on the chat room link you can ask here anything about animals live. If she is not available online you can just leave your name and email in the contact tab and she will get to you asap so please give that a try…. It is so awesome.
I have just moved into a new apartment, in which the old renters let their dogs pee everywhere. Although my carpet has been cleaned my fully house broken 2 year old weenier dog feels the need to mark her territory. I have found that peppermint oil keeps her from remarking her territory on that particular spot. My vet said that dogs do not like the smell and stay away from those particular spots. I know you cant put peppermint oil all over your entire house, but it will help with the places you know he spots on most frequently.