topic Re: Male marking in house..... in Community Chat

Male marking in house.....

chiclet — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 04:24:02 GMT

I am getting a male Chihuahua and when he came over to meet us he lifted his leg and peed on everything. I have two male dogs (small) who are neutered and though they make mistakes and pee occasionally, they have never marked. This dog is 6 and not neutered but will be soon. I am scared he will pee on everything and adopting him may be a mistake. Anyone had any experience with this.

Re: Male marking in house.....

mewsmomtoo — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 05:22:24 GMT

I've never dealt with a dog who wasn't neutered at a young age, but the older they are, the harder it is to break habits and he just might want to mark everything that smells like the other dogs. Will he be coming to you directly after being neutered because it takes a while for the testosterone to work its way out of the system and he might continue to mark for a while. I think if you are going to break him of this you will have to be right on top of him and cleaning. Has he ever been housebroken?

CatFancy Magazine has a website called CatChannel.com, I bet DogFancy has the same and it probably has a lot of advice for this kind of thing. Good luck!

Re: Male marking in house.....

luvmyteddy4 — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 05:42:32 GMT

There are some good articles on the internet about the unneutered male. They are marking their territory and being assertive when there are other pets in the house or they are stressed. It will be a lot of work to keep this under control and neutering will help but at that age it will be like starting over. I think it can be done but you will have to watch him all the time and/or crate him until he is house broken. They usually spray upwards and not horizontal. You will be cleaning.

I know a couple that have a 6 year old little dog that has never been neutered. The dog still pees all over the house and the boyfriend doesn't believe in neutering the dog. I have tried to talk to her about it and she wants to but he won't. They took in a 10 year old on top of that and she was trained but I think she pees too. I was always nervous when she brought the dog over but I made sure he didn't roam around my house. I watched her other one for the weekend once and she was fine with me.

Good luck with what you decide and do your research. My first dog wasn't house broken at two or fixed when I adopted her and it took awhile to train her.

Re: Male marking in house.....

Bestdressed — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 15:36:40 GMT

Good Luck! I have 2 dogs. I always had dogs & never had this problem.... until we got our last dog. He was not neutered until a year old. I should have done it earlier. He already started marking areas.

He still does it today. I take him out every couple hours and encourage praise him when he goes outside. He still sneaks off to mark table and chair legs. He does not get the connection this is not proper behaviour. We have caught him trying to do it front of us. We have cage trained him and he would still go in the cage. I hate to say it, I think if he does mark territories.. it will be hard to break the habit.

If anyone here knows how they corrected this habit ...let us know. I tried everything to no avail.

Re: Male marking in house.....

goodstuff — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 16:28:53 GMT

This may be hard to fix at this stage and may be more than you really want to take on. I'd consider returning the problem dog before you get attached to each other and choosing a younger, neutered, house-trained (or more trainable) pup. Having a dog that pees all over your house and belongings is not a good thing, and at this stage it may be difficult to break. This dog may need to be in a situation where he can spend much of his time outdoors.

Re: Male marking in house.....

kittyloo — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 16:37:51 GMT

make sure that you have a bottle or spray of "natures miracle" it is for eliminating all odors associated with pet u rine, blood, feces, etc. I always clean the area, followed by any spray cleaner, then go over with the natures miracle. any pee odor a dog smells, is going to signal him that its a okay spot.

I have had a couple of dogs with this problem come thru my house. I watch 'em like a hawk, and if you can catch them in the act, take swift action.

Re: Male marking in house.....

ptagirl — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 19:53:39 GMT

I hate to tell you this, but getting your dog neutered may not change his bad habit. We once had a little terrier.. got him at 5 weeks old.. had him neutered as soon as we could as per his age... he still peed throughout the house..

I tried everything I could think of, but he still did it inside and outside our home, even marked the neighbor's yard and bushes.. It didn't matter if he was excited or not, he just had the urge to pee, I guess.

We had him for 15 years. He was a cute and loving little thing, but he had a major bad habit that no member of our family could break....Good luck in your training efforts and hope everything works out ok...

Re: Male marking in house.....

Tissyanne — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 20:38:47 GMT

I know of a male Yorkie that was neutered later, at about 6 years old. He marked everything including his food bowl. The neutering did not do any good. I would not consider adopting a dog that does the marking.

Re: Male marking in house.....

doxie1 — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 21:23:10 GMT

I was able to stop a dog from doing this with using belly bands while he was inside. I think he decided to mark more when he was in a new environment or around other dogs. He got to the point we did not have to use them. I continued to use them if I went to someone else's house just in case. He did not lift his leg there any more. He would look at me as if to ask ""is this necessary"".

I wonder if you can foster first to see how it goes. He will need to be retrained anyway to potty outside most likely.

doxie

Re: Male marking in house.....

Bestdressed — Sat, 07 Jun 2014 22:57:04 GMT

Doxie...Can you tell me what a belly band is and how they work?

Re: Male marking in house.....

doxie1 — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 00:38:16 GMT

It is a wrap that goes around the belly and covers the tinkler. You can use kotex in them. The constant pressure reminds them not to go with urge. Our tinkler got the message quick. We take it off when he goes outside of course. You want to make sure it is one of the original belly bands because they have a snug and non irritating fit. You can google it. I think one of the sites is bellyband dot net. I am sure there are other sites as well but make sure it is the original one. Some of the others have elastic which seems to irritate the dog.

You find that you have to use it less and less. At the beginning if you see him lift his leg it tells you to make sure that area is clean from any previous marking. You clean it and he did not get to remark it so you break the cycle.

We got to the point that we did not have to use it anymore.

doxie

Re: Male marking in house.....

Kachina624 — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 08:22:17 GMT

I have a male collie that was neutered at age 10 months. He's well housebroken but he still marks in the house. He very sly and makes sure I never see him do it. I've never been able to completely break him of this habit. He's tall and trim but weighs about 75 lbs. can't see him with a belly band.

Re: Male marking in house.....

151949 — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 13:41:28 GMT

I have a friend who adopted a male shih tzu who was marking - she loved him but her husband wanted to give him back. She said I potty trained two very stubborn little children and I will housebreak this dog. She successfully did - but they had to buy a new sofa as he ruined the old one lifting his leg on it and they had to replace some flooring he ruined as well. So - you may want to carefully choose your challenges.

Re: Male marking in house.....

Bestdressed — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 22:39:57 GMT

Doxie....Thanks for explaining a belly band. I may look into this, to see it if might work for my little trouble maker.

Kachina... Your description of your collie's behaviour is the same as my cocker spaniel. My dog is sneaky and goes downstairs in the basement to leave his mark. My other dog is the snitch and goes sniffing to let me know where the marking was done. I do inspections often to check his favorite places. It is funny... because I have table that is a large dog statue holding a tray. When he is bad he marks the dog table!

Re: Male marking in house.....

Kachina624 — Sun, 08 Jun 2014 22:45:56 GMT

On 6/8/2014 happy housewife said:
I have a friend who adopted a male shih tzu who was marking - she loved him but her husband wanted to give him back. She said I potty trained two very stubborn little children and I will housebreak this dog. She successfully did - but they had to buy a new sofa as he ruined the old one lifting his leg on it and they had to replace some flooring he ruined as well. So - you may want to carefully choose your challenges.

Housebreaking and marking behavior are two entirely separate things. My dog has been housebroken since I got him at 16 weeks of age. This marking is a male dominance thing. If you can't catch him doing it, you can't correct it. It not that he has to pee badly, it's all about marking his territory.

Re: Male marking in house.....

doxie1 — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 00:05:44 GMT

kachina- I do not know if it would work for your dog or not but they do make large ones and custom orders. With all that hair you would probably need a snug fit.

I agree that marking is not the same as peeing but I did do the immediately take him out when he tried to mark in the house. I used the giving a place outside to mark as the replacement behavior and of course praised him when he followed through. When I walked him outside he liked to mark a lot of areas and it was part of emptying his bladder.

best dressed, I think the band helped show us where he was most likely to mark so we had to super clean to remove any residual scent. I swear one day he went to the place he used to mark and seemed confused by the smell. I think it becomes a habit for them. I was happy that we were able to break it and let him run about the house with out the band. He was an awesome dog.

They make the band for females as well.

doxie

Re: Male marking in house.....

chiclet — Wed, 11 Jun 2014 12:17:31 GMT

I had a lady that kept my dogs when on vacation. She keeps only small dogs. She had a belly band on one of them and I asked her about it. She makes her own but I would have to buy them. I think that would be my only solution for this dog. I was thinking about getting one for my Peek a poo because he does not lift and mark but will pee if you forget to take him out a lot.

Re: Male marking in house.....

chiclet — Fri, 13 Jun 2014 12:15:58 GMT

Thank you for all your replies. I have decided not to get the dog. He is precious but I think I would be in for a lot of grief and my husband does not feel it would be a wise decision. I am blown away by the people who do not neuter and spay their dogs. I thought the only reason not to do it would be if you want to breed them. I look on craigslist and see many dogs are older and never spayed or neutered but are just family pets. I had a female puppy once that was given to me by my boss (30 years ago) and she went into to heat before I could spay her. That was messy and dogs came from miles around. I said I would never go through that again. I had a friend who did not neuter her male dog but he was the only one so maybe they don't mark if they are the only dog in the house. I don't want to adopt an adult female dog and then have to take it to be spayed. Poor dog would have to be going to a new home and new people and then go through surgery too. I have had my male dogs neutered and they recover so much faster than females. So much easier for them.

Re: Male marking in house.....

Dharma_Initiative — Sun, 29 Jun 2014 00:55:20 GMT

I haven't read through all the replies so someone else has probably said this....

Once a male dog is neutered it takes about 90 days and then their desire to mark decreases. You still have to teach him that it's not allowed in the house, just like potty training.

Every dog is different of course, but I recently adopted a 9 year old male who was neutered by the rescue group. He was from a puppy mill so he had free reign to do whatever he wanted when he wanted for the whole 9 years of his life. He marked and peed and pooped in our house the first night he came to us and I thought OMG what have I done! But you have to realize it's a new place and they are probably very stressed, excited and doing what is instinctual (especially if he's not neutered yet!). My dog had some peeing accidents until we got him totally trained but that was surprisingly quick, especially since it was in the middle of the coldest winter in 100 years! He never marked in the house after that first night, but again, he'd been neutered already. Now he barely even marks when we're out walking. My female dog is marking all over the place and he still doesn't!

Make sure you have an enzyme urine spray to totally clean away all traces of any past or current accidents or markings in your home. I suggest getting a black light for detecting these spots. They're sold at Petsmart. Even if you scrub your heart out with cleanser, it will not eliminate the smell of urine that a dog can pick up on and then want to put his mark on top of it. Even with very old stains, they can smell it. You can't watch a dog every second even if you try, and they can pee or mark so fast! Using a light every night after dark really will help you find the spots that need enzyme spray until you have him reliably trained.