I just got a 2 year old alpha male dog and I can't stop him from lifting his leg on everything. It's even worse now that my daughter lives with me, and she has a male dog. What can I do to stop this?
By barbara from El Cajon, CA
You absolutely need an enzymatic cleaner like "simple solution" some grocery stores carry them in the pet isle but it is usually cheaper to get them in large quantities at a pet store or Wal-mart sometimes, especially if they have marked all over the house.
I'd also call your vet to make sure they don't have urinary tract infections or something medically wrong.
Crate training.
You don't say if he is neutered or not. If he isn't, get him neutered ASAP. Also, as someone else has said have a vet examine him because he could have a bladder infection, UTI, etc.
Check via Google for canine belly bands. A male who marks is just doing what instinct tells him to do so please don't punish them. You can find individuals as well as rescue organizations that sell male belly bands for less that $10 including shipping. I don't recommend you buy the ones at the pet stores as they aren't nearly as nicely made & cost almost 3 times as much.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I am fostering a dog to adopt. He wants to "mark with his scent" when he smells where my last dog laid. Is there anyway to break him of this or some product I can buy to deter him from peeing all over my house?
Buy Natures Miracle. Its enzymes remove traces of scent so the dog wont go back there
Your new dog is marking its territory over the older dog. It feels insecure and if there is old pee in the room where the new dog smells, it will pee there.
I trained my new dog to pee right where the older dogs go outside and the new dog goes to the same area. It is the same way in the house. You would need to keep the dog away from places where it pees in the house and have both dogs socialize more; this may help to stop that bad habit. If your new dog was not neutered early in life, this may also be the root of the problem as neutering can help stop the marking. In the meantime, treat the flooring to rid the odor.
I have used carpet shampoos in my Rug Doctor and it really cleans great, but the best overall cleaning, deodorizing and disinfectant found that really works for our home is using LYSOL in the brown bottle. It costs around $6.00 and 3-4 capfuls in the shampooer's container does wonders on the carpet. I love it and my husband noticed a big difference too. You might want to try this out.
This is tough...when we brought a new dog into our house, we had to literally cover over any place where our (still living at the time) but older girl had peed in the past so our new fur baby would not be able to get to those places.
The house was a mess for several weeks with stuff (cluttering up spaces) but once he got acclimated and realized he was staying, he started to ignore those places.
He was fixed, which helped also.
As we were uncovering spaces to test him, we had a bottle of bitter apple or bitter cherry...I can't remember which, and if he would go to a space, we would give small spritz toward the spot (NEVER TOWARD HIM) and he would back off.
After a week of that, all he had to do was see the bottle and he would ignore the spot.
While all this was going on, he was being crate trained...which for an older dog may take longer, but it is still doable...so by controlling his potty times (good schedule and crate) and hiding the spaces, it all worked for us.
It did take several months....but now all these years later, he is the best boy ever! Good luck! Hope you and the pup can become a furever family!
the best I would say is get an enzymatic cleaner for area or something like the product Judy suggested earlier and take him on frequent walks and runs so that he no longer has the need to void so much. I know territory marking is not related to need to urinate but frequent exercise will provide a distraction and make him rise in confidence.
the most important is to rid the smell fo the other dog, though even if it means painting over
This lovable dog is just wanting to be sure he is "top dog" so anywhere a previous dog has been will be prime territory for making his marking. It does not matter whether it is from urine or just where the previous dog lay, the odor will be there.
You can use an enzyme cleaner to clean almost anything and these cleaners can be found at most stores that carry pet supplies but Petsmart has everything.
here are examples:
www.petsmart.com/
www.amazon.com/
You can also make your own.
www.wikihow.com/
I have asked the vet and pet store employees about this. Everything I try doesn't work! My 10 year old male Corgi is fixed. He is 100% healthy, well taken care of, and loved. He has always been a "marker", but why? I don't have the heart to put him in a cage while I am at work.
He has two other dogs in the house. He has a huge yard and is let out often. I've tried spray deterrents and belly bands. He just marks, he doesn't "pee" to pee. Any advice?
Since he shares the home with other animals, he wants to mark his territory.
If the pup has been doing this for 10 years this is all he knows. He thinks it is OK so he does it. I assume the vet periodically checks for kidney or bladder stones or urinary tract infections and he gets a clean bill of health?? I am answering based on the clean bill of health.
I am a firm believer pups can be retrained even at 10, but it involves a strict crate training regime.
There are lots of videos for this process for Corgis. They are smart pups. They can learn how to go outside and not inside with consistent and regular training. It must be consistent and it must be done by everyone in the home...following the same rules. It is heavily reward based so be sure to lower the food intake when giving all the extra treats or you will end up with a fat pup :)
There is no shame in using a crate. We have crate trained all of our families dogs for years and years and years.
If the crate is presented as a safe place and not a place for punishment, the dogs are often very happy there and since most (I can't say all because we had two who did pee their crates sometimes) but most do not pee where they sleep. Think of it is as their den. They channel their inner wolf when in their den.
Our guy goes in and out of his crate on his own. It is his safe space and he loves it, but that is how we approached it with him so that is all he knows.
If you don't want to go this route, you can try human diapers. He would probably wear a Walmart size 2 or 3 depending on his weight. Cut a hole for the tail area and go. Changing them frequently (with the human diapers it is very easy to see when they are wet and they don't leak). Dog diapers are a total waste of money (my experinece) and they always leaked. The belly bands are also not the best for the same reasons. The human diapers work.
Our late Carmel Ann had to wear diapers for age incontinence the last 2 years of her life. She had great quality of life and it saved our floors doing this.
Post back how it goes! Prayers to find a good solution.
PS, here is a photo of my girl in her diapie. She was 15 an we trained her for diapie time...she would waddle over, we would change the diaper and she would be off. Old dogs can learn!! She is living proof!!
Some dogs feel the need to mark their territory and this is a very bad habit to break. If there are other male dogs in the home this makes it even worse to control and break this habit. Basically when my male dogs were younger the oldest would mark around the home and this drove me crazy. Finally I mixed some water, bleach, and white vinegar in a spray bottle. Where ever he marked I would make sure I sprayed this area so his sent would be gone. Over time he stopped dong this but it took quite a bit of time to stop him. Other dogs will never stop even if they are fixed.
I have a 4 year old St. Bernard (Jackie) who has never once peed in the house since the day he was born. My daughter and son-in-law moved in with their 2 dogs, a 2-yr old small breed mix (Ozzy) and an 8 mo Doxie (Lemmy) in November. Her dogs came over all the time so they all got along just fine. They had a baby in February and all of a sudden Ozzy started acting out intentionally pissing on the baby's things. It is obviously a way of acting out as he was peeing only on the baby's things.
Then he started peeing on other things intentionally basically anything you set down near him. For instance, if I set a laundry basket down to gather clothes he will pee on it. If I take a project outside to work on it he will walk up and pee on it. He also pees on my Saint's dog bed. I wash it and no sooner than I set it down he pees on it. He has been doing this for a while. Ozzy also eats from everyone's bowl except his.
Jackie has a large food stand and doesn't mind the little ones cleaning up the floor of food, but recently Ozzy has been getting up on Jackie's food stand so Jackie will snap at him to get down. The last time Ozzy actually snapped back and all hell broke loose. Now suddenly my Saint has begun to pee around the house as well, but from what I can tell it's always in a place Ozzy has already peed so I can only assume he's marking.
I don't understand why this is all happening now when the changes were all made last year. They weren't even doing this when the Lemmy was being housebroken and still going in the house. It's all happen so much later and all 3 dogs are house broken and the baby is 6 months old. They all get along and play together just fine. So why is this happening now? And how do I stop it?
I think all of the changes, even if they were last year, have caused this behavior. You are going to have to re-train this dog. You might have to hire a trainer. I would also invest in a crate. Dogs quickly learn that if they want their freedom, they have to go outside to relieve themselves
What a sweet photo! Poor Jackie. It is hard to know what triggers things in those sweet little doggie brains.
Talk to your vet to make sure it isn't something medical first. Things like urinary tract infections, arthritis pain, and teeth/gum issues are just a few of the challenges that can cause behavior changes. We have lived this first hand and it turns a normally perfect pup into a crazy creature over night! Esp. the tooth issues.
Once you rule out something medical, see if your vet can recommend a reasonable and qualified trainer to help.
Be sure everyone in the house is there an onboard with the tips as you all need to keep giving Jackie a consistent message! Consistently is the key to retraining.
Good luck! Let us know how it goes! Prayers for all!! This can be stressful, but can be totally manageable once you know exactly what you are dealing with in the situation!
I second the opinion of seeing the vet pronto. Make sure it's not a health issue first. After that, it sounds like you may have some very anxious dogs that are not handling the changes well. A good obedience trainer can really help with this. Dogs feel better when they know what is expected of them. If they are not crate trained, that is probably your first step. Each one of them should have their own safe crate space that the other dogs are not allowed into. It's their territory where they can feel safe. Feeding them in their crates can decrease the possibility of food aggression that can make the anxiety problem worse.
You have gotten some good advice here. I would also suggest if they are not all neutered, be sure and do that. Even if just one is not neutered it can set the others off.
I have a 10 year old, neutered Lhasa Apso, indoor dog. He has no known health issues. He knows to go out and will ask and be rewarder when he goes outside.
The problem started over the last 2 years. The 1st year I blamed on a neutered cat who has now passed. The dog will walk up to the end of my couch where it touches the floor, a fan sitting on floor, the leg of a wood chair, the bottom stair post, etc, lift his leg and spray those and other items casually. I rarely see him do it, but a few times he had done in front of me, smiles, and acts as though he had just scratched himself.
He is taken out regularly and rewarded when he goes. He will let us know when he does need to go out, so he understands what to do. He will wake me up each night about 4 to 6 AM to go out. This behavior has only started about 2 or 3 years ago. I had been blaming one neutered cat who has now passed away, so I learned that it was not him. Once in a great while, he will do it right in front of me with a nonchalant look and then rub up against me as though what he did was OK. Help. How do I convince him not to mark my household items?
Your dog is getting older. Take him to the vet to make sure he has no incontinence issues.
Are you cleaning those areas and where the cat was very well? He could be smelling something that is making him mark his area. I had a vet tell me once that even mouse urine can make a dog want to spray.
I have a one-and-a-half-year-old Pit Bull that I found in my yard last Thanksgiving. I tried to find him a home, but nobody wanted him so I kept him. I love him very much, but do not love how he keeps marking in my house. I thought everything was fine until I used a blacklight and it is everywhere. My house is now starting to smell.
I clean all the time, but he is still marking.
I have tried a crate, but he is so scared he does not want to go get it. I know he is in need of training probably from a professional, but I do not have the money for that. He only does this when I am not here. I think he has separation anxiety. I am hoping somebody can help.Has he been fixed? Sometimes that helps. I would limit him to one room when you are not home, one without carpet. Take him out to go right before you leave.
Make sure you clean it with an enzyme cleaner like Nature's Miracle, which removes the smell. Otherwise he will keep going back to the same spot. Keep him on a strict feeding and walking schedule.
I have a male dog who is 6 years old. He has been fixed for years and I thought that would stop him from marking on the corners of my furniture. He still has not stopped. He's ruining my furniture and I keep having to clean them, only to find he marked the corners again. My husband wants me to get rid of him. He is very healthy the vet checked him. Please help.
By Margi from IN
I had a miniature poodle who did the same thing. I got diapers for him on ebay. It required padding, so I cut a sanitary pad in half and used that. It worked very well. I would just change the pad when he was wet. It also gave me a revenge type pleasure when I caught him lifting his leg on my furniture, as he was urinating on himself. Of course, I washed him up.
You should try changing whatever you are cleaning the furniture with! Dogs often "mark" things to cover smells they don't like!
I thought of a way to protect my furniture from my sometimes indiscreet boy dogs by using vinyl flannel backed tablecloths. I don't want to use anything that requires me to directly attach the ruffle to the furniture (Velcro, buttons, hook and eyes, etc.), so, I guess heavy duty elastic would probably work best. Could anyone walk me through the process?
By Anna V.
Our 2yr. old Pug started marking in the house when he sees a cat or sometimes people passing our door. He is a very friendly dog with animals and people, but when he has a door between him and them he barks then marks. What do I do? He is neutered and was doing really well, then. Is there a right way to show or tell them that they are not doing right?
By tutu 808 from Honolulu, HI
