How to train a dog to stop marking territory

Marking is rarely urination related. It's primarily a territory-related dominance behaviour.

If he's started marking, neutering's already a bit late, according to 'the experts'. Dogs who've started marking may decrease the behaviour after neutering, but don't necessarily stop completely.

I'd recommend buying one of the books by Dr. Stanley Coren that covers effective dog training.

In the meantime

http://www.sspca.org/TerritorialMarking.html

Crap. Basically what I expected, and there's little I can do to stop him.

It may have been triggered by weekly visits to the part that we started, but those started around the same time the testicles dropped but it could be coincidence.

The neighbors have a bunch of poodles that bark like crazy and cry very loudly and they often run around the neighborhood so if they are triggering it I can do little other than keep hating my neighbors irresponsibility with their dogs.

I can have him neutered, but that sounds like the only thing I can do to make a difference. I'm doing almost everything else but he's still marking several times a day now (always vertical spots so it's clear marking).

You might try mixing some water, and ammonia in a spray bottle then adjust the spray so it is a stream rather than a spray.

Give him a spray in the face with it when you catch him doing it. I used that method with my male cat and he soon figured out that marking his territory made him sneeze his head off and he stopped doing it.

rubber bands work wonders I bet

Discipline isn't a particularly useful tool when working with dogs and territory marking.

Nobody has caught him doing it. Plus he already knows we don't like it, because as soon as we notice the urine he hides.

I'm dying to catch him in the act but that doesn't seem likely enough to happen with enough frequency to teach him anything about it other than that we are mad at him.

Pacco, neutered, marked something like once a year... the white tablecloth in the front room of our studio gallery when another dog he wasn't already pals with came in the place, luckily a rarish occurrence. Just anecdote, I know, and I've no idea if he was neutered prior to any marking behavior as I got him as an oldie.

What I was most interested in was the effect of neutering on the urine marking. From the link ehBeth posted it seems like it's helps but the earlier the better.

I'm going to have to schedule a visit to the vet soon.... poor bastard's losing his balls right quick!

That seems right..

Sometimes it's just hard to accept that your little boy's become a man.

Sorry, that needs an emoticon.



:wink:

If the dog associates his spraying with your displeasure, crank up the displeasure.

Get a rolled up newspaper and whack the wall and scold the wall and make it clear that those proud markings are not welcome to the Alpha Male of the house.

Don't hit the sinner--loudly disapprove of the sin.

Also take him for la operation, pronto.

we used the small can with about 20 pennies inside. If you catch himmarking, throw the can beside him to starle him and then say his name an say come. Dont say NO! because youll just add that to a vocabulary of confusing terms.

If he sprayed and area,clean it thoroughly and overlay that with some pepper oil.

I finally caught him. He was doing it on the side of the toilet with the cat watching and egging him on. I was able to scold him as well as redeem my honor from false accusations that the puddles around the toilet were due to faulty aim on my part.

A bald lie, I can put out an eye at 200 feet! Anywho, the behavior has become more infrequent and he's only done it once since.

RG--

Obviously, you're the Alpha Male in your house.

I hesitate to write about the things my aunt did..
The cheese slid off her cracker a while ago.. but the things she does do, bring out great results.


She had.. well still has, aSpitz. She bought him as a puppy and waited too long to get him spayed only to watch him mark in her house and outside as well.
The outside marking was not the issue, it was the inside marking ( Of course ) that was not ok.

SHe called Charles ( her son/ my cousin) over for a few days once and they had a discussion about what to do. My cousins idea was the rolled up paper. Charles has always been seen by that dog as sort of an 'alpha'. His behavior is always different with him even though he didnt live in the house with my aunt ( he is 30 )

Knowing this, his idea was to urinate on TOP of the dogs markings and see what happens.
He did it in the yard to test it and sure enough.. the dog would not mark there anymore. He sniffed the area, then went to anotehr popular marking spot and marked there. Apparently, the dog did this in confusion quite a few times. But he did not mark on top of that one spot again.

My aunt had a problem with him digging in her plants. She set aside 1/3 of the yard just for doggie digging, but he would sometimes get carried away and dig more elsewhere.
So, Charles peed all along the border of her plants. For the remaining 2 years she was there, that dog did not dig in her plants anymore.
So, she got the dog fixed, AND had Charles just wipe a little urine on the common marking spots in the house.

He stopped. Period.


Eh.. not my first choice, sort of Hillbilly-ish you ask me, but it worked..

That is so funny! I have to tell my husband. Just don't think he'll want to pee up the side of our bed. I am so livid - just spent a fortune on new bed linen, and my neutered retriever peed up the side of the bed IN FRONT OF ME!! I flipped a **** and he cared not a bit. To prevent myself from taking him to the vet for immediate euthenasia, I tried googling some research. Thanks for the laugh - I am no longer pissed off. Would still like to find a less drastic solution though.

Your husband is definately in need of counciling. Right NOW!

It's good to see this thread reinvigorated - welcome to a2k, Nurse Gore.

I am dealing with this same issue... tried the "fix" of getting him fixed. Doing research and found a belly band to stop the stream- claims works. Any one hear of this? Also, locking him away from areas and feeding him on that same spot. Read to re-train the "sit" command to give him a job at every movement; entering house, exiting house, food time, walk time, always a job to sit might get rid of the job to mark. New things in our house are getting marked. Read that when walking- everyday w/o fail to control the boredom- walk them in away from bushes; don' t allow marking at any point. using the No command when they are beginning to lift the leg even outside. Just because they are male doesn't mean they need to tell everyone. My dog is 2 years and 1 year w/ us, so fixing what others did to him. - good luck