Marking?

Cooper,7mts,seems to be marking almost everywhere in the house! He even does it in his bed,yuck! I was worried he had a urinary infection so I tested his urine,thankfully it was clear. He smells because of it so I'm washing him loads more,could do without the extra work lol! Does anyone know if neutering stops this? I am planning to neuter him asap but to be honest every time i plan it something happens Bella and i cant cope with 2 of them in recovery at the same time,(and my purse is empty)! Just worried now that if I leave it much longer I will have to break learned habits. Anyone enlighten me on this?

Elvis was neutered at 1 1/2 years he only started marking about 2 months before that and stopped straight away well inside the house anyway he will pee on anything outside!

We had a foster Charlie who was 5 and not neutered marked everything his bed and elvis bed too. Spent so much time washing everything everyday. When he got neutered he continued marking but not quite as much as before I think it was more habit than anything else

Hope this helps

Well, a couple of thoughts: at that age he is still a puppy and would be on the young and unreliable side still to be considered completely housetrained. And if he is marking, he definitely isn't fully housetrained yet. This is primarily a training issue managed as part of housetraining, so you need to stop giving him the freedom of movement and access around the house that enables him to mark like this and go back to the basics of housetraining. That may mean a combination of crating, tethering him to you inside, keeping him at arm's reach, and not allowing him access to more than a single room and only other rooms when you are there.

On the smelliness: that is what unneutered males' urine smells like -- he is exactly the age at which 1) males start to mark and 2) their urine is flooded with testosterone and gets very smelly. Neutering reduces the smell. It will likely stop marking but yes, the habit gets more ingrained and it doesn't always stop if he has had the chance to start. But again -- as males this age start lifting their leg anyway, it is hard to tell you whether this is marking or housetraining or a mix of both.

It probably doesn't matter one way or another if you wait a few weeks or months -- I waited til my males were around 10 months. Neither mark inside and don;t excessively mark outside either.

Neutering males is much cheaper than spaying females and they recover quickly -- generally it isn't really a big deal. Why not chat to your vet? In the meantime I'd work on the training as he isn;t likely to just stop doing this in the house if you neuter him -- there's definitely going to need to be some positively reinforced training. You can follow Ian Dunbar's directions on www.dogstardaily.com,

I agree with Karlin, treat this like housetraining and go back to restricting his access to areas of the house unsupervised, just like you would an 8 week old puppy.

I managed to stop Pippin marking in the house pretty quickly just treating it like housetraining. Outside he still marks a bit (though so does Maddie!) - I had him neutered at 18 months old.

A friend of ours had a pup dog who got very smelly around 8 mths old as he would pee on the feathering of his front legs, but he didn't mark indoors. When he was neutered at 11mths he stopped smelling and stopped peeing on himself!!cl*pcl*p So was well worth doing.

Many people successfully raise in tact male dogs. Their urge to mark is natural, but can be trained to only be performed outside. Neutering will help reduce the hormones causing his urges, but the longer you wait yes habit will also set in and he may continue to lift his leg. It really is hard to say!

Most of all I would say to work on training, and keep in mind the use of belly bands for males. They would really help you out during training to cut down on the smell and manage until the time is right for you to neuter him.

Thanks everyone,back to basics for me so!

And he's booked in for "the snip" on thursday! Poor Cooper : (

update
Well Cooper is 8 days post "snip" and had an entropin fixed on his eye,stitches came out today and I'm pleased to say there's been no marking since he was neutered. He HATED the buster collar,cruel to be kind and all of that,so he's over the moon today and ready to take on the world!!

That is wonderful news.........and I am sure you're glad for less washing !

Cindy and Claire