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Scenting Indoors

Kelly

Well-known member
Over the last few days, Chester (who I thought was completely housetrained!!) has started to cock his leg around the house.

I have told him "no" when I see him & have put him straight outside but yesterday I wasnt quick enough & he actually sprayed on the footstool. Also, this morning, he was in the spare room & sprayed on the corner of the bed.

Why would he suddenly start doing this?

How should I be handling the situation?
 
How old is Chester? Presumably if he is cocking his leg he is not a puppy any more.

You've got to make sure to clean, really well the areas that he is cocking his leg on. Wash first with an enzymatic cleanser. Some of the soap powders contain enzymes. Then to play it safe you could spray with some of the dog-off products from the pet shops. These products alone don't work, in my humble opinion, as they only mask the smell, so it is really important to use the enzymatic cleaner first.

Then I'd be restricting Chester to just one room & keeping him in your eye on him. During this time, you might like to put a belly band on him. It is terribly unsatisfying to cock your leg to mark, and then find that all you did was to pee in your own pants. :D

Our adopted Sonny went through a phase of marking when we first got him & the belly band was a life saver.

Just as a thought.... is he a bit stressed out over anything at the moment. Has anything changed in his routine, your routine? Sonny still will occasionally cock if the household routine gets thrown into chaos.... eg visitors with roudy children come to visit etc.
 
Is chester at an age where he can be neutered ?
I think this is also a solution and I second everything Caraline said.
 
Thanks for your comments.

We are keeping a very close eye on him & he didnt attempt it last night. He has only done it a couple of times but I dont want it to become a habit for him.

Our routine hasnt changed & as far as I am aware nothing has happened to stress him out. Could it just be that he is growing up now & the hormones are all kicking into place?

I was hoping to not have to get him neutured until he was a year old but have just spoken to the Vets & on their advice have booked him in for 2 weeks time. He will be 9 months then. I think it is probably about the right time for him - and it will save his favorite bear from a humping every evening! ;o)
 
Kelly, given his age, it is likely that his boy hormones have cut in and he is trying his hand..... er leg, at marking.

Our 2 1/2 year old Sonny is intact and must remain so because he has been used as stud by his breeders in the past & they have reserved the right to use him again in the future. We signed a contract agreeing to this.

Other than the first week or so that we had Sonny, we haven't had any problems with him marking inside the house. The first week we had him we kept his belly band on whenever he was inside the house. He had a few isolated incidents after that but now he is a very clean boy. He is every bit as clean & nice as our neutered Sam.

Having said that, when we take him visiting to other people's house, we always put his belly band on him. It has always been dry when I have taken it off him, but I just think it is the courteous thing to do as I would be mortified if he cocked his leg inside someone else's house. He is a funny little thing. He gets all excited & happy when I get his belly band out. I have no idea why. Maybe his breeders who had him until 4 months ago, used to put it on him when he was allowed inside the house, so he associates it with inside, up on the couch getting cuddles.
 
i also agree with everything caraline has said. we went through this with indy when he was 9-10 months old and still intact. he began marking curtains and his particular favorite was clothes drying in the house :( . unfortunately we actually had to start from scratch with the housetraining, but now he's perfect. the belly band is a great idea, but i think that neutering will solve your problems as well because indy hasn't even dreamt of marking since he was neutered a month ago.

good luck and just make sure that you have used something like nature's miracle or even a little bit of non-bio detergent mixed with water to clean up where chester has marked so that leftover traces won't send him confusing messages.

k
 
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