good evening everyone i have a question & hope to recieve some positive feedback,i have a 16 month male rottie who has just begun the act of lifting his leg and urinating on various objects in the house ie(couches,shoes,tables & so on ) if there is anyone in the fourm who can assist with any positive feedback i would greatly appreicate it. thanks in advance.

He's still too young to have house freedom in my opinion. I would crate him or at least confine him in an ex-pen to prevent the problem. Also, unless you're planning to show him in breed, I'd have him neutered in order to lessen marking (once the hormones settled).

While neutering may help and I would alos recommend it - it's time to use a dog crate and treat him like a puppy again. Read the article I wrote on Ground Work http://leerburg.com/groundwork.htm This dog should not have 5 seconds of free time in the house. He should not be off leash in the house unless he is in the crate.

Seriously, would you feel the same if you turned 25 n they said "OK now we're gonna cut your nuts off"? I don't care what the "experts" say. All the statistics and percentages my vet gave me when he advised me to neuter my dog as a pup don't mean squat to me, to me these things are training issues. If you train your dog well and correct him for marking in the house he will learn, neutering him isn't a magical cure - especially after a dog has already learned a habbit, the habbit doesn't become unlearned with surgery. The worst humping dog culprites I've ever experienced were neutered dogs, and for some reason they stop distinguishing between males n females because I've seen many a neutered dog try to hump another male.

My dog is in 1 of 2 places at all times. Either in the same room I am in, or in his crate. The only exception is when he is in my bedroom (which is his home, it's where I am 90% of the time and it's where he lives and is 100% trustworthy) while I am in the shower or bathroom or go do something and don't want him following me. The only time he's untrustworthy in the bedroom is if I leave the house, as long as I stay home he's OK, if I leave the house for an hour I can come back to something being chewed up, like the cable remote. If you can't trust your dog to be alone he needs to be in a crate. My dog has been out of the crate at night since he was about 6 months old, there's been 2 incidents since then, he chewed up the corner of the carpet once, I woke up in the middle of the night the 2nd night he did it and immediately corrected him while he was still doing it, just a very firm CUJO NO! LEAVE IT!!! and he never touched it again, the other incident was him chewing the trim around the closet door frame - same thing, I corrected verbally when I woke up and heard it, he never did it again.... I also made sure he always had a beef or mammoth bone to chew on so he wasn't tempted to go and chew on other stuff. Chewing doesn't sound like your problem, and you can only correct for marking if you catch him doing it, so don't let him get into a situation where you can't catch him, then when you do, correct correct correct! Sending him to be neutered won't help, correcting an hour later won't help, and doing anything other than correcting won't have an impact on him, don't withhold his dinner, he won't associate his hunger with peeing on the couch. If he's not a very verbally controllable dog then make him wear a prong with a pull tab around the house (supervised only, don't want it to snag on anything, I've seen dogs develop a fear for their backyard fence because their prong got caught on it).

well thanks to all for the useful info as i will put it all to use

I have to disagree with you about neutering. I have a beautiful gsd that I had neutered because I was not planning on breeding him. What is the sense of keeping your dog as a intakt male if your not going to breed? My first female was not spayed because I didn't think the vet was correct about the information that was given to me. she died of ovary cancer at the age of ten. Granted that is not young for a shepherd anymore but if your not going to breed then why chance an "accident" happening? My personal opinion now is if your not going to breed then spay and neuter. There are enough "oops" puppies at the shelters and pounds put to sleep daily. It doesnt affect thier drive, my boy has no sexual hormones and is able to concentrate on his tracking skills much better without raging hormones. Another reason to neuter is because if the dog does mark the urine smell is not as strong as an intakt male. We also have a 6 year old pitbull guard dog that we had neutered last year because he took off for days due to females in heat, would come home to sleep and be gone again for days on end. Now he stays home, and is still a good guard dog he just doesnt leave our yard unattended for days on end. This is just my personal opinion like you have yours. To each his own but I have seen to many unwanted "oopses" end up put to sleep. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Marion, are you saying you leave your 6 yr. old pitbull "guard dog" outside unattended so it could "take off for days", to roam if it feels like it? If that's the case, you've likely got bigger problems to worry about than spay/neueter questions. You'll benefit from reading the articles on this site. If i see a stray, i consider it a dangerous dog. It's amazing to me that some people just don't get it, because it's their dog, AL

My dog is in one of 4 places at all times...

1. In his crate
2. In the same room I am in
3. In public on a leash
4. My front yard off leash

There's no opportunity for oops puppies, period. People needa watch their dogs more closely, I can't even begin to imagine the chaos my dog would cause if he was unsupervised off leash LOL making oops puppies would be the least of my concerns! He'd be off terrorizing the neighborhood cats n chasing after cyclists because I'm not there to tell him to leave it. I suspect that most people on this board are in similar situations where they can account for their dogs location 100% of the time.

I agree... to let the dog out of your site is asking for an incident!

Nuetered males will still "mark their territory". While it does lower the drives it does not eliminate them.

I agree with Ed... treat him like a puppy. Everytime you even see the thought of "marking" then you should give a firm NO and take him outside. Tell him "good outside" (or whatever your command is)if he doesn't do anything bring him back in and place him in the crate. Leave him for a while. This dog should not be left unattended or ignored while out of his crate.

It's your house... I know I wouldn't want to have a dog that pees in my house. Take the time now to control this or it will be harder later.

"The worst humping dog culprites I've ever experienced were neutered dogs, and for some reason they stop distinguishing between males n females because I've seen many a neutered dog try to hump another male."

Sounds like the dogs you are discribing are not sexually motivated humpers. Many dogs male and female will hump another dog or person because they are being dominant (or at least trying to be).

Jamie