marking and neutering. your experience?

[new_2_newf]

my dog also likes to piss into the wind. seriously. he'll lift his leg right up there, piss into the wind and have this goofy look on his face. it's kills me because it's hilarious, but also gross as the pee is quite surely getting all over him.

 

[KodysGrandma]

Good grief Thunder is 8, sometimes he lifts, sometimes he squats. I never gave it a moment's thought either way, lots of our other dogs have been like that too. He walks in the woods almost every day. Some days he seems to try and mark every tree, other's maybe twice in a mile. As long as he CAN I sure don't worry about how much or where as long as it's outside.

 

[Pipelineozzy]

Try to think of it as ...peemail.

 

[Bojie]

When carting does not mark. Will have to teach him not to during waterwork.

Leska- I had to teach both my boys not to mark while water training. The key is (if you go to the same places to train) to make it the same routine every time. It doesn't matter if they just went at home, I take them across the street from the beach and use my key words for eliminating since they go on command. They have to urinate EVERY time before swimming. During training, we take turns with the other Newfs so they go in their crate or car while waiting to go into the water. Even if just 10 min go by, I will still walk them over and make them urinate and have a bowel movement on command prior to letting them go back in the water. Now, Boj and Riggs both know it's "the routine" and what allows them to get into the water, so Boj wind sprints over across the street to "poop alley" as I call it, does his business, and then wind sprints back to the beach so he can get in the water. I don't even have to ask anymore. A few times doing this will teach Orka what's expected. He's a smart cookie

 

[Pipelineozzy]

Good grief Thunder is 8, sometimes he lifts, sometimes he squats. I never gave it a moment's thought either way, lots of our other dogs have been like that too. He walks in the woods almost every day. Some days he seems to try and mark every tree, other's maybe twice in a mile. As long as he CAN I sure don't worry about how much or where as long as it's outside.

It may depend what else has "walked" around there and left a prior scent. Although I think with my males, it's just a matter of how energetic they happen to be feeling that day.

 

[ardeagold]

Calvin and Hobbes are 25 months and don't lift their legs yet what does that mean?????

Probably nothing, but I have a male that is 9 yrs old that still doesn't lift his leg. And one who does it sometimes. I have noticed, however, they're lower on the "totem pole" than the ones that do. In fact...the one that never lifts his leg is as LOW as a dog could go in the pack. He's the Omega of the group. Always has been even with pack changes over the years.

I have girls that lift their legs too....and they're the Alpha girls. So it might mean something according to the pack order...or it might not. They may just be lazy. :lol:

And yes..humping is a recreational sport around here. Means absolutely nothing except they're "excited" (not necessarily sexually either) about something. Play time is like a "conga line" (as Sandra Nicholson...Blacknewfs so aptly put it one time). LOL

You'll often notice people who immediately shreik "humping is dominance, don't let them do it", but I've never found that to be a constant or a hard fact, and we've had multiple dogs at one time for decades. I don't let them hump humans...since it's NOT acceptable in our society, and I don't like it, but if they want to hump one another, and the humpee doesn't care...I don't care. If they do care, they'll let the humper know, clearly.

When we're out...I don't let them hump a strange dog, because I don't want a fight to start between dogs, or me and the owner. Plus it just "looks" bad...ya know? LOL

So there are some things that they're free to do at some times, but in certain situations, I let them know it's unacceptable behavior. They can learn the difference.

 

[Cascadians]

Orka has bullseye precision and is very eager to become a stud. Probably the uppermost desire in his life. Poor guy. He likes to kick bark dust the most, behind him as far as possible, and growl at whatever plant he just peed on, lift his head and then howl for good measure. A grand ritual.

Yes sometimes if the wind is just so he's covered in urine spray, but thankfully he swims almost every day and that takes care of that.

He watches the cats groom themselves all day, and preen, and they groom him, and he has taken to doing the same, keeps his coat nice, and I work on him every day, so the pee smell never lasts for long and has never gotten on anything in the house.

The cats seem to think marking is also a big deal, even though they are neutered and do not spray. But all 3 furkids consider pottying a form of identity assertion, messaging and an art form. And when I go into the bathroom to pee, Barbossa runs and leaps into the giant litter box and pees; Pyrate leaps into the sink and pees, and Orka wedges himself all the way in the bathroom and supervises, nose twitching madly. So here it's a community affair. I tried closing the bathroom door and Orka throws himself against it and barks and the cats hurl themselves at it and meow. So group activity it is, door open. Fortunately nobody ever comes here.

I'd take a video but would get arrested.

 

[Pipelineozzy]

With three intact males, and the girls cycling...ALL of them will try to pee higher and harder than the last one...lol..So my poor stone wishing well thing in the front yard will have yellow snow every winter when the girls cycle. Apparently that's the favorite place for the "pissing contest" entries. It's the first place they run...knowing they will have messages lol.

 

[Cascadians]

Megan, Orka's never eliminated in the water. He refuses to go into the water until after he's pooped on his walkie. So before water training I take him on at least a 2 mile walk. This thread is about peeing but I have to say Orka sometimes poops 9 freaking times on a walk! Lynn and I started counting because we couldn't believe it. And he doesn't pee or poop in his own yard much -- he deliberately saves it to send his messages.

I routinely carried 5 poop bags when I went out with him for 1 walk, but now 10, just in case he's prolific. He's on a raw meaty bones diet so his poop is compact but still, he can deposit many heaping piles and does so strategically. Fortunately he poops quite a ways off trail.

Anyway I will follow your lead and have him "Pee!" at the same area away from everything, and also help other Newf owners take their dogs to eliminate away from the water.

For those of you not yet being inducted into NCA group practices: In a trial any elimination is automatic disqualification. So that's why we are officially obsessed over this (sorry my terminology is not exact or correct).

 

[KodysGrandma]

You're right Cindy, I too think it's depends on what went by in the woods since the last time they were there. Once in a while we know it's another dog because we find the evidence on the path. Mine never poop on the path, it's all off in the woods somewhere. Other than dogs, deer, possum, squirrels and rabbits are about the possibiity- oh yeh, tonce in a great while cat. When our Little Wolf goes with us he has to pee every 25' unless I keep prodding him onward.

 

[Bojie]

Megan, Orka's never eliminated in the water. He refuses to go into the water until after he's pooped on his walkie. So before water training I take him on at least a 2 mile walk. This thread is about peeing but I have to say Orka sometimes poops 9 freaking times on a walk! Lynn and I started counting because we couldn't believe it. And he doesn't pee or poop in his own yard much -- he deliberately saves it to send his messages.

I routinely carried 5 poop bags when I went out with him for 1 walk, but now 10, just in case he's prolific. He's on a raw meaty bones diet so his poop is compact but still, he can deposit many heaping piles and does so strategically. Fortunately he poops quite a ways off trail.

Anyway I will follow your lead and have him "Pee!" at the same area away from everything, and also help other Newf owners take their dogs to eliminate away from the water.

For those of you not yet being inducted into NCA group practices: In a trial any elimination is automatic disqualification. So that's why we are officially obsessed over this (sorry my terminology is not exact or correct).

That's what I was referring to, peeing. Or marking at the beach. My guys don't go in the water either, but the difficult part is not letting them mark where others have been ON the beach. The extra poop across the street is just an added bonus for me It's the urinating I want to avoid on the beach, otherwise it screws EVERYONE up. This is a routine our entire training group uses.

You can also do a bleach heavily diluted with water spray on the beach prior to getting the dogs on it so that the area is scent free. We have to do that prior to test days because the fisherman go craw fishing and pieces of fish and meat are all over the place sometimes.

 

[NessaM]

We neutered Nanook at 12 months right after he started with the marking behavior. It stopped post-neutering.

 

[Bojie]

We neutered Nanook at 12 months right after he started with the marking behavior. It stopped post-neutering.

IS THIS A GHOST OF VANESSAS PAST!?!?! YOU'RE BACK!!!!!!!! I can't believe it's not butter!

 

[Cascadians]

Megan thank you! You have been SO helpful about all things training and test related. If not for you I would have helplessly floundered and flunked everything. Instead we're hanging on by the skin of our teeth Nice to see the 2 starlit divas post right next to each other, just like the good old days.

Even though it's off-topic, must proclaim with a glad shout: WATER SEASON STARTS THIS WEEKEND, WWWHOOOOOHOOOOOOO!

 

[Popcorn]

My girls are big markers (on walks). It seems like a job for them. I don't care except it means every walk through town takes ages between the sniffing and the marking.

But I've never had to deal w/people or inappropriate object marking! I can see how that would be really annoying!!!

GL ~ it's an adventure!

 

[Pipelineozzy]

It's one of those "normals" for dogs, Popcorn. IF you don't allow the unacceptable parts, it's not an issue...and they LOVE to be able to get out and about and do those "important" jobs lol. My girls actually only peemail when they are getting close to cycling..in their case, it's a calling card to let the males know what's going on.
It also gives me a clue who is getting ready to cycle...which is nice.

 

[Tricia2]

Anyone care to take on the issues of re-educationg a 4 year old feral bitch who walked into my home 3 weeks ago and pee'd on every soft surface she could get to, including my bed? It's about as primal a behavior as you'll see. Now to redirect, and try to get training to supercede instinct. There is a small window of opportunity to correct versus getting total shutdown, where no learning occurs, and hope for turning this girl around.

 

[Pipelineozzy]

If anyone can figure it out, you will be the one to do it

 

[Tricia2]

And no alpha rolls will get her to where she needs to be. My girls are doing a great job of enforcing the dog rules, you can't duplicate the power of canine-to-canine body language 101. But the peeing needs to be looked at as both a dog-version of passing out a business card and time/space appropriate behavior and then modified.

 

[blaue_augen]

Suki will sometimes mark on walks, which surpassed me since she's a girl. She doesn't do it much, but on the trail if an adjacent house's dog is barking she'll sometimes pee, even if she's has just gone a little down the trail.

Our trainer's take on neutering is that it should be done as close to when you start seeing the behavior that those hormones are causing. She's found that if you wait long after the behavior started, the neutering does less to curb it. As if once the behavior becomes ingrained in them, spaying neutering won't alleviate it. But also, knowing how much of the behavior is caused by hormones vs. that's just who they are sounds difficult to me. Our trainer did talk about giant breeds and not spaying/neutering early. I didn't want you guys to think she advocates spaying early for our lovely newfs and other giants.

Marking people's dogs, bags, children ... that's mortifying! My first dog (non-newf) marked me once. YUCK!