Question:

I have an 8 month old yellow Lab. I had him neutered a month ago but he is still marking in house and all over the yard. How do I keep him from peeing in the house? I have tried everything my vet suggested but I am starting to get frustrated by all this peeing inside

ANSWER:

Your pup has two things going on – the residual hormones can take up to three months to leave the body entirely and learned behavior.

In time, the hormone issue will take care of itself so not much can be done there.

Since he was neutered a little late, he hit puberty enough to learn to lift his leg and to mark his territory. Early neutering is effective in negating these behaviors and it is perfectly safe. In fact, early spay and neutering is actually safer in many ways – lowered risk of prostrate cancer, slows growth allowing bones and joints to develop correctly and the dogs actually grow bigger in comparison to their unaltered litter mates. Most vets are still old school and want to wait until the dog has reached puberty before they are ‘fixed’. However, the practice has successfully been used for over twenty years now in progressive pet adoption centers to control the animal over-population and in that time no negative side effects have been reported.

Too late for your pup but hopefully others read this message and talk to their vet about the benefits of the early spay and neuter program.

Okay, off my soapbox.

Learned behavior is a little more difficult as you need to actively train him to un-learn the behavior. There are a couple of methodologies you can use – both negative and positive reinforcement. Negative is the idea of teaching him that his actions are bad – easy stuff. You do have to catch him in the act so when you cannot monitor his behavior, keep him in a crate or a contained area. When you are able to monitor his behavior, carry a spray bottle with you and every time he goes to cock his leg on the furniture, give him a good sharp spray with a stern ’no!’. If the spray bottle has no effect on him, then keep him on a leash and give a sharp correction with the same stern ‘no!’. When out for a walk, keep him on lead and teach him what is appropriate to pee on and what is not. A tree – fine, a bush – fine, a fire hydrant – fine, a fence – not fine, a walkway – not fine, someone’s tire – definitely not fine. Give him a correction and the same sharp ‘no!’. He will learn soon enough.

Positive reinforcement is just as important as negative to keep things balanced and his spirits up. Whenever he pees in an appropriate place, give him the same enthusiastic ‘good boy’ you would have when he was a pup and learning not to pee in the house. Lot’s of praise and excited ‘good boys’! You are lucky that he is a Lab as he wants to please you so he will pick up on the new rules very quickly.

Have fun with him though as anytime you use negative reinforcement it is important to give equal or more praise as dogs can actually get overwhelmed when they are told ‘no’ all the time. Keep it happy and fun!

Enjoy your boy and next time try neutering your pup at four or five months so this problem is never an issue!