I'm Mortified!!

[junip1977]

My little Max lifted his leg on my curtains!!!    Shame on him, he has better manners than that, or so I thought.  It seems these pups are regressing in their potty training.  They are 6 months old now and seem to thinkt they can just pee anywhere.  The strange thing is we ALWAYS take them out and they pee and poo before letting them run around the house, so what gives?  Urgh!!

[ellietoo]

Has he been neutered yet? Lifting the leg is generally a sign of sexual maturity. It's best to get him neutered before the leg lifting starts. Pups do regress at times though. Gracie did at age 15 months. Shame on her. No not really. Who knows what was going on in her little mind but I just had to start paying more attention to what she was doing and taking her out a little more often. She was drinking a lot more due to the weather but I'm not sure that was the total problem. She is back to normal now though. I started giving her treats and giving her lots of praise for going in the right place. She seemed so happy to get the extra praise and went right back to being very good again.

[raleysmom]

I would be upset too!  I was going to ask if he had been neutered but someone beat me to it!  I had Raley neutered at 7 months and he was not lifting his leg to pee then and 22 months he still squats to pee.  Hopefully he will not do it again.  I know it can be frustrating!!  Good luck!

**I had a male shorkie that came to me to be groomed.  He was almost 6 months old and marked all over everything he could find...he is now 18 months old and still intact! I assume he marks at home these days too.

[Mai Tai]

Mai Tai was neutered early, at 5 months because he started marking everything at 4 months old.   The vet said that was early, but it happens.  After surgery, he still lifts his leg to pee, but does not mark territory in the house at all.  He does do a lot of it outside though, which is just fine with me.  Mo also marked a lot until he was neutered.  Unfortunately, due to his very small size, we could not neuter him until he was a year old.  It was a pain.  He kept lifting his leg on my wall in a hallway downstairs. 

[ellietoo]

We had a Yellow Lab years ago and did not get him neutered until he was a year old. He used to love to get loose and wander around the neighborhood just sniffing. He was never a marker. Once in a while when we would take him for a walk he would find a tree or a telephone pole that he would lift his leg on. I know some males mature slower than others. I have also heard that it takes a while for the hormones in the male's body to go away after they are neutered. So I guess there is hope that they may stop. Usually marking is a territorial thing. If they know the house is their territory they usually won't mark. Outside they smell other animals scent and it causes them to want to mark their territory. My male Shih Tzu was not neutered until he was much older but never lifted his leg but I guess it was because he had hip displasia.

[junip1977]

Yes, they both have been fixed a month ago.  It isn't so much marking that they are doing, rather they just decide to pee where ever they happen to be at that moment.  They know to go outside cause Max will abrk when he has to go.  They go outside and do their business then come inside play for like 5 minutes and they both pee again.  UGH!!!

[KateB]

Oh no! Thats terrible!! Charlie had a bit of a relapse, I think it was at 6 months old or so, we had to start praising him again when he would do outside. We also take him out on a leash now because we find he will get distracted and he would sometimes pretend to squat and pee just so he can enjoy his time outside then come inside and go on the floor!
We had a pretty funny accident happen last week, at PetSmart my boyfriend and I were standing in the toy aisle discussing which toy we would get and Charlie was there sniffing around like usual when I suddenly looked down to find him lifting his leg, peeing on the shelf!! I almost died! Luckily the store wasn't busy and he didn't manage to actually get any on the shelf just a puddle on the floor, which I quickly cleaned up with their spray and wipes. It was pretty funny though.

[Mai Tai]

My dogs always lift their legs in Pet Smart.  I think almost all dogs do because of all the smells of other dogs there.  It is embarrasing, but they expect it, I think, which is why they have all those clean up stations there.  When I go to PetSmart, I try to get the dogs to pee as much as possible outside, but they still try to go inside.  I have to really keep a good eye on them there.

[ellietoo]

That's true. If a dog is lifting it's leg when it does not really have to go then it is marking it's territory. I noticed our male used to do it when we went to the vet also. Not inside but outside where other dogs had gone. Can't imagine why a house trained dog would be doing it in his own house. As I said Gracie has backslidden in her pottying and we just had to go back to regular house training for a while. It's not uncommon for a young dog to lose it's training temporarily. I don't know about marking.

[Mai Tai]

They will mark inside their own house if another dog lives there and they are in competition with each other.

[junip1977]

Thanks guys...we will try to praise him again for awhile, he always seemed to respond well to that!!  We also have to take them out on a leash to potty cause they get distracted too.  Sometimes we even have to take them out one at a time.  If we take them both, they will hunch down across from each other, stare each other down, then run and pounce on one another...meanwhile I am getting eaten alive by mosquitos waiting for them to stop playing and do their business.  LOL 

[Mai Tai]

Good luck Juni.  I know it was a long while before I could walk Mai Tai and MO together because they always wrestled, played, nipped etc, and I would get tripped up in the leashes.  Mo was about 8 months old before I could successfully take nice long walks with the two of them. 

[ellietoo]

When I was training my little shih tzu puppy years ago I had to take him out to one area and say "go pee" over and over and once he did it I took him right in. If I didn't do that he would think we were out there to play. So when training I guess you have to be really specific about what the purpose of the visit outside is.

[Ann]

I must be very lucky with Toby as he has never marked his territory in the house. When he goes for his walks he makes up for it has to got to every post and tree in the street. LOL

[teddybear]

        My 2 year old shorkie, Teddy, always used to pee on the same rug over and over again. He was doing that until he was about a little over 1 year old. The rug is green and shaggy, and has a strong resemblance to grass, so we thought that could be the problem. Also, he was just marking his territory.
        This marking of his territory was partly caused by our 2 cats (7 and 4 years old) who are constantly teasing him. So, I am assuming that with time the marking territory thing will go away and your curtains will be fine.
        A funny thing is...my dog never lifts his leg when he pees! Anybody else's male shorkies like this, or is it just my little guy?