Hi everybody. My daughter has an entire male miniature poodle who stays with us a lot whilst she's at work and training. I have an all bitch household (not me included of course ;) ) but all my bitches, apart from our youngest one, are spayed. The youngest is only 5 months old at present. My daughter's poodle is 8 months old, and keeps peeing up my dogs legs, mainly when they are peeing, but sometimes when they're just standing out in the garden. There are plenty of other things that he can pee up, but chooses my girls legs, which I'm not best pleased about. I have to keep bathing their legs, and being mainly large breeds, it's hard going, and most of all, it not fair to them to have to keep being pee'd up, and bathed. My daughter said she will get him neutered soon, but will that make a difference to this? It's driving me mad. He can be dirty indoors too, and is so quick and sneaky (normally leaves a turd under the table when you're not watching). He never used to do this. This started around two months ago. Is it hormones? Will neutering stop him peeing up my girls legs? Never had a dog do this. My daughter has another male, large breed and the poodle doesn't pee up the other male's leg, just my bitches. I would be grateful for any advice please. Thank you.

At 8 months he is too young to neuter (should be well over a year old) & it will not necessarily stop him. I would suggest, to stop him from peeing up your bitches, to let him out separately to them, assuming you mean when they are all out in the garden.

Yes I did wonder if he might be too young, and I was sceptical that it'd stop this anyway. I've tried letting them out separately, but he just won't go if he's let out on his own, or with the other male. He just sits at the back door and screams to be let in. He'll go on his own or with the other male if my daughter is here, but won't go if she's not here. He still toilets under the table when she's here, but is so quick, we don't see him do it, but he's the only tiny one with tiny poo's so we know it's him. Do you think it's a protest?

Just thought I'd add, that I've also tried staying out there with him, but he just sits at your feet. Don't know if he needs to see a behaviourist or not. Maybe I'm just not tuned in to poodles. I treat him the same as mine, and her other male, which are large and medium breeds, but I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong here :/

Never had this with any of mine, but I would go back to basics, could well be his hormones given his age. Take him out alone on lead & treat/praise when he performs adding a command.  I would take him out after your girls so he has something to pee over

You might be out with him for a while, my oldest is getting forgetful & goes out & forgets what he is out there for, however as he was trained as a puppy to go pee on command as long as I remind him he does pee.

> He just sits at the back door and screams to be let in.

Don't give in, he has to go & dogs will normally go much better(anywhere even when you think they have had plenty of wees) than bitches.

Yes, that makes sense. He was trained to go on command as a pup, and was so good before, but seems to have reverted back. My daughter is away from him slightly more than she was before, but only by an extra hour 5 times a week, so wasn't sure whether the pooing indoors was a protest, but wasn't sure about the peeing on my girls legs, and wondered partly if it was hormones, but just wasn't sure if neutering would make much difference. Yes I'll try him out there on the lead. Mind you, he's not keen on the lead either but walks off lead perfectly to heel, and won't leave your side, unless my girls are there, then he's distracted If he protests to the lead however, I'll just have to sit out there with him and enjoy this lovely sunshiney spring weather, we're having armed with a handful of sausages, for when he does finally give in and go.

My boy use to pee up his mother's leg or back when she was having a wee. Scent marking over where she had been but too impatient to wait for her to finish. To get him to cut it out I had to go out there with them when I let them out to pee so I could tell him to leave it When he was thinking about doing it and praising him when he did wait.

Thank you all Guess I've been lucky with all my girls regarding toileting x

Oh ok. I've tried telling him to leave it, but I think I'm a bit slow on getting in early, so by the time I've said no, or leave it, he's already started peeing. He's a speedy little wotsitsname lol. Too quick for me sometimes. I'm used to my mostly slow to do anything dogs, apart from one of my med breeds, who is hyper, but fairly predictable when she's going to go, because she spins round in circles numerous times before she goes

I would just put him on a lightweight puppy house line when you take him out with the girls.  Just don't give him enough leash to reach one of them.

> would just put him on a lightweight puppy house line when you take him out with the girls.  Just don't give him enough leash to reach one of them.

Agree treat him as a puppy that needs housetraining.  Take him out on lead regularly after the girls have had a chance to pee.

Take him out after a sleep, or any excitement and every couple of hours, especially around the times he dirties indoors, if you can find a pattern.

At 8 months he is only around 3 months past full voluntary bladder control, so could be he has sliped backwards with housetraining, not uncommon in small breeds.

Dogs don't poo in protest.  More likely stress, or simply habit, for that one.

I'd have him on a lead too, so he cannot get to the girls to pee.  I've had males do it before and it started as marking - peeing where they peed - they were just too impatient to wait until the girls were finished!  So I hovered and shood them off until the girls had moved away.  As he's so fast though, keeping him on lead would be a better solution I think.  I'd still let him pee over their pee, just make sure he waits til they're done and hopefully he'll realise.

> so wasn't sure whether the pooing indoors was a protest,

Dogs don't poo in protest.

I'm sorry, when I said protest, I didn't mean protest as in to spite, I meant upset (stressed) that my daughter was away for longer. He is very attached to her. Wrong choice of words. Yes I will try him on the lead, like you say, and start the puppy training again. Thank you all for you advice. xx

Woth the pooing ins9de could he be slightly confused as to where the doors are ? Of course we can't necessarily  know but if he is in a hurry  finding the door might be too much

He's been coming to me since he was 11 weeks old, whilst she is working, so he's very familiar with our house, and he was always very clean as a younger pup. Just seems to have gone backwards toileting wise. The pooing inside started around the same time as the peeing up my girls legs, but he did used to squat to pee. Now he lifts his leg. Having said that, even when he squatted to pee, it was normally away from my girls, but now he's following them everywhere, and directly they squat to be, he pees up their leg, and occasionally if they are standing in the garden. I'll try the lead next time he comes to us, and the pooing indoors, I will start all over again with toilet training and hopefully get back to how he was.

As others have said it does sound like back to basics :)

Dogs are creatures of habit and often we get all tangled up trying to work out complicated reasons, when really it's just that the wrong habit has gotten started.  So we need to put things in place to create the right habit and prevent the wrong habit from having an opportunity to get practised.