We have a pair of English Cockers who are 6.5 years old and since moving home 18 months ago, they have been peeing all over the house.

Owned from puppies, they may have had the odd mishap in their first home (our last house), but it was usually only if they were left for more than four or five hours.  These days they seem to 'mark' almost as a routine and my wife thinks that giving them 'the snip' is the only answer to calm down all the testosterone.

The reason we took two brothers on in the first place was because having selected our pup, the breeder made us aware of a sibling who it had been discovered was deaf.  Said breeder reckoned that his best chance was to be homed with a sibling.  At this point I must confess that in all other respects they are beautiful dogs and the hearing dog, with our help and some basic 'signing', has schooled the deaf brother rather well.  The hearing dog is the dominant dog, despite being slighter in frame and we suspect that it is he who is doing most of the marking to stake out his territory and make it clear who is boss.

We have been scrubbing and spraying the targeted areas with odour suppressants and of course challenging the bad behaviour at every episode by verbal reprimand, but the problem seems to be getting worse - can anyone suggest a course of action? 

Thanks for taking the time to read my plea......

Best Regards
Jim

Hi Jim! Did the people who lived in your house previously have dogs? If so, and this marking started only after you moved in, then it's possible that your boys can still detect a lingering smell of those dogs and need to cover up the scent with their own to feel more secure in their new territory.

What do you use to clean up after them? Anything containing bleach will only encourage the behaviour because it contains ammonia and, to a dog, smells similar to urine so again needs to be covered by their own scent. You mention odour suppressants, but what sort? The best thing to clean with is a solution of biological washing liquid followed (for hard surfaces) with a wipe-down with vinegar, white spirit or surgical spirit to remove any lingering smell of urine.

Hope this helps.

If the marking is due to some insecurity castration is likely to worsen things.  also as it is now a habit castration will not eliminate it either.  The worst offender I knew for cocking his leg around the house was a castrated male Jack Russell.  He was so awful I refused to have him in my house.

Thank you for your advice on this,  particularly about the castration issue - this is now off the agenda.

With regard to cleaning products used, the preferred weapon is Dettol anti-bacterial cleaner followed up with either Bob Martin Stain & Odour Remover or Johnson's ClearOff Animal Repellant and sundry room freshening sprays.  I think bleach based products have been used on some occasions so will stop using those.  The vinegar and surgical spirit advice will also be taken up.

We will soldier on with the verbal reprimands and make frequent patrols of the usual target areas and hope to slowly drum the message home.....

Thanks Again
My Regards
Jim

>With regard to cleaning products used, the preferred weapon is Dettol anti-bacterial cleaner followed up with either Bob Martin Stain & Odour Remover or Johnson's ClearOff Animal Repellant and sundry room freshening sprays.

To be honest I've never found any of these to be much good :(    I've had best results with warm diluted BIO washing liquid, followed by spirit vinegar and left to dry ;)   

If the areas are upstairs maybe you could put up a stair gate to stop them having access?  At least then you only have to 'patrol' downstairs which may be easier to manage?   

If they were cats I'd suggest putting aluminium foil in the places they offend as the noise of urine hitting the foil can put them off, don't know if it would work with dogs tho ??