Hello :)

I have a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (Charlie) who will be 3 in July.

We have a terrible problem with him peeing all over the house (it's marking I guess?). He barks to go out into the garden to relieve himself, but STILL he goes indoors.

It's quite horrible, and all the carpets are stained (and of course smelly), and he also jumps on the beds and cocks his leg (well actually my mum's bed, as he sleeps on mine!).  If my dad leaves his study door open, Charlie will race upstairs to pee up the bookcase! It's a major problem, and we can't see the end to it.

The vet has suggested having him castrated, but we're worried it might affect him psychologically - he has a lovely personality at the moment.  He spends quite a bit of time 'grooming' (ie licking) down below, so if we have his bits removed won't he be devasted and depressed to know they're gone? would his hormonal balance be affected thus affecting his personality?

At nearly 3, is he too old be be neutered to stop his urinating in the house?

HELP please!!

Thanks :) -Katie

Hi there,

He's not too old at 3 to be neutered from a medical point of view but personally I think that it's now a learned behaviour and can't see any reason whatsoever that castration would make a difference - apart from anything else I know of dogs who have been castrated at early ages who'll lift their leg indoors too :(

Have you had him since a puppy?  Was he ever thoroughly house trained?  And how effectively are you cleaning up where he's wee'd?  Dogs will go back and cover spots they've already visited if there is any trace of scent there.

If you can provide a bit more info on his background, someone may be able to advise a method of training him out of this behaviour.  Regards, Teri :)

    

Just to give an alternative point of view - purely from subjective experience...:-) I had two male cavaliers some years back - my first dogs, in fact. One of them was inclined to mark indoors, and after castration was completely cured. He never did it again until he became occasionally incontinent in extreme old age - he lived till he was 14 years 5  months. HTH.

Hi Teri :) Thanks for the reply.

We got Charlie when he was 7 months old from an ad on findit.co.uk.

We were told he was house-trained, and he does bark at the garden door to go out. Still there are puddles and stains all over the house :(

As far as cleaning up goes, it's easy on the kitchen floor as it's lino, but bedding, carpets and curtain bottoms are harder to deal with - if we changed and washed bedding etc completely every time he cocked his leg, we'd need to build a laundrette on to the kitchen to cope with the loads!! also, he may spray somewhere discreet initially that goes unnoticed.

He seems to be quite a randy dog, and whenever he gets boistrous or excited he madly humps me or my mums legs.

I look forward to your reply :) thanks again -Katie

He may well have been housetrained in his old home.  Rehoming often upsets them so much they fall backwards.  You need to start from scratch taking him out after every nap, feed or 1 hours play.  Use a trigger word for a couple of weeks every time he performs followed by lavish praise.  Eventually you will be able to use the trigger word as a command when you take him out to speed up the process.
Until he has relearned to a pretty good standard I personally would not let him have full access to the house.  Mine only get to go in the living room in the evenings, always accompanied, when young, only when they are 100% can they go in on their own.  You don't really have much choice about washing things like curtains and bedding if you think he has peed on them they are going to get pretty whiffy if you don't :p.  Carpet should be cleaned with a little biological washing powder mixed with water but you will need to use one without brighteners as this is likely to bleach the carpet a little.  This is the only thing that will remove the scent that encourages him to repeat in the same place.

Hi Katie,  Isabel has pretty much covered things for you ;)
Definitely restrict indoor access - wandering into other rooms unsupervised will be a no-go for a while & follow Isabel's regime of re-training to toilet outdoors.  I expect he's learned the word "no" or "ah-ah" by his age ;) so watch him like a hawk and if he's *scent marking* use one of those words to stop him mid-flow, take him outside, and clean the area (floor or fabric) immediately with a mop or spray of solution below.
Hire a pro carpet shampoo machine and blitz all carpets, rugs and importantly any areas of underlay below same that he's "annointed".  After doing them with the solution provided, go over the problem areas again using bio washing powder and water to remove the keytones, scent etc from urine sprayed areas including curtains & woodwork.  Mop over these areas yet again (AND re-do underlay) with a dillute solution of white spirit. It will take a bit of work but save recarpeting the entire house :P  This WILL work with patience and perseverance on the part of the *entire* household.  Good luck, Teri :)