Hey everyone,

As luck may have it, Royce has run into yet another roadblock in his quest to even begin to start acting like a good dog. Royce is now 7 months old and 3 times in this past week, he's peed on our furniture. I think this is incredibly strange and I don't know what triggered him to start doing it. I've always put up his water bowl right before we go to bed. The main reason why I find this strange, is because I know that he's potty trained, because he hadn't had an accident in about 2 months. He's also held it for up to 8 hours. I'm in a bit of a panic, because, as I've mentioned before, we're heading home for the holidays and he's never been in another persons house before and since it seems that he's picked up this habit out of the blue, God only knows what he'll do when he's there.
Has anyone else had this problem? Why does it seem like he's forgotten his potty training after being completely fine for a few months?

Has he been neutered?

Not yet. He's getting neutered in January.

I'm the last person that should be speaking on this as I've never had a male dog, but he's probably marking. Which, to my knowledge, has little to do with house-training, and more to do with him being an unaltered, male dog, reaching sexual maturity.

I would personally treat it like house-training again, make sure he knows it's unacceptable behavior and don't leave him unattended very much.

Also, make sure to clean the spot very well if you can, but it being on furniture makes it harder. He is definitely more likely to do it again in the same spot if he can still smell it.

I'm not sure what to do to stop it because I've never had to deal with it, but someone posted this link the other day, and I believe they can help.

Someone with more experience will probably chime in soon! Sorry I can't help more!

No problem! I'm just glad to hear a response so quickly! I figured it was a marking thing, since I can't think of any other reason. None of his habits have changed, so it was a bit of a shock to us.

The funny thing is, his new favorite way to pee, is to stick his leg up, like many male dogs. Before, he would just kind of squat. It's very easy to tell that he's lifting up his leg, because of the spots on the furniture. Thankfully, it's not an everyday thing, because, to be completely honest, he's still having trouble sleeping throughout the entire night, but that's a different story.

He always sleeps and is always in the living room, 24/7, so, obviously, it's hard to monitor him at night. I always take him out before we go to bed and I'm going to start taking away his water earlier than usual.

If he's lifting his leg, you can be sure he's marking. You should make an appointment to neuter him as soon as possible.

Stopping marking is just like house training, but I personally am a bit more stern with a marking male. They mark to show you they think they can take your stuff as their own, and you need them to understand it is your stuff, and you won't be having that.

Where I would show a dog his caught in the act potty and tell him no, before bringing him outside, and of course praising him when he did potty, I used to grab the Water Spaniels by their floppy ear like a child and tug their face into their marking spots and very seriously tell them no and bad, and then put them outside when Id catch them marking. I also never praised any marking outdoors, although I didn't punish it. If they start marking on walks I would give them a quick correction and not let them stay and continue to mark. Its hard as hell to break in an unaltered dog.

Both Dante and Gage marked before we had them neutered. Kaiser at 8 months and unaltered has not shown signs of marking (knock on wood) Probably the best thing to do if you plan on getting him neutered is to go ahead and make the appointment. Neutering stopped both Dante and Gage. Although neutering may NOT solve the problem, usually if the dog is neutered when it is youger it will solve the issue. The longer you wait the more likely it is the marking will become a habit even after the neuter.

My pup is 7 months as well, I consider him 95% house broken as he still will tinkle in the house when he is either playing or over excited. He is still a bit hyper but learning that mouthing and jumping won't get him the attention he wants.

Oh and mine is neutered and has peed on the couch so much we had to throw it out.

Off with the nutz................................. will take care of the problem 99% of the time.

You'll probably have to clean his pee spots well with something like Natures Miracle to remove his scent markings.

http://www.ilovenaturesmiracle.com/catalog/prod_detail.php?id=2