Hey, so over the past couple of days on our off lead walks Kodi has started going up to every single female dog he sees which would be totally fine.....if he would come back when called. He instead just follows them and doesn't stop sniffing them and I have to chase after him and put him back on lead. His recall has always been rock solid up until this point. I also caught him almost about pee on the blinds in the conservatory. I think this is scent marking? He also marks outside every 2 minutes which is getting quite annoying. There was an incident at the beach today where he went up quite a small dog who was off lead as well and started his sniffing antics. Recall wasn't working yet again although I don't think the other dog owner was helping the situation by grabbing her dogs collar and shouting at mine for sniffing another dog.... Which then lead to him getting more excited and barking like a maniac. So would neutering completely cure the recall and scent marking? As If it doesn't then I don't really want to get him done as I keep reading negative things. He's 9 months now and apart from these latest 2 problems and the occasional theft of food he's fine. He shows absolutely no signs of sexual behavior in the house and has never attempted to mount another dog. But he keeps running off to the females and follows them until I can catch up and get him on lead. So I either get him done and he can go off lead again or he stays intact and stays on lead?
It doesn't sound like sexual behavior at this point. Were any of these bitches in season? Male dogs are only sexually attracted to female dogs that are in season. However, 9 months is about the age when many young dogs find their interest in other dogs (male or female) overwhelming their ability to respond to training. Which is a training issue and won't be improved by neutering. Recall breakdown at between 9 and 12 months is so common as to be almost normal. It just means that your dog needs his recall proofing - neutering will not help you do this. More info here: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/train-a-puppy-or-dog-to-come/ If you have a lot of local dog owners with entire bitches that are in season at the moment, that might cause this problem but it seems unlikely. Marking in the house is not that rare in adolescent male dogs, but one event may simply be an 'accident' which are also not uncommon in young dogs under a year of age. Neutering may reduce scent marking on walks but there are no guarantees. You can also train an entire male dog not to do this while on a lead, if you want to. It sounds as though you are not particularly keen to neuter your dog, so it might be wise to delay while you think about your options.
Option #3, intact or not you train, train, train your recall, how to get him to focus on you, and then maybe he can go off leash again. As for the marking, is he just starting to lift his leg? I have a theory and it is; you have to train the boys twice in this regard. First on horizontal surfaces - grass yes, carpet no. Then when they start leg lifting you have to train again on vertical surfaces - tree trunks yes, blinds no. 9 month old boy dogs.
Thanks for the responses, I don't think any of them are in season that live near me as he never wanders off looking for them, he just runs to dogs he sees and sometimes doesnt. It's just that the last few have all been female so I wasn't sure what to do as the vets around here have a "Neuter all dogs" mentality. I'm glad it's just a recall issue instead as he is pretty easy to train but I pretty much stopped rewarding recall whenever he would come back which was obviously a big mistake! For the scent marking he started lifting his leg a few weeks back and Ive only seen him try to mark in the house once and I stopped him immediately so I think/hope that issues sorted. Thank you for the info!
My dog isn't neutered. As a teenager, he was an absolute horror for running off to other dogs and being a pest. It never entered my head that it was anything to do with him being entire, and I just thought it was a training issues. I trained like mad, and he's great now (well, you know, not perfect but pretty good). I'm glad that I always thought it was just about training - because otherwise you are inclined to take your eye off the training ball. My dog does mark like crazy (not in the house though) but lots of neutered dogs do this too. I think it is a bit more challenging to get an entire dog to not scent mark when walking at heel, but perfectly do-able. It isn't something that bothers me too much though.
I agree that this sounds much more like 9-month-old-labrador behaviour than sexual behaviour. I recognise all of it.... If you DO have a problem (in future) with behaviours, you'll find loads and loads of experience and advice here - I've found it a brilliant forum. For example, one of Pongo's friends Benson (owned by @Beanwood ) was really challenging - there is a fabulous thread posted by her recording the results of trying "temporary" (chemical) castration with him, to see whether his behaviour really was sexually driven or not before deciding whether to neuter. I'm with you on wanting to avoid neutering unless I'm absolutely sure it is a good idea....and I am definitely not convinced!
Don't know what happened there! Possibly the lambie network acting on behalf of entire male dogs. I think I've deleted all but one version now....?
I think you have - the mods can see the markers for deleted posts which is what we are looking at. Definitely entire male lambies at work there.
Here is a story for you. The first person Oban peed on was my friend, who was judging agility at the all breed dog show we were at in order for Oban to test for his Canine Good Neighbour. He was 9.5 months old. EEK. OMG. A judge, yet, what if she tells the CGN evaluator? For sure we wouldn't pass, peeing on people is not generally accepted good manners for dogs. I was horrified. Well, my friend was very understanding, she said he missed her leg. She also said probably the grass was covered with pee and it had splashed on her legs, which were bare by the way, it was the height of summer. She said she fully expected more dogs would try to pee on her and they would not all be young males or be intact. Now, now I'm supposed to tell you that's the only person he ever peed on. Sorry, she wasn't. I had to yank him away from a neighbour, who laughed but still ribs me about it. And a couple of people we met who had dogs that did not get along with Oban. At least they all were wearing pants.
Gosh. My dog has never peed on anyone. Apart from when he was a tiny pup, he peed on someone's shoes (but he was a baby, and very excited). And he nearly peed on someone sat on a bench, but he was aiming for the bench. He'd never just pee on a person! Are you sure this is anything to do with a dog having a full set of boy bits? I did meet a dog one summer in Cornwall that used to pee on people, he was neutered though - so nothing to do with boy bits.
Bones peed on people a couple of times... I don't think that was anything to do with being entire though, I just think he wasn't actually all that bright... Didn't stop me loving him sooooooooo much, though!
I had an issue with my pups recall at 8 months, I've managed to fix it, we are not perfect yet but I did up the rewards big time. Have something really tasty for your pup and reward like mad, get your recall back and then preserve it by only using it if you're sure he will come back to you. This is what I'm doing now that I've got his recall whistle going again. I hope you manage to salvage your recall cue, if not retrain to a new cue. I hadn't stopped rewarding my recall but did forget those extra special treats. Huge lesson learned by me, my puppy was absolutely brilliant at recall and I over used it and under valued those rewards, big mistake on my part
Max's recall went backwards at this age. He just wanted to say hello to every dog we met and I did wonder if his close attention to some females was sexually driven. We upped the recall training, used high value treats for when he came back, the "about turn walk" and even occasionally hiding behind a tree and calling him. Other dog walkers kept asking when we were having him neutered as they said that would help but having read a lot of information about not neutering too early we persevered. Max is now 20 months old, still intact and his recall is very good (not perfect as we found out the other day when he discovered a huge bone on our walk!). He's never peed on anyone though, so good luck with sorting that out!
my friends neutered dog has peed on me so many times its more like a hand shake. He's a very insercure rescue dog. love him despite this. Rory did wee up my mums Christmas tree but I think he was just very excited. Rorys recall stuttered at 9 to 12 months too and again just recently but there have been a lot of in season girlies about off lead and cavorting round the park. I tunned him up with cheese sardines and sausage and we are back on track now.
