485. Urine peeing anywhere. Rebellious age at 7 months

The brown and white Cocker Spaniel, adopted 3 months ago, would bark when left alone in the balcony. Neighbours might complain. So she was let into the house in the first week. She was then 4 months old. Now, she would pee anywhere in the living and dining room and seldom on the newspapers in the balcony.

"What can I do?" the busy journalist who was referred to me to certify the height and weight of the Cocker Spaniel for licensing purposes, asked me. "My maid or I take the dog outdoors 6 times per day to let her pee outdoors. Yet she continues to urinate inside the apartment."

"This seems to be a case of urine marking rather than being a case of not house-broken?"
"She is a female dog," the lady reminded me.
"Some dominant female dogs do urine mark," I said.

"Where does she sleep at night?" I asked.
"In my bedroom."
"Does she pee inside the bedroom?" I expected a positive answer.
"No, no," she replied.
"Since your bedroom door is closed, she might need to pee and would then do it on the bedroom floor."
"No," the lady laughed. "I left the bedroom ajar so that she could go to the balcony to pee."

Is there any permanent solution to this problem? Each case is different as each dog has his or her own personality.

"In my opinion," I said. "You are not firm enough with your dog and so she takes advantage of you. In the first week, you permitted her to go indoors when she ought to be confined in the balcony all the time unless supervised, to be paper-trained. She tested you by barking and you just let her in. Now, she is 7 months old and her mind is not easy to train. She is equivalent to an adolescent - rebellious as she is no longer a 3-month-old puppy with a blank slate in the mind and therefore easily trained."

"What should I do?" she asked.

"Spaying her may or may not help to prevent urine marking. Start being assertive," I said to her. "For example, grip your dog's muzzle when she barks, give a light tap and say 'no barking' in a very loud and firm voice."

"She is such a lovable dog," the career lady said.
"Yet she is a wolf in sheep's clothing and has had manipulated you. She has little respect for you. So she urine-marks."

"In the dog's hierarchy," I explained, "There is a leader in a pack of dogs. This leader can be a male or female. The leader bites the subordinate dog if the subordinate goes out of line. The mother gives the pup a nip if the pups misbehaves. In your apartment, you did not display that leadership quality. So, the dog does as she pleases and urine-mark the floor to show you that she is the leader."

"I am firm towards her," the lady asserted.
"Not firm enough as this is your personality," I had observed her to be a non-confrontational personality type and asked her companion whether my observations were correct. The companion, a lady friend who was with her nodded her head.

So, what do we do to solve her problem?

1. Barking. Use the muzzle tap and voice command to stop her barking. Muzzle the dog when she barks, but for a short time of 5 minutes.
2. No water to drink after dinner at 8 pm.
3. Confine her to the balcony where there is newspapers for her to pee.
4. Positive reinforcement training. Give a food treat when the dog pees on the papers in the balcony or stop barking on command. "My dog is not interested in food treats," the lady said. "Well, the ones you give her may not press her buttons, but try and find one she is crazy about. Or reward her with play."
5. Negative reinforcement training. Many newer puppy books are talking about positive reinforcement training. But in this grown up dog, a light tap on the muzzle to stop barking or a tap on the back together with firm voice commands may be the answer at this age of rebellion. Before it is too late. Will the lady do it? It is hard to say.
6. Leash her to the dining table so that she can't urine-mark anywhere she likes. The lady had not thought of that.
7. Give her a routine daily as regards feeding, drinking and exercise. Go outdoors three x per day to pee. Not 6 X.
8. Neutralise the urine-marked spots with a piece of rag plus white vinegar at 1 part to 3 parts water. Now, the whole apartment is full of urine smells but the dog can smell it.
9. Neuter the dog. But she looked so pretty and breeding would not be possible.

There are so many suggestions I made. Since she did not take notes, as I imagined a journalist would do so, I presumed her mind would remember all. It takes a lot of time to talk to her about her dog behaviour problem. Weighing and measuring the height of her dog took less than 5 minutes. Well, I was free on this first Sunday I started work after a break in Perth, Australia. She seemed quite happy and later told my referral that she was very happy with my service.

Puppies at 4 months of age can be paper-trained effectively if the lady owner is the strong and firm type. After talking to this journalist, a couple came in with a 4-month-old brown Cocker Spaniel for the 3rd vaccination. The wife looks "fierce" and appears the dominant party of the couple from my interaction with her. So I asked, "Is the puppy paper-trained?" "No problem," she said. "The puppy goes to the newspapers every time."

Success in house-breaking depends so much on the personality of the trainer who is usually a lady. Most lady owners are the nuturing kind type and so that is where failures in paper training in an apartment arise.


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