Wee’ing inside and being entire?

[shoesaregood]

Our lovely 10 month old whippet has apparently started wee’ing in our doggy day care lady’s house. He never, ever does it at home and is brilliant at asking to go out. At daycare he always has access to the outside. Daycare lady thinks it’s because he’s still entire....but I’m reluctant to get him ‘done’ until he’s 18 months or so (as per breeder’s recommendation) and he never humps etc. Could it be that he’s stressed in the environment? He has been going there since he was very young with no issues.....

Really worried, we do need him in daycare when we work (2 days a week), but she obviously doesn’t want him wee’ing everywhere. Any thoughts / ideas?

My guess would be he is marking rather than peeing properly and that this is happening more at daycare because the place smells of all those other dogs - rather than at home. He's started now because he's becoming sexually mature.

The trick is to prevent it becoming habit - mainly by interrupting him when he's just thinking about marking, removing him to somewhere more appropriate (outdoors) and then rewarding him for marking outdoors. Your daycare provider needs to be fully signed up to this as it's her that is going to have to do the lion's share.

If he marks in the same spot(s) in her house, she may also be able to block them off, thus reducing the opportunity to mark.

I think that if you can stop the habit forming during the adolescent months then you have a good chance he will grow out of it as his brain catches up with his hormones. That said, some never do - but even then, preventing the habit forming gives neutering the greatest chance of working to reduce the behaviour when he's old enough.

It may well be stress. Are there other dogs there he is perhaps not getting on with?

That’s my worry fivedogs. As far as I know he gets on well with the other dogs (he’s generally very sociable), but obviously I can’t say for sure as I’m not there. I’m half wondering if we think he’s happier at daycare, whereas he’d actually be happier with a long walk and home to the sofa until we get home. I wish he could tell me!!

I’m thinking of trying a different daycare which is an outdoor centre rather than in a home to see if he likes that (we can go with him the first few times to see how he settles / what he thinks).

Agree that it’s about catching him, correcting and rewarding the right behaviour, but realistically I don’t think daycare lady can watch him closely enough with other dogs there. She’s very much in favour of getting him ‘done’ ASAP, but I’m very keen to wait, he’s still so young and puppy-ish.

The risk is that if something is making him nervous then getting him neutered will make him worse.
Just because the dogs appear to be getting along doesn't mean nothing has happened to make him unsure of himself. He's at a tricky age as well.

Thanks fivedogs - I thought the same thing. I think we’ll give the other daycare a go and see what he thinks.

I’d be incredibly reluctant to get him neutered at the moment, unless medically necessary for some reason. He honestly is so good and a very confident little chap

Tbh I think it's a behaviour that many dogs and bitches, neutered or not will do in a mixed dog environment. My brother's bitch is neutered but when she first visited mine she would often go to wee in my dogs bed and other places my dog would commonly lay down. Quick "AHH AHH" and she would stop. My dog would go to mark inside when he visited hers but again was easily stopped and he is still entire and doesn't do it now.

Day care provider just needs to interrupt before he starts and it will stop.

I had a foster dog come to me with a history of lifting his leg in the previous home. First thing he did here was wee up against the kitchen table - a quick Ah Ah and straight outside and he actually never did it again. I do suspect he came form a quite stressy, multidog environment with not enough supervision.
However he was already 4ish and the decision was made to have him neutered. On his first post neutering walk he attacked another male dog :(. He could detect unneutered males before he even saw them. It took years of training to rehabilitate the poor boy, and I firmly put his issues down to neutering, as in the couple of weeks he stayed with me before this he had been absolutely fine, quite subdued and submissive with other dogs.

Gosh, that’s a really scary behaviour change.....to be honest i’ve always taken the view that as long as he doesn’t become a sex crazed maniac, we’ll leave him as he is.

We have lots of contact with his v experienced breeder who is very much of the no neutering unless absolutely necessary school of thought....

I have always been firmly in the neutering camp tbh, but I think with some males you have to be very careful - firstly that they are old enough, and secondly that they are confident enough to cope with it.