Dog inappropriately peeing

[Dexterwontstopfarting]

My boy (9yrs old, no health issues of which I'm aware) will pee somewhere in the kitchen (favourite places are in the pantry, up a table leg or a chair leg) if he doesn't have access to our living room. It's almost as if he's sticking a finger up at us and doing it out of spite!
He's just done it now, and the living room door was only closed for five minutes.

There's no other behavioural problems although he is needy and clingy and always has been, but he's only started doing this in the last few months or so.

Nothing in the family has changed (we've not moved, no new arrivals, nobody/nothing has left) and he is walked regularly, nice long walks.

We do have another older dog, but she is fine and nothing has changed between them either.

Does anyone have any ideas as to why he may be doing this, and how we can get him to stop please?

Thank you

My old ddog used to wee to stick a paw up too. For 11 years. No idea of a cure op. Maybe a filled Kong when in his least favourite room? Make the room more appealing?

Well it's definitely not out of spite.
Suggest a vet check to rule out a low grade infection.
Apart from that you need to make sure you are using a odour neutralising cleaner, maybe restrict access to his favorite peeing areas, don't take your eyes off him, and take him out regularly as you would do a puppy

Mine does a protest pee sometimes when we go out without him as a family! I take him for a walk beforehand, settle him with the radio on, and put puppy pads down in case which seems to help. At least he'll do it on the pad now

Dogs don't behave "badly" out of spite or as a form of protest - their brains don't work that way. You say he's generally quite needy and clingy so I suspect the cause of his behaviour is some kind of separation anxiety.

The obvious solution would be "don't shut him out of the living room unless he has company" but I appreciate things aren't always that straightforward.

Practically speaking, if he's crate-trained then I would possibly use a crate for a few minutes to keep him contained, or if not, maybe a baby gate across the living room door so he's still contained but can see what's going on and doesn't feel left out.

It's a difficult behaviour to tackle because realistically, you can't stop him urinating unless you're right there to solve it, so you need to look at the underlying reasons behind it and change your behaviour to try and stop him feeling the way he does - I hope that makes sense!