[Montro]

I'm looking after a relative's dog (male, 4 years old, entire) and the leg cocking, resulting in very smelly urine, is hard to deal with.

Anyone know how to stop the dog from doing this? I understand he's marking his territory, and it's not so bad depending on where he does it. Just caught him, however, cocking his leg on a bin by the back door (near his food bowl.) It reeks. Far away from the house, I can take, near the back and front doors, not so much.

I know his owner will not have the dog neutered, but on the off chance that he would, would it be too late at the age of 4 for the dog to change the territory marking behaviour? The dog is a great dane, so there's a lot of wee! Never ending supply, it would seem.

[chickenpants]

One thing to do is to treat every area where the dog has wee'd (where you wouldn't want it to go again) with a neutraliser, something like Urine Off (http://www.vetnpetdirect.com.au/URINEOFFD) which helps to destroy the proteins which are left after regular cleaning. The dog can still smell them and will keep marking or weeing on those spots.

We used it a ton when our dogs were puppies, it works a treat.

There are other brands too, Nature's Miracle is another one which I have heard good things about. We used the Urine Off because it came in a huge bottle which we wanted - two puppies training at the same time made for many many puddles.

This post has been edited by chickenpants: 19/02/2013, 10:41 AM

[*Spikey*]

Second the urine off. Also, anything you don't want peed on, liberally coat with citronella - dogs don't like the smell, and there is a chance that it might persuade your guest from peeing in those spots.

Once a dog is mature, convincing them to not mark their territory is a tough ask. Even if you desex them. I'm tempted to suggest you pop him into a boarding kennel for the duration, if it really is that bad.

You might also remind your 'friend' that his dog is stinkier than normal because he's not desexed, plus it contributes to feral behaviour. Unless he is a breeder, there is no reason to have an entire male dog.