Those of You Who Have Male Dogs....

My male dog, not neutered, house-trained HIMSELF and never pees in the house. I've had him since he was born - He's the puppy of one of my mom's dogs. He has always lived with my parents and has always been an outdoor farm dog (When he was born I was still living at home and now my apartment doesn't allow pets so he is still with my parents). When he was 2 or 3 he was kicked by a cow and broke his leg. He had to stay inside until the leg healed and never had an accident! It was his first time in the house, but he somehow "knew" not to go potty inside. Now my mom lets him in and out of the house and he has still never had an accident and certainly doesn't "mark" his territory.

So no... I don't think all males dogs are like that.

No. It's not common. I grew up breeding and raising puppies and dogs. There is no difference, in my experience. Some dogs/breeds are easier to train than others. And housebreaking a dog takes some real effort from the owners. Some owners just give up too easily.

Uh, I had an intact (not neutered) male Boxer - totally untrained in obedience (because he was a show dog, and the handlers don't like them to heel/sit in the show ring). Anyway, he did not pee in the house. Ever. And he was as dumb as a box of rocks, so it's not like we had any kind of intelligence advantage with this dog, either!

I think the thing you have to remember is that if the dog perceives himself as the alpha, he's going to pee wherever he darn well pleases. If he perceives you as the alpha, he will pee where you tell him to pee. Some breeds are more head-strong than others, but once they're housebroken, they shouldn't pee anywhere but where you want them to go.

ETA:
A number of studies have been done & published which highlight negative aspects of spaying & neutering your dog too early. There are hormones in the sex organs that regulate growth & muscle development. When dogs are fixed before they are done maturing, it can cause physical problems in many different ways (doing a search online can provide more information that I can try to put in this post).
I recommend to puppy owners that they wait until the age of 2 years. For people who do not think they can prevent an accidental breeding, there are some vets that will now do a vasectomy procedure on male dogs.

Neutering does not alter behavior, but if done in males before they reach sexual maturity, they will act out in other ways. If you do not have problems with your dogs behavior, chances are you wouldn't have had marking issues if you had not neutered your dog.

Original response:
I am a breeder with 2 intact males & 3 intact girls living as house dogs. I have NEVER had anyone mark in my house. The only urination that has occurred is by accident, & very infrequently at that.

First, regarding the issue of your boy marking in a house he is visiting. If they have dogs that mark, yours will do the same. Chances are if he travels to a house where there has not been marking, he will not take the liberty.

Secondly, if you have a male dog & are having difficulty in housebreaking & teaching non-marking behaviors, you should probably take a look at your own behavior around your dog. For some reason, it sounds like he (& other people's males) think that they are "top dog" & therefore have the right to mark.

There are right ways & wrong ways to assert yourself with your pack, and the best advice I have is to work with an animal behaviorist who can meet you & your dog in person. Some breeds can be more territorial than others, & then there are definitely more expressive personalities in some males than others!

It sounds like you do not have a problem now, but something to consider for your next pooch. In addition, you can also get "belly bands" for dogs to wear, so that if they do attempt to mark, it is absorbed by a pad instead of sprayed on the rugs/furniture.

I will add, 4 of my 5 furkids were born & raised in my house, and successfully housebroken without much trouble... considering that they spent their first 10 weeks being told it was OK to pee in the house, that's not too bad!

Hope this helped answer your question!

T. (Breeder/Trainer Rhodesian Ridgebacks)

Your post made me laugh! Dogs can really disgrace themselves sometimes can't they?

We have had all male dogs, but no housetraining problems because they've been outside dogs.

To address the issue of early spay neuter: spaying prior to the first heat cycle (female dogs of course) is very very effective in preventing breast cancer later in life. Spaying after the first heat still has some effect but substantially less. Spaying after age 2 does NOT prevent breast cancer - a major issue in female dogs. I would never recommend an owner wait until age 2 to spay.

And no, most male dogs do not pee in the house.

I've lived with two male dogs, one "marked" my younger brother once and it never happened again after my brother shot up and bopped the dog on the nose for it. The other hasn't had that type of issue.

I think it may be you, I hope I'm not offending you. But I think you may not be "alpha" enough to male dogs. You may not be sending out a strong enough dominance vibe so your male dog(s) are trying to. I'm not sure how to correct this or if you just have to keep working. If you can talk to your vet and find a behaviorist, someone who works with a shelter evaluating dogs for adoption suitability might be an idea.

Good luck.

My 9 month old Saint Bernard has only ever peed in the house as an accident during house breaking, and not for at least 3 months. He's never "marked" any territory - at our house or when we visit. And yes, he's neutered.

My parents have a small mixed toy breed male dog and he is *always* marking the house - at least a couple of times per week.

My male dogs never peed in the house. We always fixed them the moment they were allowed to. Before they ever learned to lift their legs, or had the urge to mark. Very young puppies. If male dogs are fixed after they've begun to lift their legs and mark, it's very trying.

When we rescued dogs, we would only rescue either male puppies (that we could fix very young, or already were fixed very young,) male grown dogs that had no history of marking and lifting, or female dogs.

Well that was certainly not the case for our large male dog.
He was neutered and I can't remember him peeingbin the house --ever--in 11 years. He was also very easy to housebreak.

We had 2 male dogs when I was growing up. Once they were housebroken, neither one of them ever again peed in our house. Neither of them were neutered.

Wow! This is a new one on me! I've had male and female dogs all my life and I've never had this problem. My dog I have now is a male (he's fixed); he's never peed on anything in my house and he's an inside dog. I used to take him to my parents' house all the time and he never peed in their house either.

Sorry, I can't help. If I did have this problem, I'd probably ask my veterinarian for advice.

Good luck!!

My male dog has NEVER peed in my house! He, like your female, was SO easy to house train, I almost feel guilty taking credit!

But then again, my BIG BAD DOG is pretty much THE smartest dog I have ever known!!! Love, Love, LOVE my Brooks!

~He has never peed in or on anyone else or in there house!

We have a Jack Russell who we had fixed at 2 because I don't believe in doing it earlier. He does not pee or mark in the house, but he will outside. This is fine and I leave him to it. But, when we visit my parents, they also have 4 fixed dogs, 3 girls and 1 boy. They do not mark in the house unless my dog does it first. I solved this problem by putting on a doggy band. This is like a cloth diaper that velcros on the top of his back and so when he does pee it catches it instead of the couch, or worse, my dad's leather recliner. My sister has the same problem with her little doggy, although he is older and I think it is incontinence as well. I have see girl dogs mark as much as boy dogs, but the doggy band is less than $10 at Walmart and just be sure to buy the right size for you dog. When it get too wet then you can just wash it in the sink or the washer.

If the owner allows it, they will do it. And once the pee has soaked into porous materials such as wooden furniture legs, the smell is there forever. Once they can smell that they've peed in a certain spot before, they will go back to it. That's why, when you're housebreaking them, you take them to the same spot in the yard every time.
If your dog smells where another dog has peed, he will want to pee there too. Covering each other's pee is like a canine message board.
The only time my dog has ever peed in the house was during a hurricane, when it was impossible to take him outside for close to twelve hours. We had the patio plants sitting on trash bags in the living room and he peed there.

ETA: Suz, laughing aloud at your dog's responses to "Gotta pee?" Mine knows the word "potty" and when I ask if he needs to go potty he will either run to the door, or sigh loudly at my fascination with his bladder functions and flop down on the floor. I have a bell on my back door, and the boxer mix I used to have would ring it with his nose when he needed to go out. He taught himself to do it.

Heck no! We've had two male dogs and they don't pee in the house unless they're beyond capacity bc we were gone too long or something like that. And I think when i've caught our dog midpee, he's not marking at all. He's standing in the middle of a room peeing against nothing but just peeing bc he has to that badly. (of course this is incredibly rare...) But get them outside and they mark like crazy. This is why I"ll never get a male dog again. It's a pain. Girl dogs pee and get it over with. Too much standing and walking around to get my male baby to empty his bladder as he "saves" it...

no, i don't think so. its a combination of breed/personality, and training.
for some odd reason, we always end up with beagles or beagle mutts. charming as hell, but boneheaded to the point of insanity.
both our male dogs were hard to housebreak, but once they *finally* got it (and i mean a couple of years of dealing with it, although to be fair it improved over time) there were no more issues at all. but now my son adopted a 2 year old girl beagle from the pound, and i swear she ended up there TWICE because people kept bringing her back for peeing on the furniture and carpets. my son kept moaning about hard it was and how mean he feels, but we had to put our collective feet down and insist that if she's going to come with him when he visits, he MUST train her. so now he's finally working with her diligently and is making progress.
it seems as if you have the best method for training them, ie shadowing relentlessly, and give them a Word to associate with it. our dog has taken to 'gotta pee?' and now, after many years, has it down to a highly nuanced degree. he can say 'no thanks, but i'd love to out and check pee mail' or 'YESYESYES my gads i thought you'd never ask' or 'sure, why not?' or 'actually i need to poop, can we go out by the fence?' or 'yes, but first i have to chase the deer out of the yard' or 'no but i love you.' all clear as a bell.
but it took time.
i hope my granddog gets there. soon.
good luck!
:) khairete
S.

Maybe it is due to the personality of the dog bc my male dog (passive, sweet husky mutt) has never done things like this. We watched a friend's male dog that was like this though. He came in and saw our male dog and immediately marked his territory on our coffee table! Anyway...it is not all male dogs since our dog has never once asked this way. Maybe it's the ones who are slightly "alpha"?

We have always had dogs, male/female, fix and late fixed. We have never had an issue with peeing in the house beyond training and occasional accidents. This is news to me, so I would guess perhaps this behavior varies by breed of dog? We usually have mixed mutts, but the full breeds we had didn't have this issue either.

I have always had male dogs and once they were housebroken that was pretty much it.

I will say that I think part of the problem these folks are having is because they have more than one dog. The male will mark his territory, especially if another male dog comes into the house.

When my family members bring their dogs over, they go in the backyard. They visit my dog while the people visit me.

No. We have a male dog and he doesn't pee in the house. We got him after he was house-trained at 10 months, though, so I'm not sure how hard he was to train.

Surely it varies dog to dog, but my male was housebroken by 7 months old and has never once peed inside since, even when he has been home alone for many hours. BUT one of the best dogs I have ever known was a male who peed all over his grandparents' house (where he stayed more often than his mom's)... because cats who had lived in the house before the grandparents had peed everywhere. He pretty much stopped after the carpet and padding was taken out (and the wood underneath saturated with enzyme). So, I don't have any advice, but I don't think it's "abnormal" or anything.

No, I don't think it's common (except perhaps with some of the Toy breeds, which can be much harder to housetrain). If a dog continues to pee in his home, he is NOT housebroken.

I have a 5 year old, intact male Shiba Inu, and he has not peed in the house since he was a puppy. He was a bit more of a challenge to train than my female, but I would never put up with an adult dog peeing in my house! All of my dogs, male and female, have been fully housetrained, whether neutered or not.