Dog marks his territory

Question
Hello..I have a 2 years old male Rat Terrier that has been neutered for about a year.  Every time i walk my dog, he marks his territory on everything from trees, over other dogs markings, sticks, poles..etc..a walk with him can take forever because he has to smell every dog's scent and mark his territory by lifting his leg and peeing on it.  I would like to walk him without this happening.  Is this possible and how can i go about try to correct this behavior?

Answer
Dear Queen,

Good for you for neutering your dog!  Neutering has so many benefits but as you can see it doesn't always stop marking.  As a matter of fact, some neutered dogs mark inside the house pretty regularly.  You can thank your lucky stars this is not happening to you, because in-home marking is a nightmare requiring the entire housetraining regimen all over again for many adult dog owners.  

I happen to own a spayed female who also marks on walks, so I understand how excrutiating a walk can be when you just want to walk like a normal person and get it over with already!  Your first task is to accept the fact that your walks will take longer because you have a curious little man there who wants everyone to know he's been out and about that day.

But your main task is to train your dog to heel on command (meaning "walk by my side"), preferably using positive reinforcement methods.  Generally this means taking an obedience class which includes this, but you can also find a good in-home trainer at http://www.apdt.com who can go on the walk with you and really take the time to zero in on your particular situation.  Once your little guy is heeling on command, you can then take a walk which consists of "mark for 1 minute, heel for 1 minute, mark for 1 minute, heel for 2 minutes, mark for 1 minute, heel for 3 minutes" etc.  

I would not recommend trying to get him to heel for an entire walk -- remember he's a dog with his own needs and will be much happier if you just let him be who he is.  Additionally, heeling will be much easier to train if you can actually use the marking (released from the Heel command) time as a reward for heeling when you requested it.  Your trainer should definitely be training you and your dog to release from the Heel (or any command) so that it's YOU and not the dog deciding when the Heel ends and the marking begins.  

Good luck and thanks for writing!
Suzanne Harris, BSc, CPDT
http://www.dogdaysUSA.com