Marking behavior?

Question
Hi, I have a 8 month old, male, neutered, Shiba Inu. He has been potty
trained, without accidents, for about 3-4 months now. He has a pretty
structured routine and we walk everyday, usually for 45 minutes, and on the
weekends up to 2 hours. When I got him, about 6 months ago, my boyfriend
was living with me. We broke up and he moved out of state 2-3 months ago.
Recently I have started to date again. The first time one of my dates came
over, within the first 5 minutes of him being in my apartment, my dog stood
between the two of us, and started to urinate at my date's feet. I yelled my
dog's name while he was doing it, and when he was done I put him in his
crate. A couple weeks later, I brought over a different date. This man had
spent a lot more time with my dog as he had been to my apartment before
and had gone on walks with us. However, when we were watching a movie,
my dog had wanted to sit between us and I didn't let him. He then sat down
and put his head between us.  Eventually he laid down by our feet. After a
while, he stood up, looked at us, and again proceeded to stand in front of my
date's feet and urinate. Both of these times, I had taken him on a long walk to
use up some of his energy and empty his bladder, a couple hours before I
brought over my guest, which really makes me think this is a behavior
problem. Except for some excited drops when friends come over, he has only
urinated when I had a date over. Any help would be appreciated!

Answer
Hey, Denise,

I'm sorry to hear about your problem.

It seems to me that the poor little guy is having trouble adjusting to the changes in your household, and he's expressing his nervous tension by peeing. I've seen this kind of thing happen a lot.
What I'd do is instead of exercising him by taking him on long walks, I'd play with him, or take him to a park or dog run where he can play with other dogs. It has to be someplace safe, and the dogs have to be non-aggressive, of course. I'd also play a lot of fetch and tug-of-war with him. When playing tug I'd always let him win and praise him enthusiastically for winning.
Whenever a date (or potential new packmate) came over, I'd have the person spend a little time feeding the dog some treats, and playing a little tug and fetch, too, if that's possible. If I were you, I'd also start the evening by going for a walk together, all three of you. When a dog walks in-synch with humans or other dogs, he naturally starts to feel more of an affinity and camaraderie toward them.
Also, one of the major causes of nervous tension in dogs is being scolded or punished for "wrongdoings." So if you're doing either of those things it's probably a good idea to come up with an alternative solution, like redirecting him into a proper behavior instead of punishing him for an improper one. The second major cause of nervous tension (and it's a close second), is giving the dog too much physical affection, particularly as a substitute for hard, vigorous playful exercise. So whenever you get too cuddly with your dog (if you do), either play a game with him, or give him something to chew. Those are the best ways for dogs to reduce nervous tension. Cuddling tends to make it worse.

I'm not sure this is the kind of answer you were looking for, but I hope it's at least a little helpful!

LCK