dog urination regression

Question
QUESTION: My dog has never had an accident in the house and he is now going on 3 years old.  However, last night while I was distracted, he cocked his leg and soaked my love seat.  He had just urinated outside before I brought him into the house.  Why would he have regressed this way?

ANSWER: He is a big boy now and serving notice he is in charge.  It is marking.  Neuter him if not already.  The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/ For more on being top dog, see http://www.dogbreedinfo.com./topdogrules.htm

When you are around you need to keep a close eye on the dog. Use closed doors or gates to keep it in the same room as you are, and perhaps as I do, a short chain fastened to the computer desk. If you catch it in the act, give it a sharp ''Ah, ah, ah!'' and take it out. When you can't watch it, crate it.

It is only natural that a puppy resists its crate at first. What the puppy wants more than anything else is to be others, you, anyone else in the household, and any other pets. In our modern society, even if we are home, other things distract us from the attention an uncrated puppy must have. The only real solution is to crate the dog when you aren't around. The dog may be happier in its den than loose in the house. It relaxes, it feels safe in its den. It rests, the body slows down reducing the need for water and relieving its self. Dogs that have been crated all along do very well. Many of them will rest in their crates even when the door is open. I think the plastic ones give the dog more of a safe, enclosed den feeling. Metal ones can be put in a corner or covered with something the dog can't pull in and chew. Select a crate just big enough for the full grown dog to stretch out in.

Leave it some toys. Perhaps a Kong filled with peanut butter. Don't leave anything in the crate the dog might chew up. It will do fine without even any bedding. You will come home to a safe dog and a house you can enjoy.

A dog that has not been crated since it was little, may take some work. Start out just putting its toys and treats in the crate. Praise it for going in. Feed it in the crate. This is also an easy way to maintain order at feeding time for more than one dog.

The "shut the puppy in a safe room" is a fallacy. Very few houses even have a safe room. How many of us have a room with a hard surfaced floor and nothing else? Most rooms have electrical cords to chew if nothing else. In addition to destroying anything a bored puppy finds to chew, it may choke or have intestinal blockage from the pieces. I had a friend that left her dog in a "safe" room. It ate a hole in the floor covering. The safe rooms fail to give the dog the comfort of the enclosed space their instinct requires. Nor do they restrict activity extending the time the dog can go without relieving itself.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: My dog is "crated" outside in a 20'x 40' chain link fence pen while I am at work.  Whenever he is in the house, he is confined to his large pillow as his bed and normally stays on it unless I call him to me for attention or treats.  I was not distracted to the point that he was being neglected.  I was only changing clothes within his sight, but he got off his bed long enough to christen the love seat while I had my back turned to him just momentarily.  Do you think if I have him neutered he will be more likely to recognize that I am his leader rather than the opposite?  The only reason I didn't have him neutered at age 6 months was that someone had expressed a desire to breed him with their female and I had to wait until he was older to get a larger litter. I have "grounded" him temporarily from the house in hopes that the next time I allow him in he will behave as he was behaving before.

Answer
Neutering often has a dramatic effect on marking problems.  It is 100% effective in keeping the dog from passing the problem behavior on.  Many behavior problems stem from people insisting on using dogs with behavior problems as breeding stock.  Frankly as long as we are slaughtering millions of dogs for lack of homes, I see no reason to use ones with a behavior problem to breed.  

I think your friend needs to spend some time at both http://www.woodhavenlabs.com/articles.html#breeding and www.petfinders.org  We have a shortage of homes, not people breeding dogs.