Urination issues

Question
Hi Cathy, I have a 12 month old unneutered English Springer Spaniel. I rehomed him from another home at 4 months old. I don't believe it was an abusive situation but more a practical decision for the family as he was their 3rd dog on a farm. He is a wonderful sweet male with no aggressive behavior. He is a friend of all dogs at the dog park, being both gentle to puppies and rough with the big dogs. He does do some dominance humping, but mostly with the dogs bigger than him. He has lifted his leg for several months and marks bushes on our walks. At 4 months we tried to crate train him but he became very anxious, barking and salivating until the pad was soaked with saliva. We have found an alternative way to leave him alone for now and we leave his crate open. We hope that he will learn to love his crate. When the evening comes he wants to lay at our feet or very near while we watch TV. At night he sleeps in our room, sometime on his pad and sometimes at the foot of the bed. In the morning he goes outside and we take him out for several walks per day.  He has run of the yard chasing squirrels to his hearts content. The problem is that occasionally (every 2-3 weeks to a month) He will go downstairs during the night and pee on the living room rug. I have cleaned it with enzymes thoroughly. I have also put baking soda on the spots, covered it with towels and sprinkled fresh lavender on the towels. He recently avoided that spot and found another new spot. He always squats and sometimes he'll poop too. Most of the time it is at night with an occasional accident in the evening. It seems he is still getting into trouble every once in awhile with his chewing. He's stopped chewing shoes, now it is innersoles of our shoes. He is a big chewer! We provide him with hooves, bones and various toys. I'm planning on sending out my oriental carpet for a cleaning and enzyme treatment but would like to get the accident under control in the meantime. I did get bells by the back door and ring them and say go pee when we let him out the door. He is a very intelligent dog but I need help with this one.......

Answer
I strongly recommend that your neuter him.  That should resolve all of the humping/urinating and pooping issues.  I suspect that it has just started within the last several months because he is reaching maturity.   In addition to these reasons, he will have less chance of developing cancer later in life.   It can take up to 30 days after the neuter for the hormones to actually be gone, so I'd wait on the carpet if you go this route.

As far as chewing, try spraying some bitter apple on the items he likes to chew.  It is harmless and he won't pick that item up again!!