Walkies

[Varga]

This is just something which crossed my mind when I was walking the dogs earlier and I just felt like sharing and perhaps hear how you do walkies with your dogs.

When I walk my dogs I usually control when or where Taggart is allowed to sniff.. I know it sounds kinda mean but believe me, it’s the only way the walk is tolerable! Basically I have this rule that if he pulls me over to sniff something; forget it! And I make him walk besides me and no sniffing and stopping is allowed. And when he’s done that for a while, I stop, say; “OK!” And he can sniff and pee at the location I stopped at. I do that several times during the walk so he both gets to do “real” peeing and get his obsession with sniffing and marking somewhat satisfied. But the main thing is, that I don’t let him decide. Only time I let him choose is at the very beginning of the walk, because he might really have to pee and then of course he should get to do that as soon as possible.

The reason I do this is because otherwise he literally stops and marks hundreds of times during the walk... and I’m merely human, so I don’t have that kind of patience!!

With Tiki however it’s different. If she stops, then I stop too because I know she means business and even though she does also mark, she has more of a “quality and not quantity” kind of attitude, so that’s perfectly ok.... Whenever she marks though, Taggart swoops in a second later and leaves his mark over hers, lol.

Weird topic, I know... I have too much time to think these days

[Karen]

I have known other male dogs who would do this - not the sniffing as much, but the peeing every few feet if you would let them. Both were rescue dogs, so were neutered as adults, maybe it is just an instinctive male territorial thing ...

[Freedom]

Yup, they teach us that in the obedience classes I take!

Marlin is my champion marker, if it is vertical, he marks it. Utility poles, stop signs, trees, even a person if they stand still in one place too long!

[Varga]

Yeah, I've seen other male dogs do that too. But I think it varies between males a lot. Some friends of mine have an unneutered Labrador and even though he marks, his level of enthusiasm towards the whole thing can't be compared to Taggart at all. It's like this dog is more self confident so he feels like he doesn't need to. He is in general a very calm and collected dog. Taggart is more... all over the place, always so busy and hyper and a bit of a pain in the -you knowwhat-, so I think his desperate attempt to mark all the time is because he feels like he has to convince everyone that he's so tough when really he's not, you know

Luckily Taggart has never marked inside though. Except once and that was when I first got him and within the first two minutes he was inside this apartment. I didn't even say anything to him or anything but he never did it again. And I'm thankful of that! I know people who continuesly have to struggle with male dogs that mark inside the house.

As far as I know he hasn't marked on a person before either... but I've seen that happen plenty of times when I have classes. When lots of male dogs get together, all of a sudden it becomes VERY important to have these marking contests and if the owners aren't paying good enough attention, then somones leg becomes part of it!