Jack Russell Scenting. At wits end.

carolinej

Hi, we have a 6/7 year old rescue male jack Russell. In the last 12 months we have noticed he has started to leave his scent or wee around the house ALOT.

He has us driven demented. The only change in our living arrangements that might have caused this is we got a male jack Russell pup. The pup was neutered last year.

We also have 2 female JR. He is booked in to be neutered in a couple of weeks. We are only hoping this will stop him scenting.

We will leave him out for a wee, he will then strut back into the house and cock his leg again the chair or a few other spots around the house he loves doing it.

If the neutering dont help, any ideas what we should do.

DBB

Are your females spayed?
Have you ruled out an underlying medical condition with your vet?
What are you cleaning his pee up with?

carolinej

DBB wrote: »

Are your females spayed?
Have you ruled out an underlying medical condition with your vet?
What are you cleaning his pee up with?

Hi DBB, no to all of the above. He's booked into vet Wednesday week so will ask their advice if med condition as well.

He does have a habit of, ahem... Getting his man bit out and going at it with his paw...... Possibly is there something wrong with him? Our other male dog never does this but then he is neutered.

Will be getting the bitches spayed as soon as poss aswell. We clean up wee with bleach. Can u suggest better ways to clean up that might deter him going back to same spots? What are we doing wrong. :-(

DBB

Okay... There are all sorts of things potentially contributing to the problem there!
He's entire, and you've two hormonal females. Any chance this all started when one of the females came into heat?
Regardless, on top of that you've also got a younger male... The fact that he's neutered won't necessarily stop the older male hyper-marking in order to convince the youngster whose territory (and females?) this is.
You're also saying that he's masturbating? Is this correct? That's a hypersexual behaviour which may just be an overexpression of his hormones, but may indicate an underlying medical issue too... Has he always done this?
Sorry to say, but bleach is the very worst cleaning product to clean up pee! It contains ammonia. Pee contains ammonia/urea. Therefore, every time you clean up, you're effectively overmarking his territorial pees with "another" dog's pee... Which will make your dog want to refresh his scent again and again... It's bad enough that a "strange dog" keeps coming into his house to stake his claim... The fact that there are two entire bitches there just makes it worse!
Clean up accidents with biological washing powder dissolved in warm water

carolinej

DBB wrote: »

Okay... There are all sorts of things potentially contributing to the problem there!
He's entire, and you've two hormonal females. Any chance this all started when one of the females came into heat?
Regardless, on top of that you've also got a younger male... The fact that he's neutered won't necessarily stop the older male hyper-marking in order to convince the youngster whose territory (and females?) this is.
You're also saying that he's masturbating? Is this correct? That's a hypersexual behaviour which may just be an overexpression of his hormones, but may indicate an underlying medical issue too... Has he always done this?
Sorry to say, but bleach is the very worst cleaning product to clean up pee! It contains ammonia. Pee contains ammonia/urea. Therefore, every time you clean up, you're effectively overmarking his territorial pees with "another" dog's pee... Which will make your dog want to refresh his scent again and again... It's bad enough that a "strange dog" keeps coming into his house to stake his claim... The fact that there are two entire bitches there just makes it worse!
Clean up accidents with biological washing powder dissolved in warm water

I'll stop using mop and bucket with bleach so. In was reading online last night and they were on about an enzyme cleaner or would just plain old water and washing powder do? All this started really when the two new pups came even the masturbating.

Before, it was just him and the one bitch and they got along fine. Then the female had a litter (problem dog is not father) and we kept a male and female pup. The two dogs are always striving to be top dog and the "pup" seems to be bullying him, I think.

Poor f*cker! He came from a farm that had hunt dogs and they had him terrorised. My partner felt so sorry for him. He's a nervous dog. Don't like loud noises or children. Any suggestions how we could train him or change his behaviour if that's possible now.

DBB

You've quite a complicated social structure going on there op... If the youngster challenges the older lad on any sort of regular basis, and given that your older lad just kinda sounds like living in a group of dogs isn't for him, then add anxiety into the mix to explain the peeing. It can't be easy for him having to live with multiple dogs when you know he's already had bad experiences of living with multiple dogs.
The masturbating may be an expression of his underlying anxiety too. It's quite an unusual behaviour in dogs tbh.
If he's an anxious, nervous sort of dog anyway, then it seems possible to me that he's finding his current living situation hard to manage, because there's a lot going on to increase his already-present innate anxiety.
Addressing anxiety means reducing or eliminating the sources of anxiety as far as possible, and/or working with your dog to help him feel happier in situations where he's currently anxious or unsure. That's hard to do when one of the causes of his anxiety is another dog who he has to live with, and who isn't necessarily nice to him. He's watching his back a lot of the time, if it's a case that the younger dog tends to challenge him.
On top of that, you've two entire bitches... This older male whose hormones must drive him potty when they come into heat, and another, younger male who, despite being neutered, will know fine well what a female in heat means, and will challenge the older guy over that too.
I dunno op... You're asking a lot of him... From what you've described at least.

Biological washing powder dissolved in water is essentially the same thing as enzyme spray.

Tranceypoo

Welll... Goodness me, you think you know a bit about dogs...I NEVER KNEW THIS!!!
And sorry, I know it's childish but 😂

carolinej

DBB wrote: »

You've quite a complicated social structure going on there op... If the youngster challenges the older lad on any sort of regular basis, and given that your older lad just kinda sounds like living in a group of dogs isn't for him, then add anxiety into the mix to explain the peeing. It can't be easy for him having to live with multiple dogs when you know he's already had bad experiences of living with multiple dogs.
The masturbating may be an expression of his underlying anxiety too. It's quite an unusual behaviour in dogs tbh.
If he's an anxious, nervous sort of dog anyway, then it seems possible to me that he's finding his current living situation hard to manage, because there's a lot going on to increase his already-present innate anxiety.
Addressing anxiety means reducing or eliminating the sources of anxiety as far as possible, and/or working with your dog to help him feel happier in situations where he's currently anxious or unsure. That's hard to do when one of the causes of his anxiety is another dog who he has to live with, and who isn't necessarily nice to him. He's watching his back a lot of the time, if it's a case that the younger dog tends to challenge him.
On top of that, you've two entire bitches... This older male whose hormones must drive him potty when they come into heat, and another, younger male who, despite being neutered, will know fine well what a female in heat means, and will challenge the older guy over that too.
I dunno op... You're asking a lot of him... From what you've described at least.

Biological washing powder dissolved in water is essentially the same thing as enzyme spray.

Yep he would be an ideal dog for a couple with no dogs or children. He would happily sleep all day and go off for his little walk around the field for a roll in cow dung & come back happy LOL.
He's generally a happy dog and tends to do his own thing but just something's he and the other dog don't get on. Its like a competition between them. Too alpha males. He will be eating his food out of the bowl and the pup will stand behind him, right up at his arse intimidating him or goading him and trigger will be looking over his shoulder snarling at him. We have to feed them separately now.

I'll get him neutered and we'll take it from there & get vets advice. Oh and get the ladies done as well.

Thanks for advice.

DBB

Just to clarify, they're not Alpha dogs... It's a myth perpetuated by some poor science and poorly educated TV trainers!
What they are, are two dogs who sometimes want the same thing. The dog in possession of the mutually desired thing (in this case, food) usually has the advantage. But that doesn't necessarily stop a determined youngster having a go at getting it anyway.

aonb

just to add, that after getting your dog neutered it will take a few weeks or more for the effects to be seen - the testosterone to leave his system etc.

There may also be the issue of 'learned behaviour' to overcome....

carolinej

Just an update. I washed every where this evening with the bio wash. So far he hasn't marked any of his usual spots. He was doing a bit of sniffing around as I was cleaning. The only place he did spot was a pair of muddy wellies my OH took off in the utility room tonite. Any time I brought dogs out for a toilet break tonite I praised him when he went .