[Dori]

Hi Naturella. I don’t necessarily think you “broke” Bruno. The only dog I ever had an issue with was my male Bichon Frise, Francis. Male dogs are completely different with their bathroom habits than female dogs. If a female dog has to go out to potty she will go out, squat and pee and/or poop. Not so with males. Males have a need to mark territory. They have the instinct to sniff around and whenever and wherever they get the scent of another dog they will pee a little (marking) to mask over the other dogs scents. Male dogs are a pain in the butt to walk because of that. They don’t particularly care if you’re freezing yours off while they mark every spot everywhere. It’s instinctual, it’s ingrained in them. When he was a puppy he would just squat and pee but as he matured that instinct of marking showed up. When he was really old he started squatting again. I believe that Bruno would have had the need to wander and mark as he grew out of puppy hood regardless of what Brian’s wishes were.

With all that said, I have in the past, with female dogs, trained them to go in what I deemed their “okay” place to do their business. Our previous home was large with large gardens so I set off a particular area that we called their “bathroom area”. We would always take them out on their leashes. After a few months, whenever we would open the door for them to go out they would all run over to their “bathroom area” and do their business. Then they would just play outside. When we were outside barbecuing or in the pool and they were out with everyone every time they felt the urge to pee they would run off to their “bathroom”. Now with this house the patio area and garden area is small so there really wasn’t an area to designate their bathroom area or I wouldn’t be able to have any gardens. I wish I had as now I have to follow them around to pick up poop but as I said, it’s not a big area so it’s not really a big deal.

Anyway, these have been my experiences with male and female dogs.

• This reply was modified 11 years ago by Dori.