[Nugent]

He was 7.5 yrs old when I adopted him 3 years ago. He hadn't been neutered until right before I got him. I hadn't had a dog for many years, and the only male I had was neutered as a puppy, so when I was walking him, his sniffing and peeing every 30 seconds didn't seem to be an issue.
He has a very large bladder capacity.

I am retired & have sort of adapted to this, by walking him 2x/day pretty long walks around the neighborhood, and park. Now, after 3 years of just the 2 of us, II have a room-mate with a 2 year old dog about the same size.

The issue presently is that when roomie doesn't close her bedroom door, Cappy goes in there, eats any dog food in other dog's dish, and PEES. I understand he is adjusting to someone in his space, and I suspect residual male hormones from late neutering.
I have explained to my roomie that he was neutered late, and that my thinking is that she needs to keep her area blocked from him.
Here's how it goes:
She forgets to close her door & Cappy & I are relaxing. Neither of us notice him walking down hall to her room.
Several minutes later, she says, "Oh no he peed". I say, "Oh no" then I clean up the pee.
She is acting like the only issue is his misbehavior, but I am thinking she needs to take responsibility to keep her door closed, or find a way to block his access.

1. Am I right to expect her to take more responsibility?
2. Any other helpful suggestions?
thank you

 

[Knute]

keep the door closed.

Seems to me the dog is "marking" and claiming territory.

You should consider increasing the frequency of your walks. 2X/day seems a bit low.

 

[DaySleepers]

Not a neutering thing, imo. My older dog (a pediatric neuter at <8 weeks - not our choice) does this. Can't speak for the puppy as he's not fully house-trained yet.

Some dogs don't generalize housebreaking the way we expect. We think "oh, s/he understands not to pee inside" when the dog has really learned "I don't pee in THIS SPECIFIC inside space". In their mind, friends' houses, hotel rooms, the hardware store, and yes, rooms they don't spend a lot of time in are still fair game for pottying. In our case, it was our spare bedroom/craft room at the time, which he had restricted access to because there were things he could easily damage or that could damage him in there.

Honestly, you're right. Keeping the room closed off or blocked with a baby gate or similar is the simplest solution here. Another would be to spend time with your dog in that room, supervising closely, and interrupting, bringing outside when he shows any signs of thinking about pottying, like he was a puppy again (and reward for pottying appropriately outside, of course). That's worked for us in helping our boy understand that a room/new indoor space has the same pottying rules as the rest of our home, but it's more awkward when it requires hanging out in your roommate's space.

 

[3GSD4IPO]

I never neuter male dogs. Period. They do not breed anything.

First of all, she needs to keep the door closed or gate the room. Leaving food out is an invitation to eat food. In this house food is put down and if not eaten in 15 minutes it is taken up until next meal. Cats included. Everyone is fed in different locations out of sight of each other so there is no theft.

As to the peeing.. he probably went in there and marked.. and the pee smell lingers on and now he continues to go in an mark.

Here is my rule with my male dog. I take you out to pee. That is standing around and waiting and letting you sniff and pee where ever. On a walk? No sniffing and peeing and marking everywhere. You go when I say so during a leashed walk and believe me it is not often. Leashed walks are exercise and dog is on my time not his time pissing and marking. This simply creates discipline. I control when and where the dog goes to the bathroom.

Combine a crate with disciplined leash walking and your dog will discover that when he is let out to Pee that Peeing is more important than marking. Does it mean my dog never marks? No. It means he marks when I say it is OK.

This might carry over to the in house issue. It might not. But right now the dog has been allowed to mark and has no idea that the behavior is, at times, no desirable.

Meanwhile, keep him out of that room. If the room's door is open, then you put your dog in a crate. Simply give him no opportunity to do the wrong thing.

 

[Knute]

Another point that may help with the residual scent.

Find a bottle of the enzyme based pet scent neutralizer. Follow the directions.

If you can't find that product, then I have had some success with a solution (4:1) of water and white vinegar. Clean the area as best you can, spray on the mix, let it air dry. The white vinegar is said to neutralize the scent.