Question:
I have an interesting problem (inconvienence?) with Dante and Morpheus. Morpheus is the dominant of the two and they have had no problems interacting. However, Morpheus is a urine taster. I was semi hoping that once he was nuetered the urge to taste Dante's urine as he pee'd would go away, but it hasn't. It is to the point now where Dante will not pee when Morpheus is around, and even when he(morpheus) isn't I have to command him(dante) to go pee for him to go. (Thank god I taught him that when he was a pup!). Right now I have started letting them out seperatly, but Dante still needs to be commanded to go. I also am working with Morpheus, letting him know that I do not allow that behaviour. Any ideas on how I can get Dante to not care about Morpheus and just pee on his head if Morpheus is stupid enough to stick his head there?


Answer:
Lizz, that is an interesting problem! I always learn something new. So you mean when Dante is urinating, Morpheus will stick his head underneath Dante to taste it?


Answer:
Yup. I can understand Dante not liking it, I sure wouldn't! Once Dante is done, Morpheus ofcourse then urinates ontop of Dante's pee to mark over the scent. Since I've never had 2 dogs before, I've never had to deal with this, so I don't know the best way to approach it. I'd rather not have to let them out seperatly to pee for the rest of their lives either!


Answer:
That would make me very uncomfortable too! Just because it is a dog, doesn't mean that don't like to be left alone when they do their business.
I hope you can get some advice on this.


Answer:
I would try to distract Morpheus when Dante is urinating. Maybe put him on a long rope when they are out so he can't do it? It would be a pain in the butt since it's easier to just open the door & let them do their thing but if he is on a tie-out and you see that he is going to do the offending behavior, you can grab the rope, pull him away and verbally correct him.. It's fine if he wants to urinate on top of Dante's b/c that is normal dog behavior but I would try to teach him that he's not allowed to bother Dante when he's doing his thing..
Koko on more than one occasion has gotten peed on by Montana (who lifts her leg) but she doesn't do it on a regular basis.. thankfully!


Answer:
Thanks Sue. I can't really long tie him, but I could keep him on lead. He responds well to my sharp 'no' so I think soon he will have learnt not to (Morpheus picks things up quite quickly). Any ideas though on how to get Dante confident in peeing again? Or will that just come back with time. I know eventually he will HAVE to go, but on Saturday (when I first realised he wasn't going), he held it almost 24hrs, which can't be good for him.