What is urine-marking?

Urine marking is a typical behaviour exhibited by dogs and cats where they tend to urinate certain places especially near vertical posts, trees and other objects.  They often prefer to lift up their leg and urinate, also known as raised leg urination (RLU). It is mostly seen in young intact male dogs. Females also exhibit this behaviour but quiet rare. Urine marking is distinguishable from normal elimination of the urine. In normal elimination, dogs tend to urinate till they empty the bladder which means there will be an increased volume of the urine and it takes much more time to finish the process.

Instances when they do the urine-marking

• Urine marking behaviour is often evoked by the presence of other male dogs or other intruder male dogs.
• When they pick up strange and new scents from the environment
• Unknown objects
• When unfamiliar people come to your home, you often find them spraying near their vehicles, foot wear or even sniffing the place where they sat and urine marking that area.
• Marking the area which is already marked by other dogs thereby establishing dominance

Why do they do it?

It is very intriguing if you think about how our doggies do certain acts like hunting, guarding, eating certain plants when they have indigestion, eating soil in case of nutritional deficiencies etc. without anybody teaching or training them. It makes me wonder all the time who teaches them all these? Or how and when do they pick up all these stuff without us knowing? I am sure you all must have thought the same. May be this is why we call it natural instincts! There is always an explanation or reason behind every gesture shown by your pets.

Wolves being the ancestors of the domestic dogs that we rear now. They still have the residual behavioural instincts which they have inherited from the ancestors. One such explanation behind urine marking is that earlier wolf they mark their territory by their scent by urinating near the territory. So when the other pack of wolves cross their territory they understand it is marked or occupied by some other pack. Packmates can identify the urine scent of other member packmates. This is used as the aid to recognize each other when they go hunting or when they are separated. A variation of this behavioural instinct is seen in case of pet dogs when they are taken for walking. They have the tendency to spray urine as they move forward, so that they can always trace back the path. Wolves also use urine to scent mark food caches that have been exhausted so that the other packmate will not waste time in searching for food that isn’t there. since the urine contains special pheromones which give the characteristic individual scent of a dog it is often called as scent marking too. Scent marking is the indirect way of them stating that it is owned by them or they belong to the dominating class.

How can you limit it?

It is necessary to be aware of the fact that scent marking instinct of a dog cannot be completely taken away from them. It is a part of them which makes them who they are. However, to a certain extent, it can be kept in control.

1. Castration

Castration is one such procedure that can help with such an instinct. It is found to suppress the behaviour in gonadally intact males about 50-60% of the time. By castration or neutering the testosterone production is limited which will help to resolve the dominating and aggressive behaviour of dogs making them much more docile than before. This may reflect positively in case of urine/scent marking in male dogs. As I mentioned earlier it may not be applicable to all the dogs. Honestly speaking, I had my dogs castrated but they still show urine marking.

     2) Use of enzymatic cleaners

If you notice closely, dogs have the tendency to mark on the same area repeatedly. This is because they recognize the scent which was previously marked. So one way to minimise the scent marking is through erasing the previous scent from that particular area. One effective way of doing this is through the usage of enzymatic cleaners. They target on protein-based stain such as urine, stools etc. Therefore such cleaners do not leave any residual scent.

One of the highly rated and used product is “urine destroyer and stain and odor remover” by ‘Simple Solution’.

• User friendly
• Can be used on carpet, upholstery, bedding, fabric toys etc.
• Helps in discouraging future urine marking

It is easily available on amazon.

Another effective product is “Get off Repellent- Cat, and Dog” it contains effective deterrent scents that will discourage urine marking.

Available on Big Basket

3) Synthetic hormonal diffuser

It helps to reduce the urge of urine marking and also has a calming effect on dogs. It is available for cats and dogs. It comes with the diffuser and two 30 days refills, helps to stay calm in case of thunders and fireworks too. It is not recommended for outdoor use since, it is not effective in a large and open area. Hence, can be used only indoors/enclosed area.

These products are not very expensive but not so cheap too.

As a caution I would also like to mention that it is very important that you understand your dog. In old or senior dogs frequent urination may be because of the urinary incontinence or any kidney related issues. In such cases even if you use above mentioned products it is not going to help. These condition can occur in young dogs too. Such cases should be discussed with your vet before you self- diagnose.

Before using any of these products kindly consult with your vet. He will be able to guide and choose what is best for your dogs. Always understand that the information available in blogs and other websites is to guide and help in the management of your pet’s lifestyle. I personally do not recommend to take any actions without prior discussion with your vet.

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