Long Shot Filter (or No, Not There!)

January 5, 2020 4:46 PM

My dog Gatsby was neutered at a very early age so he doesn't lift his leg when he pees. That's cool, but the problem is he usually pees on his front foot. This is kind of gross since he, you know, walks everywhere in the house with that foot. Anybody have any ideas how to get him to redirect or move his dang foot?

(dog tax in comments in a few minutes when I can pull up a link on my phone.)

posted by Weeping_angel to Pets & Animals (11 answers total)

Response by poster: Dog Tax
posted by Weeping_angel at 4:48 PM on January 5, 2020 [7 favorites]

There's more than one way to, uh, skin this cat but if it were me (and after thinking about possible superstitious learning that also involves urine), I'd start taking two things on walks: a big ole bag of tasty treats and a stick. When he stops to pee, use the stick to nudge his leg out of the way and immediately shove a treat in his face. Do this consistently and he will probably begin to associate the movement of his leg while peeing with the treat. There will probably be a period where he starts doing the leg movement at other times as he tries to figure out what the rules are. Just ignore it, he'll figure out that outside + pee + leg movement = treats. Once that is solid, you can start giving treats intermittently, at increasingly long random intervals.
posted by soren_lorensen at 4:59 PM on January 5, 2020 [5 favorites]

Put a rubber boot on that foot. It’s really your problem, not his, so treat it as such.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:31 PM on January 5, 2020 [4 favorites]

My. Dog lifts his leg and still manages to pee on himself sometimes. I also have two dogs, so sometimes they pee on each other! I just carry wet wipes with me on walks.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 7:10 PM on January 5, 2020 [5 favorites]

This might be a silly question but has he seen other dogs lift their leg to pee? My wife told me when she got our* dog, he didn't lift his leg to pee, then saw another dog do it and started doing it as well.

*Her dog first but he's been my buddy too for a while now.
posted by DyRE at 1:09 AM on January 6, 2020 [8 favorites]

I was going to say what DyRE said. My boys had been caged and neutered late, but both of them learned to pee by lifting their legs through peer pressure-- aka walking with other male dogs.
posted by frumiousb at 5:51 AM on January 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

Agree that male dogs will mimic other males. My dog does lift his leg but often still manages to hit his front leg. I have a package of baby wipes by the door and in the car.
posted by HotToddy at 6:35 AM on January 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

Best answer: One note about getting the dog to learn to lift his leg from other dogs, my old beagle Ben was the same way and didn't start lifting his leg until his basset hound buddy down the street showed him how. The problem was that Ben thought that the leg thing was just for marking and not for real pee. So he'd walk up to a tree, pee a few squirts with leg lifted, then walk a few steps away and squat to pee the rest.

I'd opt for wet wipes or this guy. It's pretty good for dealing with muddy feet, so I'd assume pee foot would be cleaned as well.
posted by teleri025 at 7:58 AM on January 6, 2020

In addition to treats and nudging, I'd work on a verbal command. Gatsby, lift! which you can work on at various times. He's a cute patootie. also, wet wipes. My dog rolls in dead vegetation, and I put used wet wipes in a mesh bag and launder them.
posted by theora55 at 8:02 AM on January 6, 2020

Response by poster: He has seen other male dogs lift their legs. For the first year or so after I got him, he shared a yard and went on walks with my best friend’s dog, Miles. It was funny, Gatsby would sniff something and then Miles would come over, lift his leg, and mark it. Like, “Good find, kid! I’ve got this!”

I knew it was a long shot. He was a rescue that was mistreated during his formative early puppy time so he’s got a lot of fears that we’re slowly working on. The peeing on his own foot thing happens most often when he’s in the yard, which he’s still a little wary of (we moved back in May) but I want him to pee there so it smells like him instead of the dog that used to live here (which might be why he’s wary...). I’m just hesitant to disturb him mid-pee when he’s already nervous.

That paw cleaner thing looks brilliant though! Ordered. Thanks!
posted by Weeping_angel at 12:02 PM on January 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

Firstly - magnificent ears.
Secondly - our dog was similarly neutered early and for the first three or so years of his life kept all four feet firmly planted to wee. However, for some reason over the last 18 months, he's started lifting a leg (not very high and rather randomly, but hey) to mark. He currently walks with a group of female dogs as far as I can recall, but has been walked alongside males as well. Just to say it can change and although he's not wee'd on his own foot, he has certainly wandered through it on occasion.

#SoProud; #That'sMyBoy
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 5:28 PM on January 6, 2020