Female Marking Territory...normal??

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Snowman81

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Hello,

I have a 1 and a half years terrier x and I have noticed that she is ...being blunt... peeing an awful lot when we go out for walks. I used to not think this was too strange when she was a pup as she seemed to have quite a weak bladder as house training took a long time to sort out as she just didn't seem to be able to hold on all night. She is 100% house trained now but I have noticed that the behaviour actually seems to be marking behaviour just like a male dog...she always goes by lamp posts or even on top of other animal dung - usually wild animal dung as we walk in the woods quite a bit...sorry for all of this talk of not so pleasant things.

She does sometimes stay with a friends dog and she worships the ground he walks on, copying everything he does so could this simply be a copied habit...she is v quick to pick up little quirks. She is spayed (done when she was one and had only had one season in her life)

I suppose this isn't a massive issue but I do wonder why she does it and also it can be a pain as I love to have her run alongside the bike maybe once a week but this can be tricky when she is constantly stopping. Should I be trying to stop the behaviour or is this totally normal? I thought it was just male dogs that did this!

Some of the info I have read suggests it might mean she is a dominant character and she certainly is full of beans but very quick to submit to all other dogs and nine times out of ten greets them upside down with her legs in the air.

Thanks
 
Both my terrier bitches (mother and daughter) do this! I used to have a male lab when I had the first terrier and she actually not only marks but cocks her leg to wee! She would go as far as copying all his mannerisms down to holding one front paw in the area and various other habbits. The really funny thing is now her daughter is doing it too so one cocks her leg to mark then the other marks the same spot and on it goes! Glad its not just mine!!
 
In my experience the bitches can be as bad as, if not worse than, the males for marking......so normal behaviour, don't worry! :D

As for whether you should do anything about it, that's up to you really if you're happy to stop every few minutes whilst on a lead walk for madam to mark or not. I take the view that my dogs are allowed one wee/mark and then we walk to where we are going and once they are off lead they can do what the heck they like and mark to kingdom come for all I care. Have to say though, we do minimal lead work - 10 mins max before they are loose.
 
One of mine did handstands up trees to get her scent higher than the last messanger! Usually they leave many more messages when they are coming into season...sort of "watch out ,boys..I `m here and getting fruity".
 
Thanks for all of these messages, good to know it is normal. Will just work on her basic comands I think and make sure I can move her on when needed...don't mind a few stops but not hundreds! Think part of the prob is her nose is so near the ground and she gets overwelmed with scents! Used food the other day to get her to look at me and heel better so only a few stops on that walk! ...also she does the handstand thing too!
 
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