Male dogs are supposed to lift their leg to pee. It keeps them from peeing on their own front feet.

Though I've seen females lift and I've seen males squat ...those are the exception more than the rule.

My suggestion would be to train them to go potty in an area where you want them to pee. Perhaps get them their own fire hydrant...

Your dog is lifting his leg on the fire place. This should be considered unacceptable.

Your dog is not house trained, something has gone wrong when you were trying to make this happen. Keep in mind that a dog is not considered fully trained until there is no indoor accident for 9 months.

To make a very long story short, you need to back up and completely start over in the potty department. This is going to take lots of work and commitment.

It's also going to take every second supervision, don't argue, by you of the dog when he is not crated for at least 3 months. Why you might ask??? Because dog has it in his head that he can do this and get away with it. He needs to get over it.

If you are not willing to go through with this to correct the problem, it's only going to get worse.

SG

I forgot to ask, is he spayed? If not, then he needs to be.

male dogs will also urinate all over the place to mark territory, but I agree with the poster that said it is back to the drawing board with housetraining. There is alot of great info online, and it has to be done, because like she said, it will only get worse. It may be a little time consuming, but it is not difficult, and the reward is a dog who you don't have to worry about peeing in the house. Well worth it.

I have never used them, but some people swear by "belly bands" for smaller dogs during training time. I don't know enuff about them to reccommend one, but you could do some research.

THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HOUSEBREAKING. Please, please please take your dogs for regular leash walks. Dont just let them out the back door to deal with things on there own, and certainly don't wait for a dog to signal you. You should be wlaking your dogs around your neigborhood, or at a local dog park, or out a fire road or at a local lake, somewhere, anywhere but your own yard. This will help teach our dogs to deal with their potty habits and their marking issues outside of your house. Once you have had them out and about on daily walks (I recommend 3 times a day - 15 minutes AT THE VERY LEAST for leash walking. About a week into your leash walking, you should see a difference in the marking issues around your home. If not please repost. Have a nice walk

SG makes a good point that the second dog never learned what your house rules are. He just followed the first dog and then did what he wanted.

Buy some enzyme (a type for washing down kennels) and clean all the areas he's marked. Then walk out with him and take him to the yard area that he's supposed to use. If you're sitting on the deck with the dogs loose & playing, you may want to keep a squirt bottle handy for those times he looks like he's going to raise his leg.

My neutered, male dogs rarely lifted their legs but would stretch out like a horse does to pee. Only when they could smell where another dog or animal had been would they lift their legs.

Is he neutered?

"THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HOUSEBREAKING".

Mazer, let me respectfully disagree. The house training process includes scheduled daily walks and crating, as well as numerous other things that go along with it.

Hard work, commitment and repetitive scheduling is key to most, but not all house training issues. Lots of people make HUGE mistakes not realizing this.

SG

It sounds like you have a couple of different issues here. One is that the dog is lifting his leg on the fireplace - you need to get this (and other indoor potty accidents) under control; make sure to watch him closely, you may find it helpful to tether him to you until he learns the rules (put him on a leash and loop it through your belt buckle). Another tool that can be helpful with this is a belly band - which is basically a wide band of fabric that goes around a male dog's belly and fastens at the back. When they lift their leg to mark, the urine is contained in the belly band, causing them to feel wet which they don't like. As a bonus, it also helps prevent/reduce the urine on what he is marking.

The other issue is peeing on your plants/flowers/deck outside. To me this would be a second priority, and again supervision is the key. Don't just let them into the yard on their own - go out with them so you can prevent peeing on the wrong items (like your flowers). Also, if you play fetch or whatever with them, they will be less likely to get bored and look for things to pee on. You can put up little fences to protect your flowers while you are working on these issues. Also, as already suggested, you might want to teach them to pee in a certain spot instead of all over the yard - the best way to do this is to take them out on leash, use your potty command, and reward.

Many (most?) male dogs do lift their leg to pee, it's pretty natural. What you should work on is teaching them where it's ok to pee and where it isn't. Someone also suggested walks - I couldn't agree more.

I do think that there is lots of good advice given here, however.

The problem must be zeroed in on to be corrected. To properly do this, every second supervision is simply a must when dog is not crated. This goes along with all other aspects of the house training process. The way I see it, the dog peeing on the fireplace. If he were house trained, he would not be doing this, and the house training process needs to be started all over.

Without this very basic behavior correction, future training is going to be difficult if not impossible, and, the problem(s) will get worse and multiply.

SG

SG - Marking has absolutely nothing to do with housebreaking, it is a completely different issue. If the owner takes the dogs out for leash walking, the dogs are more likely to mark on another dogs mark, and not in the house, or in their own yard. Dogs can be trained not to mark but it takes cleaning the area throughly and a sharp eye out for the dogs activity around the areas previously marked. The point of taking the dogs out for walking on a regular basis and out for obidience training or to the dog park in order to wear the dog out more. A daily trained and walked or exercised dog is less likely to mark an area. The opportunity to mark is given during the walks and out of the home.
You are free to disagree with me..I call things as I see them and I give out advise based on the experience I have.

I do agree with most of what has already been posted, however. I also call things as I see them, and my experience over the past 18 years of dealing with dogs. This dog has missed out on the prime potty training time, which is between three and five months of age.

The different opinions are why I believe there is so much confusion with this issue, and why people give up out of frustration. This leads to lots of dogs that wind up back at a shelter or in one. I agree that there could be a marking issue, but, at this stage of the game, there is no way of knowing.

The only way to target this specific problem, and nothing else, is to back up and completely start over with the house training. If there is a marking issue, the work put into the house training process should fix the problem.

This will require every second supervision, with a leash on the dog, for at least 3 months, when he is not crated. It could very well take this long to un-do what dog has instilled in him.

I might also bring up the subject of ruling out a UTI, however in a male dog, this is not very likely.

SG

Sounds like Bugsley has a house breaking (or lack of) problem.
I don't think Capone "learned" to hike his leg from Bugsley.He's a male dog,male dogs mostly do what comes naturally and hike their legs! I had a male Chihuahua who always squatted to pee.Then one day when he was about a year old,out of the blue he hiked his leg to pee and did it almost all the time after that.Once in a while he would squat but mostly he hiked.There were no other male dogs around to "teach' him the behavior and he was neutered. It does seem like you need to work on Bugsley's housebreaking issues though.

Our vet is the one that told us that Capone had learned the "hiking the leg" thing from Bugsey since he had never done it before.

We are back to square one on the potty training and we are trying to get Bugsey to "ring the bell", but I think a lot of the problem is that Bugsey does not WANT to go out. He was a rescue and I don't know all of his circumstances, but I think he had to scavange for food and spent time on his own and thinks being a house dog is far better...

So, when we take him out is is with reluctance that he goes. We go out with him to the edge of the deck and insist he goes downstairs to the yard and leaves the deck flowers alone. He seems to prefer hiking his leg on the fountain, and that is fine.

We do take him for long walks in the evening and had to buy him a harness because he strained so much to go out front that we were afraid for him. He is a very "touchy" larynx for some reason and is prone to cough and gag with the slightest touch.