Dog pooping and Scent marking while out on a walk

Walks and dog pooping

When dogs urinate or defecate while out on a walk, it does not indicate a loss of bowel or bladder control. Rather it is scent marking, which is a dog’s primary means of communicating its status within the area it lives.

Other dogs are able to read the ‘messages’ they leave and more importantly, they are able to respond without the need for violence, by leaving their own scent there.

No form of punishment should be used in an attempt to control this behaviour as this can cause attention-seeking behaviour.

Eradicate the scent
To stop dog pooping or deter dogs from urinating on your neighbour’s front lawn, it is important that you allow it to proceed with what it is doing. Once it is finished, spray a 50/50 mixture of surgical spirits and water over the area, which will kill all remnants of the scent. In other words, you will defeat the dog’s purpose of putting it there as a ‘calling card’ for another dog.

When it comes to solid matter, the solution is to pick it up and put it in a plastic bag. Spray the area with the surgical spirits, which will remove all the pheromones deter other dogs from going there.

Creature of memory

Dogs always look for the last spot they toileted to see if anyone has left a message, or to update their own. The dog is a creature of memory and after a few repetitions of this exercise it will quickly learn that there is no ‘reward’ for relieving itself outside from home, as the ‘pheromone email’ to other dogs seems to disappear.

Back to the plastic bag with your dog’s faecal matter. Once you get home, put it in the same place every time and they will learn to toilet only in that spot. This makes it handy for you to clean and avoids annoying your neighbour. It will also cause your dog to alert you when it has to relieve itself, avoiding any accidents.

It will give you signs such as sniffing around in circles with a female’s body posing a slight arch of the back and pre-cocking in males, both of which can be interrupted with a shot from a water pistol without saying anything. This will cause the dog to blame itself and deselect the behaviour.

WIFI Hotspot
Residents might consider having a communal set of lamp posts in the complex, which will serve as the ‘WIFI Hotspots’ for all the dogs to use, which will keep them up to date with what is going on with their fellow canines in the complex. Only for urinating, though. Treat solid waste as described above and you will live in harmony with your neighbours.

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