Dealing With Male Stoooooopidness

I wrote a while back about Monster's behavior and my suspicion of neighboring bitches in heat. We managed to get that under control, and he'll be keeping his equipment (for now). If anyone has similar problems and would like some tips on how to deal with it, this is what we did:

First of all, this has got to stop

Snurfl, skroffz, grnf

He may sniff the ground as usual, but he may not stop and focus on a particular spot. Certainly, there will be no pawing or licking the ground allowed. Chances are, he's found a delicious puddle of pee...

Secondly, there must be severe restrictions placed on him adding to the local bouquet

Aaaaaaahhhh...

He shouldn't be allowed to mark all over the place. Now, this is something I believe all dog owners should be mindful of in general. I never allow Monster to pee indiscriminately: mailboxes, trash cans, garden gates, parked cars, etc are strictly forbidden - and should be for all dogs. Allowing your dog to pee on something someone else will have to handle is just plain rude!

However, in heated times, this rule becomes somewhat sharper. In fact, Monster is only allowed to pee in a very few places while out on walks, and must ask permission before doing so

Please?

This is another tool we already have, and I believe everyone should have. Having your dog ask before doing something just makes everything so much easier, and helps prevent unexpected problems. However, Monster doesn't usually have to ask before peeing (he does have to ask before being allowed to go ahead on a long leash, but once out he can do as he pleases), but while the yearning behavior was going on I changed this so I could control how much he marked territory.

And finally, this is just a complete no-no!

Hehehe, how you doin?

It may seem obvious, but not everyone thinks about it, it seems. If your dog is having problems like Monster was, don't allow him to sniff other dogs for a while. The lady in the picture is spayed, and certainly not in heat, however a male dog will fixate on nearly anything if given the chance (unless he's naturally easy going in these matters), and sticking his nose up a friendly bitch's rear is just going to be heaven for him...

There you go, nothing particularly earth shattering to reveal after all (as usual, right)! And you may notice all of this revolves around scent in some way or other, and that's precisely the point. The more your dog smells the good stuff, the more his hormonal balance will shift into mating focus, and it becomes a spiral (I'll leave negative or positive out of it, because I'm not sure Monster and I are in agreement on that). Stop him from getting continuous "fixes" all the time, and chances are good he'll snap out of it...

And if your dog won't eat, can't think, and just whines and howls all day and night for weeks on end, in spite of you trying to get him to calm down? I think you should consider neutering him, because that's just no way to live. As I've said before, I'm against castrating dogs for the owner's comfort, and certainly as an attempt to replace proper training (which is doomed to fail, as well), but I do believe there are legitimate cases where it really is for the dog's own good. Monster turned out to be salvageable, but he's still not fully matured, so we're keeping the option open...

Wait... What!?