Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Potty Problems...



So Marcus has an embarrassing little secret. He has some potty problems. I originally hadn't planned to post about it here, but apparently it's a funny story, so I figured I'd share it.

When we got Marcus, he hadn't been lifting his leg to pee for very long. As a result, he wasn't terribly skilled at it. Many times, he would put his leg down mid-stream, or he'd get tired of having his right leg up, so he'd put it down and lift his left leg. The end result was him peeing everywhere - on the backs of his paws, his belly, etc. I was sort of hoping that neutering would help a teeny bit, since many dogs don't mark quite as much post-neuter.

How wrong I was! Because Marcus doesn't want to pee a teeny tiny bit on 27 million things anymore, he now pees a whole lot in 1-2 bursts. Frequently directly into the backs of his front paws. The phenomenon has lead to Aaron giving him the nickname of "yellow paw". But it's not limited to his paws either. Sometimes, he decides to pee when his but is at a higher elevation than his face. In typical doggy style he's sniffing all over the place while doing his business, so he either pees right on his face, or ends up sniffing up his pee and sneezing.

Unfortunately, it's not just a pee-related issue. His signals seem to be somewhat crossed when it comes to going poop too. It seems that he seems to believe on occasion that he needs to poop in a high up place as well. The end result is that he sidles his little bunny butt up a tree, and then poops. Then, he freaks out because his poop comes rolling back to attack him! It's so funny to watch.

I am hoping that over time, he will get a bit more adept at keeping himself clean, but until then, it looks like we'll be giving him very regular baths.

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