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It's a male dog, 1.5 years old. His behavior drives me crazy. It all started with the maturation of his urination habits - it was 5-10 times per going out in a first time. And now, I'm not sure when he does ~30 times whether it is all out or there are still some urine remaining (in fact, I'm 99% sure there are).

Moreover, when I get out with him, he is not doing it at all for the some time (5mins or so). I occasionally have to walk at the less common paths so he can be motivated to urinate. He is approximately 3 times per day out, never less than that.

So, you can imagine the problem - cold and windy evenings, time shortage in the morning... Is there something that could be done? Thanks in advance.

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You need to understand the difference between urinating just to empty the bladder and urinating as a form of communication for dogs.

Communication

What your dog does is communication. He takes a nice walk, smells the urine or feces of other dogs and puts his own smell out there for other dogs to smell him. For a dog these smells contain information about the individual dog that left it there, its health condition and sex. Covering another dogs urine with their own is also a sign of dominance.

This urinating in small amounts and smelling the urine of other dogs is like reading the newspaper in dog-style. Who was here with whom and was there a nice girl around?
Lifting a leg even if there's no urine left is a very common behavior as well, especially in males.

This is the natural behavior of dogs and you should not reprimand your dog for it.

Do his buisness

If you want your dog to do his buisness quickly in one go, walk to the nearest tree or patch of grass where he is allowed to pee or poo. Wait there until he finished his buisness and return home afterwards (or after 10 minutes if he doesn't). Always go to the same spot and don't walk any further.

After a few times your dog will realize that this is not a walk to let him "read the newaspaper", but to let him relieve himself. He will learn that this spot is his toilet. It's also a good ides to do this "toilet walk" always at the same time (e.g. first walk every morning or last walk every evening) so your dog doesn't get all excited over taking a walk only to be dissappointed.

Please don't cut his walk time short just because he learned to do his buisness quickly. Taking a walk is a very important and happy part of your dogs every-day life.

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  • You could even take this a step further and put a command to it, every time he urinates/empties his bladder you could say the command and then encourage him to do it on command when you need him to. This was effective with my dogs.
    – SURO
    Commented Oct 2, 2018 at 15:23
  • thanks. That's most probably the true, but not easily done. I find it difficult to convince him to do everything and risk going to sleep with half full bladder. (I love my dog & I'm a lousy trainer) Instead I managed to go to quick wack in evening time - about a half of the standard route . Works well for now, I may decrease the distance over time to eventually achieve all at once in the one place. Thanks for clarifications.
    – Miloš Đakonović
    Commented Oct 10, 2018 at 22:25
  • I think he is getting it that in the evening time, walks are short, so 'do all at once or by few shots' hopefully will be learned and accomplished in few months or so.
    – Miloš Đakonović
    Commented Oct 10, 2018 at 22:31
  • @MilošĐakonović Changing a habit is always hard, especially if the habit is as fun as taking a walk. But it sounds like you're on the right track.
    – Elmy ♦
    Commented Oct 11, 2018 at 7:53

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