Question
Background: Got this guy today from a local shelter. A 6 year old un-neutered male teacup chihuahua mix (I think a Jack-chi). Adding him to a household with two other dogs, a 1-2 year old female teacup chihuahua, and a 4 month old male teacup Chi-winnie. All being crate-trained.
The problem:
1) Whenever the new guy is handled, urine leaks out of his penis, he gets an erection, and starts an involuntary-looking humping/masturbating motion. Even petting his back.
2) Whenever he's outside, he compulsively lifts each leg, one after another, urinating until nothing comes out, then keeps on doing it, and keeps on doing it, etc. On a walk around the block he wanted to stop every two feet to do it. And something about it seems involuntary, certainly not aggressive, as he's the most timid little guy.
The two things above really amount to the guy being totally disfunctional. What's going on, and will having him neutered next week fix this?
Note - We haven't had him meet the female yet, though their crates are nearby. We had the two males meet outside the house and surprisingly they got on well. But within a minute, the new guy was lifting his leg dripping everywhere, and then came the erection and the contortions/humping.
EDIT: Forgot to add this possibly important detail. It seems he's been living the last year at the shelter...underneath the friggin' front desk with a bunch other little dogs. (?!)
Answer
He's overstimulated, a good chance neutering won't fix the problem (though still a good thing to do!) but it can help. Some dogs who get overly excited will dribble urine and get erections. Humping can in time turn into a learned behavior (also used for dominance) and have no relation to hormones, that probably won't stop at this point. Even for the erections, a dog who's very excited can still get them even when testicle free.
Urinating every few feet is a marking behavior will be seen in neutered pets as well, same goes for the excitement/nervous dribbling. It's fairly common and normal. However that being said if you notice that he's urinating on himself when he sleeps, seems to want to go outside for big pees more than usual or dribbling urine with no cause you could have an underlying urinary tract issue.
Answered By - Rebecca RVT