Marking Around The House!

[Narcissa]

Hi all,

Recently, my 11.5month old Chihuahua started marking about the house - he even pooped on my brother's bed a few times. I do not know what sparked this as he has never done this before. I've already ordered a set of belly bands (camo!) from eBay but that simply stops the clean up, not the desire? What was most embarassing was that we took him to a friend's posh place and Maxey lifted his leg on their very expensive speakers! It was then I bought the belly bands~

I clean up with the part-vinegar/part-water solution, but I really want to learn how to stop this behaviour. Maxey was neutered slightly short of 6 months so I don't know why he is doing it. Do I have to watch him like a hawk all the time just so to intervene with a "No!"?

Any advise is appreciated.

[aussielover]

I would work with a behaviourist or good dog trainer if I was you. They will hopefully be able to determine the cause of this undesirable behaviour.

I am not a trainer or behaviourist so i can't say for certain that it is a dominance or anxiety issue, but it could well be one of those two issues, as house soiling can occur with both of them.

I would also immediately restrict his access in the house to one or two rooms. I would also remove some of his "privileges" such as being allowed on beds and other furniture in the first place.

I would not take a dog that had house soiling issues to someone elses place either!

Good Luck!

[Skitch]

Our italian greyhound pup does this.. we haven't had much stopping it but are still persevering!

I suggest going right back to basics.. treat the dog as if it's a 12 week old pup and being toilet trained over again. So never leave it unsupervised, restrict it to a certain part of the house, take it outside every hour or so when able and praise exuberantly for toileting in the right spot.. not sure what you do with the dog while you're out but we crate trained ours and he has never once had an accident in his crate!

Belly bands are a godsend aren't they.. we dont take boomer to anyones house without one on Lol! Do you find that your dog still lifts his leg even with one on? Boomer did it once or twice but then seem to realize that, that just meant his belly got wet and hasn't done it again.. but if you take it off and don't keep your eye on him he'll be lifting his leg on whatevers closest! :/

[Narcissa]

Thank you everyone for your replies, will definitely start from basics again ugh. I had no idea he would mark in someone's house because he never had that problem before! I never thought much of his marking the odd lamp-post, but the marking around the house and other people's places is definitely new. We used to bring him out with no problems at all, but we're never leaving the house without a belly band again. He also just marked the backpack of the IT tech guy who came around to check our modem router and I had to sneaky clean it all and hope he doesn't notice! Gawd.

Just received the belly bands today so will give that a try at home - do you use a sanitary pad with it? It didn't occur to me it might be an anxiety/dominance issue - thanks for bringing that up, I will look it up because he "seems" like such a well-adjusted, confident boy. He's never shown dominance in the traditional sense (possessiveness, aggression etc) or timidity (cowering, shaking, shying away from strangers etc) but perhaps I am overlooking something.

[Skitch]

Ohh my apologies, I misread your post and thought you already had him in belly bands!

In my limited experience (just with my own dog!) I've found that Boomer doesn't actually try to pee on anything when he's wearing his now. He did once or twice but then seemed to acknowledge that his wee could no longer go anywhere and stopped.. so I'd reccomend a pad for the first few wearings and then see how you go, just the feeling of something constricting his willy a bit might be enough to make him stop .