Dog won’t stop marking in the house
Hi. We adopted a 2yo male dog (neutered) about four months ago knowing he was not yet potty trained. We have been working with him on potty training consistently since we got him. We go outside with him, treat/praise him immediately when he goes outside and yet he still marks in our house, sometimes almost immediately upon coming in. When he marks, we pick him up immediately and put him outside and have tried many noises to try to deter him— noises do not bother him and he does not react to whistles/yelling/clapping/bells—he looks but is unbothered and continues marking. We have worked with two behavioralists who have given us similar advice and it’s still not working and is actually getting worse. He wears band style diapers so he doesn’t actually succeed in marking other than peeing in the diaper so there’s nothing to clean up but we’re going through 10 to 12 diapers a day. I have a high-stress job, two kids and I am spending hours with this dog to no avail. If I don’t have my eyes on him he’s either in his crate or on a leash walking around the house with me, but The moment he has a little bit of freedom while he’s coming in and out of the house or while we’re transitioning, he marks. I am desperate for advice or ideas that may work.
Posted Mar 5, 2022, 5:47 PM UTC
I have no idea if this will work for marking, but when potty training my dog I saw advice saying to feed him in different places throughout the house. The idea being that it would cause him to view the whole house as his den and not a place to go to the bathroom. It seemed to work really well on my dog for the rooms that were typically closed off to him.
Playing works like this too. Dogs don't generally like potty where they eat and play.