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#248904 - 08/02/09 06:15 PM
can new scents negate housebreaking?
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ben kwok
Leerburg Web Board User
Registered: 01/07/09
Posts: 29
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when I got my terrier mix, Marley, he was already housebroken (or so the rescue told me). He had no incidents till a friend moved in with me. one morning when i woke up and went to the bathroom, Marley urinated in my roommates room. I didn't clean it well enough and he continued to do it in nearby areas. I did manage to clean it all up and had no incidents for months.
fast forward to today. he marked a few places in the computer room. the only thing I can think of that would trigger this is that my girlfriend moved in with me and all these old boxes full of stuff were in that room. would this foreign scent be enough to cause him to mark? Marley has spent sufficient time in that room that I don't think he would urinate there. he takes long naps there, he chews on his hoof there, he rests there, we do training sometimes there, sometimes i feed him there, etc.
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#248949 - 08/03/09 10:29 AM
Re: can new scents negate housebreaking?
[Re: Mike J Schoonbrood]
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ben kwok
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Registered: 01/07/09
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would this foreign scent be enough to cause him to mark? Yes. Correct him for marking in the house.
that's one of the problems i'm having. I have never been able to catch him in the act. i even bring him to the area hoping that it will trigger him to mark and he just looks at me wagging his tail. i suppose i just need to be more patient and just wait for him to do it while supervising him.
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#248955 - 08/03/09 01:25 PM
Re: can new scents negate housebreaking?
[Re: Connie Sutherland]
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Alyssa Myracle
Leerburg Web Board User
Registered: 06/06/08
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Loc: WA, USA
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I'm gonna write a song called "Tether and crate".
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#248965 - 08/03/09 03:33 PM
Re: can new scents negate housebreaking?
[Re: Alyssa Myracle]
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ben kwok
Leerburg Web Board User
Registered: 01/07/09
Posts: 29
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I understand the suggestions on crate and tethering but I don't feel that is the right solution for this. I will probably just have him on leash and wait in this really small area of the house till he tries to urinate.
i've been pondering this for a while. from what I gather, housebreaking is 2 parts: 1) convince your dog the house is his home because they don't "mess" where they eat and sleep and 2) correct your dog for unwanted behavior.
I have 1 done, it's that second part. Am I correct or am I mislead? I thought the whole premise of crate and tether was to not give your dog an opportunity to do his business and eventually he will understand not to do so. I would have bet a million bucks that this is the exact pattern i had gone through with him. Yet, this appears to have been insufficient for him to get the point.
I don't know. these boxes of stuff have been in the computer room for almost a month (granted different boxes have rotated in and out) and he has rested and snacked in there. No issues until recently. he's actually marking within 5 ft of an area he likes to sleep in. He often sleeps on the couch in that room and on the other end is where he marked. why would he do that?
I don't understand how dogs just understand that inside "any" house means no marking. My experience is that you can only house train to a specific home. a dog doesn't understand that "oh i'm in a house, i'm not supposed to do this in a house". Yet I know dogs that seem to know not to do it inside any home... meanwhile my dog seems to have isolated certain parts of the house as "not home".
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#248968 - 08/03/09 03:51 PM
Re: can new scents negate housebreaking?
[Re: ben kwok]
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Connie Sutherland
Leerburg Web Board User
Registered: 07/13/05
Posts: 16670
Loc: North-Central coast of Califor...
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Ben, you are mixing up house-training (potty training) with marking.
I don't correct for potty mistakes. If the dog was indoors when s/he had to go, it was a management error. My fault.
Marking is not the same thing. 
If you are correct that he is marking, then he is most likely doing it because of the "invasions," and he is saying "my stuff."
If you tether him, you can correct instantly, which of course is the only effective time to correct for anything.
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#248973 - 08/03/09 04:31 PM
Re: can new scents negate housebreaking?
[Re: Connie Sutherland]
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ben kwok
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Registered: 01/07/09
Posts: 29
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Ben, you are mixing up house-training (potty training) with marking. I don't correct for potty mistakes. If the dog was indoors when s/he had to go, it was a management error. My fault. Marking is not the same thing. If you are correct that he is marking, then he is most likely doing it because of the "invasions," and he is saying "my stuff." If you tether him, you can correct instantly, which of course is the only effective time to correct for anything.
i think the light bulb went off (I hope). somewhere along the line someone had told me marking = urinating. when i think a bout it the way you describe it starts to make a lot more sense. His couch (if you want to call it 'his') IS covered in crap (not literally), not to mention that the floor is covered as well... and if he is being territorial, he probably wouldn't like that. if only he had told me sooner!
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#248985 - 08/03/09 06:04 PM
Re: can new scents negate housebreaking?
[Re: Dennis Jones]
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ben kwok
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Registered: 01/07/09
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he's well exercised 
he's also not a puppy. he's 2-3 yrs old now. I already know to barricade him from the marked areas. He doesn't mess with any other part of the house. I've gone through this before. Last time the solution was for him to just get used to my roommate and clean up properly. there was no issue for months.
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