I'm moving in with my girlfriend and have a problem in that Bosco, my 6 and a half year old Bordeaux, is marking in the house. We have been going out for a few years and he has been in the house since we started going out but I still can't trust him not to lift his leg. He has marked every room and I am at a loss as to try to resolve it. I control his movement as best as I can when we are in and he doesn't have a free reign of the hosue when we are out but we'd like to be able to relax and not constantly have to worrry about where he is when we are in the house. My girlfriend is keen to try more positve methods first and save the negative reinforcemnt methods as a last resort. Does anyone have any ideas?

John

Do you have a crate?

Keep him tethered to you or crated at all times. Give him a correction if you catch him marking right next to you (that's where he will be when he's tethered to you.
Perhaps he won't be so inclined to mark when he realises that the house belongs to the humans and not the dog.
Read Ed's training articles.

What would be a positive method, treat him when he isn't peeing?

I always have pretty good reformations when I come unglued and have a conniption fit when I catch a "house trained" dog marking in the house.

And you're sure that he doesn't have a bladder infection/UTI?

I think there was a discussion at one point about whether marking should be considered a housebreaking issue and if you treat it in the same way.

I can't find the thread though, but I think the consensus was that you need to treat him as though he is not housebroken, which means crating him when you are not home, and really limiting his movement/directly supervising him when you are home.

Some ideas:
Get a crate if you don't have one...

Tether him to you; he'll let you know when he needs to go out...

If tethering doesn't appeal to you, block off access to the rest of the house by closing doors, baby gates, etc. and keep him with you. If you can't directly supervise him, put him in his crate.

Make sure he's getting out frequently to pee...and I would be rewarding him when he urinates outside.

His behavior has been self-rewarding/reinforcing, because he does it when he is out of your sight or when you are not home, and is never corrected for it. (forgot to add: if you catch him 'in the act' correct him. If you discover it after the fact, it's too late to correct)
(Sorry for the duplicate suggestions; I'm a slow typer!)

I crated him when he was younger, up to when he was three years old and when I moved into my new house three years ago. He doesn't mark in my house, only at my girlfriend's so I'm pretty sure it's not medical. He is tethered when I'm not in the house and at night when he is asleep, he seems to like this spot and will sleep on it even when he isn't tethered. I don't have a probelm correcting him, but the mre negative methods I considered are using an Ecollar and correcting him with it when he goes into the bedroom which he has peed in the most but my girlfriend is not keen on this.

I don't know how practical tethering him to me in the house is as he's not allowed in the kitchen at all (the house is very large and he has free access to the hallway and the livingroom when we are in it)

I do appreciate all your comments. He can easily go 10 hours without needing to pee when he is at me house or when he is tethered in my girlfriend's.

I have tried closing his access down to the various rooms in the house, keeping doors closed etc, however, if there is an opportunity for him to get into one of the rooms, he'll be in like a shot and lift his leg. He gets out often when we are home and is tethered when we are not.

We'd also like to be able to relax in the house and not be constantly worried about where he is but I know the amount of work we'll need to put in to get to that stage.

 Quote: JohnMcGuigan

He doesn't mark in my house, only at my girlfriend's so I'm pretty sure it's not medical.

Ahh, I missed that from your original post.

Would you consider keeping him crated in your girlfriend's house when he's not right with you?

Maybe someone else can comment?

I think crating him or tethering him is more treating the symptom than the cause and I don't know how effective it will be in the long term. If I tether him in the short term, I suppose the likelihood is that he will become more comfortable, learn his boundries and we can then let him of gradually after a period of time.

don't give him free reign of the house. He is marking his territory in your gf house. He understands a correction while he is peeing, but if you try to correct him afterward when you find a wet spot he may not associate it with him peeing.

I agree keep him tethered to you or in sight at all times. For the future when you bring a dog into a house NEVER let them roam free; this gives them authority (in the dogs mind) to own the house. It may/may not work to try this again to restrict the rooms he is allowed in and gradually re-introduce him to the whole house.

Ex. When I bring fosters home (after a long walk) they're only allowed in the back yard. Then they go on a leash and I walk them into my front hallway and kitchen. They may NOT cross the path into the living room/bedroom until I give the okay. When I eventually do let them sniff it's 100% under my control on a leash, and they sniff what I let them. This shows them it's MY house, and they are fortunate to be living inside with me.

Another thing to note is be careful what you clean the spots with. If you clean them with any ammonia-based products, you may be creating a need (in your dogs mind) to re-mark his territory. Since a mammal's urine is mostly ammonia, an ammonia based cleaner makes it seem like someone else is marking over him, and I'm sure he doesn't like that

Hi, I've trained a client with a similar problem - she had a 6 yr old rescue mix - always lifting his leg around the house. She gave up on trying to train him, until she found us.

In terms of positive reinforcement, you 'can' positively 'reinforce' peeing outside - but the problem is, (AND A BIG PROB) is that you MAY reinforce 'marking' e.g. you say 'good boy for marking that tree!!'

This is what I advised, and so far, the dog has hardly lifted his leg in the house again.

1. Correction: you have to be able to correct him 'hard enough'. Something that will even make him 'yelp' a little.
I am STRICTLY against using unnecessary force with a dog, but when it comes to toilet training, if he can hold it for 10 hours in the crate, he can hold it for 5 hours in the house.

2. Catch him by surprise - the moment he sneaks off to another room, slowly follow him, or walk by him as if you are ignoring him and when you see him do his bad thing, voice and physically correct him. Keep your voice calm but noticeable in correction, but the force has to be strong e.g. grab him by the scruff of the neck or whatever you normally do - but double/quadruble the strength. The idea is to be clear to him that toilet in house is- nono.

3. After the correction, quickly let him go, so the correction is barely more than 2-3 seconds. He MAY (my clients dog did this...) go and try to mark a second object or third in succession - then you must v. firmly correct him. You would probably have to be REALLY QUICK!.

But remember, stay calm and pretend that everything is fine, but once his leg goes up, you become his worst nightmare.

4. If you have corrected him good enough, and he understands, he may go to a corner to lie down or under a chair etc. At this point, you should slowly go over and 'see if he is ok'. You may notice, he will be shy of you, and possibly lick you. But just resume life as if nothing happened.

5. Very important to catch him everytime. For everytime he pees, the more he learns that it is ok.

6. If you need to use a leash, then do so, but the problem will be that the dog can learn it is not ok to pee on the leash, and half ok if he is off=leash in the house.

7. I would confine him to one room, supervised, if a few days go with no mistakes, open another room.

8. If he goes into other rooms, you want to 'spy' on him - so if he DOES do something, you can correct him, but in the dog's mind, he doesn't know you are watching him.

POSTIVE:
IF you only want to stick with positive - additionally, you can give him wet food for meals (nice food) when the house is clean with additional treats etc. as bonus.

But when he pees in the house, all nice food is taken away.. he is fed dry food and there are no treats for the rest of the day.

HOME:
When you return from a walk, to re-enter the house, get him to wait by the door, and when he puts a paw in, (without being asked) you correct him and usher him back behind the door line.
IMPORTANT: no voice commands are used. e.g. NO sit/stay.
You simply walk in and if he walks in too, you correct him.
Then after a few minutes , you call his name to enter.

I like to give freedom for my house dogs, and to accept the mentality of: you can do anything you want, but you cant do... 1.2.and 3. That way, we can live together nicely and they know what they can and cannot do.

From my training experience, if the owner can correct the dog effectively enough, (effectively meaning clearly) the dog will think twice about doing certain things.

Oh, and my client's dog literally changed in 3 days.