i need help. I have 2 rat terriers: Lenny and Carl, brothers, almost 4 years old. We've had another dog (female border collie mix) for almost a year and we've had 2 cats for a year and a half. Carl is still very good, lenny is the problem. Up until a few months ago neither of them ever peed or pooped in the house. All of a sudden Lenny started marking the corners of my mom's bed, he started marking EVERYTHING in the garage: cabinets, cat litter box, boxes, anything you could think of. it keeps getting worse, he was peeing on my mom's bed everyother day for a couple weeks! on her pillows or the corners of her bed, on my brothers clean clothes in his room, somtimes he does it right in front of us! then today he peed in the living room on my boyfriends xbox! i'm racking my brain trying to think of why he's become so territorial, but it doesn't make sense to me! we had a couple big changes: the new dog Lilu, the cats, we had some construction a year ago, but that was a while ago and he was fine for so long, why is he doing it now?
Sounds like a dog is trying to display his dominance. Sounds like he wants to be leader of the pack. With all your animals it does not sound like you invested in any obedience training. It's too bad because with obedience training your dog would know he is part of a pack and not the leader. You will need to do a few things. First, never allow any dogs on the couch or anybody's bed. Make sure each dog has their own bed. Your cleaning methods for marking spots must include some kind of spray that the dogs find offensive and makes them stay away from that area. I would review your feeding and watering of all the dogs. Place them on a schedule. Some dogs can eat and drink and then need to potty in 20 minutes. Some dog will need to go out 5 mins after they eat and drink. Your problem pup might need to go out with each pet that you take out because of his display of dominance. Lastly but not least,consider neuter. This might relieve the dog's need to display dominance. However, it is not the only answer to breaking bad behavior.
