cairn terrior marking in MY HOUSE

Question
oliver was house trained very well. at one year old he met a female in heat, came home and began marking inside. we walk almost every morning and he marks everywhere happily. i go to work and he has marked inside. it is the only thing wrong with him, but it is alot. he is almost 2 now and i've considered calling cairn rescue to take him. PLEASE HELP. i love him but this is impossible.i did crate him until he was 6 mo. old. i quit when i could not catch him anymore to go in it. but,like i said, it was all o.k. until the female. i had him nuetered, it didn't help at all. i also have a very well trained, but older, 6 year old jack russell. both males, i guess that was a bad idea. PLEASE HELP ME!

Answer
Anne -

as a foster home for cairn rescue, I am only too familiar with this situation... and no, having 2 male terriers is often just fine.

There are 2 things I would do. I crate my dogs when I am not home. They go into the crates to get their meals as well, and when I leave the house and crate them, they always get a really high value treat (cheese at my house).

Secondly, when working with dogs who mark, I routinely use BellyBands.  Here is a link to one place that sells them and which explains their use, and why they work, pretty darned well:

http://www.decotogs.com/bellybands/bellybandinfo.htm

I also want you to know that cairns are often difficult to house train and also that he is at an age I think of as a teenager. They often get a little big for their britches and much of the training you have already done may need repeating... and if you haven;t done much, now is the TIME. It is essential to successfully surviving til he hits 3 or so and becomes the dog he is meant to be....

Here's a really good thing to read about cairns, and it is particularly applicable at his age !

http://www.cairnrescue.com/general/index.htm#toto

Should you not be able to curtail this behavior and come to your complete wits end, please do call cairn rescue. They usually try to do some coaching to see if problems can be overcome, and if not, they are best suited to addressing cairn issues.

Please let me know if you and any specific questions

-Beth