Dog recently started urinating inside

Question
My wife and I have a 3 year old intact black German Shepherd. We got him from a family with several children back in October of 2006. We also have a female Pit/Rott mix who is spayed. Ever since we got the GSD, he has been "needy". By that, I mean that he always has to be near us (especially me), putting his paws up on us, nudging to be petted, whining when you don't pay complete attention to him. He especially whines when I leave for work, although not as bad as when we first got him. We feel that he did not get much attention from his former owners and was either outside in the yard or in his kennel. With us, he was in his kennel when we left the house and at night. Within a few weeks, we gave him the run of the house with our female. Now, he only goes in his kennel to eat because our female can be food aggressive. He also sleeps in bed. My wife does not work, so he gets much more attention than he did with his former owners.

Now...in the past two weeks, we have noticed that he has taken to urininating near my recliner. He would mostly do this when I went to work, so we thought it was separation anxiety. But, he went down and did it this morning before my wife could get downstairs to let them out. He shows no signs of a urinary infection, so we suspect something behavioral be it separation anxiety or not. Besides treating the area with neutralizer, what else can we do to change this behavior? We don't want to go back to keeping him in the kennel when we leave the house. The only thing we can think of that is different lately is that I am doing some painting as we plan to sell our home to move more into the country.

Thank you in advance!

David G.

Answer
Is he marking, David? Marking is not a housebreaking issue, but can be a real pain just the same. Marking is a deliberate act. One thing you can do is to keep him always in view, so that if he DOES start to do it, you can immediately correct him for it. Block his access to the room when you leave, or cannot watch him.

You might also consider letting him wear a belly band, which will contain the urine if he DOES try to pee in the house. Like a baby's diaper, though, you have to be vigilant and change it when it gets wet