a bad dog

Question
my mom, my 4 year old sister, and i have two rat terriers named rocco and marty. they are both males and are neutured. i got rocco in august of 2008 from a family who coudn't keep him, he is turning six in april this year. he is the best dog in the world, and he was really well trained. i got marty, who jut turned two in december, in august of 2009 and he is just a mess. he barks this really loud and high pitched bark at almost every single noise, he attacks the vacuum cleaner every time we vacuum so we have to put him in his cage, but he makes this awful squealing sound in his cage. he also pees and poops all over the house, like under doors or on things or just in the middle of the floor. the strange thing is he pees only a little bit each time but all the time, like we will let him outside and he goes to the bathroom, but then he will come right inside and pee on the floor. he also poops right in front of doorways so when you open the door it gets all over. he is afraid of boys because at his old home he was abused by the lady's fiance. he is also really territorial toward rocco, like if he is on the bed or the couch and rocco walks past or tries to get on, marty attacks him, but luckily, there is never any injuries. marty is also extemely terriotorial when he is eating a bone, so when we give each dog a bone, rocco eats his quicker so he stands up, and even if he is in the other room, marty will attack rocco and sometimes there are injuries, but not seriouse. whenever marty attacks, rocco wont attack, he either walks away or lays down in submission. we also kennel him when we go places cause he will go to the bathroom all over if we dont, but he does good in his cage when we are gone but when we are about to leave, he make the same squealing as he does with the vacuum. marty will also get into the garbage when we aren't looking and make a big mess. marty is nice to all people, he just barks at them when they come over but then he will get used to them and go lay down. he is nice to any other dog except rocco, which make me feal bad for roco. i'm sorry there is so many things in this email, but my mom wants to get rid of him and i dont want to. please help.

thanks,
lexi

Answer
This serious of an issue requires an on site dog trainer/behaviorist. Someone that can work directly with the dog. I also recommend you check with a local vet to see if there is a biological problem.

Small breeds can be hyper active and require training to calm them down. I would start with a puzzle food toy, such as a Kong, where the dog has to work at getting the food out. You also need to observe a strict schedule for frequent potty trips, basic potty training, from morning to night. usually every two hours and directly before and after any food.

Exercise the dog, long walks, or play, so its gets tired enough to want to lay down and be quiet. Play should not be things as tug of war or other competitive activities. Limit play to fetch, hide and seek or toys.  Teach the dog sit and down. Use the down stay and sit stay to get the dog to be quiet for longer periods of time.

Keep the two dogs apart so they cannot fight. Your older dog does not have the energy or interest of the younger dog for rough house play.

After the new dog calms down you can let them play together in a supervised area where you can stop any hard play.

Regards,

Henry Ruhwiedel
Westwind Kennels LLC
www.dogkennel.org