Adopted dog (crate & accidents in the house)

Question
"My wife and i recently adopted a male BC Mix and introduced him to our home and our pure bred female Boxer. He has been adjusting well and has not shown too many separation anxiety issues. He has been trained and understands some hand commands as well as verbal commands. We have two major problems though. For one he has for the last 4-1/2 years been crated whenever his family was gone from the house and they brought the crate with him, it now takes up our second bedroom. Our boxer has never been crated except during potty training. We cannot trust him to be out of the crate because he has on two occasions pee'd in the house and since he has never been out of the crate we do not know what he will do. We let him out plenty, we encourage him to go outside an praise him when he does, problem there is he seems to not want to go out when we take him, he is more interested in everything else except relieving himself. He is on a leash when we take him (our boxer is off lead trained and is not on a leash when we take them out) and is very excitable (the second problem) when other dogs and people are around, he looses focus and acts crazy, barking and whining and cannot relieve himself if there are any other distractions.

Three nights ago we took him and our female on a long walk (3 miles) and he pee'd twice on the walk, when we were home we stayed outside for a bit to let him go again and he did not. Since we are trying to break him from the crate we left for the store for 15 minutes and when we came home he pee'd on the side of our bed.

The next morning we took him out 5 times in a row and he would not go the the potty. I kept putting him back in his cage for a few minutes, then I would immediately take him back out. I fed both dogs and no sooner did he finish his food, he went right over to the couch and raised his leg and pee'd on the couch. We were floored! He went right back in his cage after a scolding and putting him outside.

He is used to sleeping on a bed in the past, but we do not let ether dog sleep on the bed, we bought him a nice dog bed and have it next to our bed, the same as our boxer. How are we supposed to discipline him when he pees in the house if his crate is his own private hotel suite? Plus it is big enough for a horse!

He is a good dog, but needs some additional work. Can you help?"

Answer
It sounds as though he may have been scolded for accidents, and could have learned that it's "dangerous" to pee in front of humans, rather than that it isn't ok to pee in the house.  Unfortunately, since you have already scolded him, you will have a harder time training this - Border Collies are often "one trial learners".  If he is intact, neuter him right away.  That may stop the marking on furniture.  If he is neutered, he may simply have learned to "mark" and it has become a persistent habit, or he is a recent enough neuter that the hormone levels have not subsided.  

House training is all about diligent supervision, so my advice, if you want to break him of needing the crate, is to tether him to your waist when he is out of the crate.  That way, you will always be there to notice if he starts to leg lift or if he is circling, sniffing, etc.  Simply interrupt him with a quiet "eh-eh" "outside?" and take him out.  Reward if he pees outdoors, clean up any accidents with Petastic or similar enzymatic cleaner.

Often, dogs that lose their homes and end up in a new home, or dogs whose families move, forget their house training.  Since dogs don't generalize well, it may just be that you have to re-train this behavior in the new home.

I would also suggest obedience classes (positive or clicker training) so that you establish "benevolent leadership" over the dog and the household.  That way, he will not think that your stuff belongs to him and that he can mark it at will.