Hi everyone,
I'm a new member (just joined last week, and thanks to those who've sent me welcomes
) and I have a question.
I got my Yorkie Teddy about a year ago as a buddy for my Maltese, kind of through a rescue situation. His former owner just wanted to get rid of him - what I think happened was she never formally house-broke him nor did she have him neutered, and so when he started peeing all over the place, she hit him (he was traumatized when I got him and was severely anti-social to people). Then she got fed up and just wanted to get rid of them - and I got him.
So I rehabilitated him - got him neutered and tried to housebreak him after coming home the first day to pee/marking all over the apt. He had no sense of cleanliness or of how to keep his sleeping area clean. After some months, he slowly started responded pretty well but not bc of the neutering. I didn't use a crate, I enclosed him within a few rooms so that he could have his space and also pee in a consistent area. This also worked but then thought I could leave him loose in the apt (thinking he'd go consistently in the same area) and what a disaster - he didn't mark everything but he marked quite a bit of places other than where he was supposed to go (the Maltese is completely house trained so he didn't get it from him). What I think is that the marking behavior is so engrained in him that he just assumes this what he should do all the time (I should mention that when I take him out for his walks, he sniffs and marks EVERYTHING).
Any ideas on what I should/could do?