How old is he? Maybe lifting his leg is a marking thing, then I know some people put a little fire hydrant in the middle of the pad...Maybe looks funny but hey, whatever works. I agree that Positive Reinforcement works better than punishment, and yelling "NO" and tapping on the butt definitely are punishing him. What worked for me was clapping and yelling 'aaaaack' whenever I saw him squatting or circling just to distract his attention. Then I'd put him on the pad. Another thing I can recommend is getting an xpen and using it as a fence to gate off some area you don't want him in (like that chair). I still use it to gate off a bathroom (bathroom rugs
) and one room that no one really goes to. He has the free run of the kitchen (when alone) and kitchen, bedroom and the office when we're home. But to get here I had to start from basics, which was keeping him in a small xpen at the beginning...