Dog training - marking?

[janette]

I've been watching petfinder.com to add another Bichon Frise to our family. They are a breed that doesn't tend to have lots of pets for rescue. Due to my DD's allergies we are very limited in the breeds we can have and we really enjoy the Bichon we have.

There is a dog there now but they say he was turned in for marking. I'm not a very good dog trainer, we have managed to house train our puppy pretty well and he only has problems when it's raining (hates to get those feet wet). We had him fixed as soon as possible so marking has never been an issue. Is this something that is fairly easy to train a dog not to do? This is something I wouldn't deal with well and know that if it's a hard habit to break we need to just keep looking.

Thanks for you help.

 

[Leota]

Hey Janette!
We have terrible problems with our little Newman & marking - We have tried all kinds of different things. If I was home with him all day, I think we could break him of it completely - but without having the time to really spend on it, it has been impossible.

He's not a bad dog - he's not a very smart dog, tho. He had some physical problems which started the whole mess - then it became habit. A tough one to break at that.......

If you get the poochie, have it checked for physical problems & plan to spend alot of time training - ALOT! Seems the older they get, the harder it is to re-train......

(PS - Newmie wears diapers now if he's not right in the room with us & is confined to the kitchen when we aren't home - he won't mark in the kitchen at all)

 

[dianeschlicht]

This is a known problem with this breed. If the dog was not trained well as a puppy or was not nuetered young, it might not be possible to make him truely dependable without diapers.

 

[dtuleya]

I would agree that this is a "trait" of this breed. A friend got one and she had the hardest time housebreaking her puppy and she was home with it all the time.