I am writing this as I have come to the end of my tether with my 9 yr old staffy. My husband says if things don't change we will have to let him go and as I have had him since a pup I cannot bring myself to let him go.

Around 5 yrs ago he started urinating on my bed and after many sheet changes and new mattresses we began to stop him entering the bedroom by keeping all the internal doors shut that lead to the bedroom. This obviously stopped the problem but didn't solve it as when I am putting things away in the bedroom he will enter my child's bedroom and do it on theirs instead.
For the last 2 years he has turned to urinating on my couch and pooing on the floor.I can only be gone for a short period and always come home to washing my couch.
I love him to bits but I cannot take this anymore. We want to extend our family but I cannot see how I can bring up a new baby in this environment it isn't healthy for any of us.
I recently finished working and now a full time at home mum and I am at home for most of the day except when taking and picking the children up from school.
Please help he's my best friend and I love him to bits.

Sorry to hear you are having this problem, it can be very frustrating, especially trying to determine the "why" factor. This is a tough one.

I am new to this forum, but have been a breeder for 25 years, active in training and behavior modification, and maybe can offer you a little insight into my experience with this type of behavior without getting too complicated.

Firstly lets start with the behavior of peeing and pooing, I am not going to go into the health issues because I do not feel at present he is unhealthy and doing it as a result of being ill. I am not certain how long you and your husband have been together but in many cases where I encountered situations of this sort with my own dogs, or others, and if we can put this into a visual here, you in his mind belong to him, he is sharing you with others that take your time away from him, if you can think back to when this first started, were you and your husband together, or did something change in and around then, neutered or not this behavior will not stop but you may be able to reduce it with work.

I have run into many males that marked their territory or hiked on furniture, it is an alpha dog tendency to keep his scent around, in your case your male is covering the scent of others you are fond of and to do this, his only way is urination and defecation. He has also chosen to do it in the spots where they spend a great deal of time.

I have found this to take place in situations especially where women/men have met new partners and they have moved into their home, and into the dogs territory. The dog is a little jealous for lack of a better word, and is making sure all know he is there, and it is generally by leaving a pee where he feels it will be most noted. There are not a whole lot of dogs that do this but there are some, and you appear to own one. I have also seen it when guests in your home, adults/children that had pets in their own homes come into your home and sit, I have seen dogs mark this area as well.

I am assuming he has the run of the house and habit breaking is now a difficult one, as it has been going in for several years. He may well do this in a new home as well, should you place him. Neutering may or may not help if he is not already neutered.

My suggestion that I would make would be to give him a space in the house where he can be gated but still part of the family such as the kitchen, and only allowed to be a free roamer when you can watch him or leash him to you so that you can correct him by totally disallowing this to happen. Alone the house would be off limits to him however this could also run you into another set of issues such as barking, crying, destruction, injury to himself, stress, and the only real way to stop this would be a large crate that he could put into when unattended, would have to be a very good one, strong and well made for this breed, which means the task of starting up crate training, or an outside run with access to an indoor kenneled area should weather change while he is outside.

Either way your task ahead is not an easy one, and with crating you would have to start with small crate times, so that he is aware he is in there when you are not at home, and will get out when you are home, he should not longer be allowed access to any bedrooms and the doors should be shut to keep him out.

To sum it up, you have a possessive male and the only way to treat it is to remove his ability to do this in the areas he has chosen to do it. How he handles this in another set of issues, you may want to call a trainer breed specific to the staffs and see if they can offer further advice to you.

Good luck and hope this helps you a little understand the why factor from my past experiences!

Canady

The natural forces within us are the healers of disease – Hippocrates