Once we'd got Noodles home, we took him straight downstairs into our basement which was to be his home for the first week or so, while he adjusted to his new surroundings. He marked just about every single leaf in our garden on that first day and tried to mark everything indoors. We said "ah-ah" every time we caught him just about to lift his leg and he picked up very quickly that it was unacceptable. However, we seemed to do such a good job that he wouldn't go out in the garden either! We were walking him 4 times a day and he saved it all up for then.
We tried lots of different techniques to encourage him to use the garden, including a pee post, which proved useless and Noodles gave it a wide berth. I can't say I blame him as it smells terrible!
I even persuaded J2 to urinate out in the garden (under cover of darkness) to see if that would encourage Noodles. I hope none of our neighbours were watching. Noodles just seemed rather bewildered by it all.
Then one day he started sniffing around a full bin bag in our garden which was waiting for rubbish collection day. And hey presto, he emptied his bladder over it. I wouldn't usually encourage him to wee up bin bags or rubbish as some poor person has to pick them up but on this occasion I was delighted and he was showered with treats and praise. Slowly he began to realise that urinating in the garden was OK and he didn't need to save it all up for his walks.
One thing I've realised is that he doesn't seem to have much of a window before deciding he needs to go and actually doing it. He runs downstairs to the basement and hopes that one of us will be there to let him out. Sometimes we're not quick enough and are greeted with a puddle on the floor but I believe that's our fault, not his.
Housetraining is still ongoing but I think we're getting there.
