ok great. I am just watering it as needed, and watching for it to grow a new stem. I am glad this happened now and not later, so I still have all summer to grow the plant's first year main stem. Grapes seem to really love our vegas weather! :)

Hi Toomuchglass, Often when a male dog urintes indoors at someone else's home or his own he is trying to stake territory. This is not a house breaking issue, it is a territorial behavior issue. Let us assume he does not do this at his own home. Where does he stand in the pecking order with the other male dog? And even your female? If he is the beta, he might be trying to let your female know she is below him in the pecking order. If he is the Alpha male he is trying to let your female know that he is top dog. Keep in mind he does not know if he is here permanetly or just visiting. In his mind the pack is unstable. There is a new memeber and he wants her to know where he stands. In a wolf pack, the alpha wolf will usually be the dog that marks territory. No other wolf would have the gumption to do this unless they are going to challenge him. They know where they need to eliminate and they do this with respect. This dog does not know who is in charge and may feel he needs to be. From his perspective he is thinking... Who is top dog? Who is the boss? Where do I fit in? I don't want to loose. So lifting to mark an area is his way of saying I am part of this space. He may be setting boundaries to prevent a fight. He may not be a fighting guy but wants everyone to know this is his space. Some ideas that might help are having a crate in your home for him to enter as soon as he arrives. After 1/2 hr let him out of the crate but watch him closely as though he were a tiny puppy. Keep him on a leash attached to his owner or even you. Do not let him out of your site and if he lifts a leg. Be ready to train! As soon as he lifts a leg, shake a can with coin in it. Scream loudly. NO! And rush him outside to do his duty. If you can even mop up his pee with a paper towel and leave it outside where he can smell where he needs to go. Be loving, firm and consistent. He needs to be taught in a loving way that he is not the alpha of the space. That someone else is in charge. He needs to earn your trust which means he either needs to be closely leashed to his owner or you and slowly when he can be trusted not to lift his leg he can roam free. Never reprimand a dog for marking if you do not catch him in the act. This will only confuse him. I hope this helps. ~boxerpups

Fl-CountryB, You are in a difficult situation. You miss Rocky. You miss her more than Holly does. Holly misses her but dogs seem to have a sense of acceptance about death that we as humans don't. I suspect bringing Buddy home was more for your comfort. This is okay. Thousands of dog lovers do this. We can't help it. We love our dog packs. I have had the good fortune of always adding a puppy to the pack. The puppy has to work for and learn who is boss. I will say I have one male who still tries to challenge the top female. She is old and frail but she is still top dog and number 2 knows this. No one has ever bitten. But there was plenty of wrestling, playing and at times a nip would occur that would make someone yelp. Biting means they have forgotten you are the TRUE boss. It's easy to do. You had two old dogs and they knew the routine. Now, you have to start all over. I would not fret too much. Things will work out but you have to be the Top Alpha in this pack family of yours. Hard work but you can do it. There are two ways to go with this. Different dog trainers use different paths. 1) The first path is You are the alpha who choose the totem pole order.... Holly needs to respect your orders not act like she can push Buddy around. This does not mean that Buddy should not be pushed. He needs to learn your top dog. Buddy is trying to find his place and push her to the max. He wants to find his boundaries. All new dogs and puppies do this. And you can decide which should be number 2. If you decide it is Holly. Buddy will need to visit the crate more often for time outs, he will need to be fed 2nd, get in the car 2nd, he will need to be leashed more and respectful of his place. Since you are the alpha you dictate who does what, where, when, how. Holly will feel happy not to be displaced. She might even be nice to Buddy when you are not looking. And in time she may come to take a nap next to him. Give her time to realize her place will always be #1. Buddy will have to accept this and he will come to respect Holly or he goes to the crate. I personally think this path is the best in your situation because Holly is older and needs your support being top girl. And with her happy, Buddy will fall into acceptance. he is the new roomie after all. 2) The second path or dog training option is to let them work it out.... ( I do not think this path is for you but let me explain so you can decide.) This may be the most difficult . It hurts to watch nature. This is easy to do when adding a new puppy. Puppies never challenge an alpha so the order is set. 2 adult dogs vying for the Alpha spot. Holly has a lot to loose and Buddy wants to survive. All interesting dynamics with a violent nature. If you have a big yard that is the place to "fight it out". Have a friend nearby to help watch them play and possibly call 911 if you get hurt separating them. They COULD work it out. I say COULD because with two adult dogs the fighting could start up again a month from now. Or even 6 months from now. The unknowns are there. If Buddy does win you need to let him be the new top dog. This means Holly has given up. She may be injured when she does this.. I must warn you it is painful to watch. It will be very hard because you are still mourning Rocky. We mourn our dogs centuries later. I still miss my first. But this is the nature of canines. If Buddy becomes number 1 he will need to be treated as such. You will mourn this change terribly with Holly. This is my personal reason for thinking you should go with number 1 path. You are the Alpha in number 1 and making a natural pecking order. Easier to do. Best of luck and don't give up on this. You can make a great home for both. Sorry to be so long, but I truly understand your woes. ~boxerpups

For a bit of claification, marking and potty training are two different thing - behaviorally speaking. our dog feels his is the alpha male or boss of your household, and his marking anything new means he is claiming that thing. To stop your dog from marking is going to take a bit of work. First while your dog is in the house, he needs to be under control. This means to either leash him to you while you are going about your business or blocking him from the area where the carpet is. Given the opportunity, your dog WILL mark the carpet and anything new in his domain, including people. So, you need to change his idea of where he is in the heirarchy of your household. To do this you need to change his potty habits since they are directly related to the problem you are experiencing. First you need to stop letting your dog tell you when he needs to go, and stop just letting him outside to do his business. He needs structure, going on on a leash with a choke collar everyday 3 times a day at the same time for at least 20 minutes a walk. The walk needs to have him not sniffing at every and marking at every blade of grass. When I take a dog like this out, I give him 3 to 5 minutes before I start the walk to sniff, pee and poo, then we walk. The dog walks at my side and we walk at a pretty good clip. The dog gets to pee when I pick the place, not the dog. Just before Im finished with the walk, the dog has another opportunity to do his business. When the dog is in the act of going, he gets a command to do whichever business I need him to do and gets rewarded for doing it by my praising him. I make a big deal about it. Like if the dog found a bag with 100 dollars bills filling it. This way my dog can pee or poo on command and knows that is what we are there for. There is nothing mean about this, it is absolutely the correct thing to do in order to get a handle on your dogs behavior. Let me tell you up front your dog WILL RESIST this training and may throw a tantrum or two each time you take him out. It is common to expect your dog to put the brakes on and not want to walk at all. or to try and pull you to where he wants to go etc. Until you get a handle on his behavior you can use a number of tricks to help keep your dogs marking under more control. You can use a spray dog repellant on or near the carpet - Spray a towel then put the towel down near the carpet on another dry towel, you can use one of those office floor mats which go under an office chair to protect the floor, only place it with the plastic nubs normall stuck in the carpet facing upwards which will make walking on it unpleasant for your dog. The very last thing I recommend is a belly band, which I do NOT recommend for long time or permanent use. Good luck