Q: How do I keep my male Chihuahua from marking my grandaughter's toys that she leaves on the floor? -- Kathy P.

Andrea Arden, CPDT at Andrea Arden Dog Training in New York City, writes: If your dog is marking in the home then he isn't housetrained, by definition. This means he needs you to help him by managing his time to prevent the practice of this behavior. Here's what you can do:

• Just like with a puppy, keep him on leash when you are there to supervise and be sure he is occupied with engaging chew toys (some of my favs are Busy Buddy Twist n-Treats, Gimborn White Sterilized Bones, and Bob-A-Lots). You can hold the leash, step on the end, or tether him to a stable object.


• When you can't watch him, let him rest in a crate or an exercise pen. In either case, he is not wandering about marking.
  

These management tools need not be used forever. The goal is full freedom in the home with no accidents. But, just like we gradually give kids more freedom as they show the ability to handle it, so should we with our canine companions.

Don't make the mistake of assuming that because your dog is an adult he should know better. He is letting you know he needs your assistance in this area of his life manners skills. The kindest thing you can do for him is to set him up for success by not giving him opportunities to practice unwanted marking.

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Q: How can I socialize my 2-year-old Lab mix, a spayed female, who got social experience as a puppy and went to training, but still doesn't like other dogs -- mainly ones she has never met?
-- Lindsey C.

Mychelle Blake, CDBC, pet trainer and CEO of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, writes: ‎

Remedial socialization is all about going at your dog's pace. Keep in mind that dogs, just like people, may be discriminating in who they choose to be friends with. Here's what you can try:

• Observe your dog for signs of tension: a stiff body, lip licking, yawning, averting her eyes and head, scratching. Alone, these behaviors can indicate mild stress, or the need to lick food from her lips, or that she is tired, or have
  an itch! But when seen in clusters it usually indicates stress and tension.


• Find calm, amiable dogs and introduce your girl to them one at a time in a neutral environment (i.e. not in either dog's home or yard) to reduce the chances of territorial issues.


• Keep the dogs on loose leashes. They should be very loose so they don't inhibit body-language communication.


• Walk the dogs together, starting at a manageable distance and gradually coming closer. [Watch a video demonstration.] This way, they're moving past lots of interesting smells and sights, which usually helps to decrease any tension between the dogs.

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Q: Any suggestions for introducing a new dog to my house? We have a male Bulldog and a female Mastiff, we will be bringing home a new female Bulldog this weekend. They are all around 5 years old and all spayed or neutered. All rescues, too. We want it to go as smoothly as possible. -- Sue R.

Mychelle Blake, CDBC, pet trainer and CEO of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, writes: ‎

Here's what you can do:

• Have the dogs meet outside in a neutral space, such as the sidewalk or street in front of your home, or a nearby park.


• Walk them near each other, side by side, with no frontal meetings (where their eyes are directly looking at each other), and then give lots of praise and rewards if they are calm. Try to remember to keep your leashes loose and tension-free.


• If all goes well, then go back to your home and have them enter together on leash.


• Make sure that you monitor the situation for the first few days and keep the new dog separate from the others when you leave the house.


• Make sure that all the dogs get equal attention, and monitor them during feedings and playtime with toys to make sure there's no guarding behavior.

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Q: How do we stop our 2-year-old adopted Vizsla-Collie-Lab mix from dragging out the blankets and tearing them apart? We have had her for three months and she is just a sweetheart otherwise! -- Judith W.

Andrea Arden, CPDT at Andrea Arden Dog Training in New York City, writes: I had a Dobie who was obsessed with chewing and sucking on her blankets. I worked on helping her refocus her attention to food-stuffed chew toys instead. But it did take some extra-inventive stuffing techniques. Just putting dry kibble in them wasn't enough to distract her from her blankets.

I would suggest you become equally creative.

After the jump: Find out what you can offer your dog that will be more fun to chew than your blankets.

Jackson Galaxy, star of Animal Planet's My Cat from Hell (Saturdays at 8 p.m. E/P), makes his living helping cat parents who have almost given up hope of solving their pet problems. He revealed to us the top three cat crises he's called in to solve.

PETFINDER: What cat-behavior issues do you see most?
Litter box issues, territory/aggression and integration -- introducing cat-cat, cat-dog, cat-baby, etc.

Why do you think those three are so prevalent?
By and large, it comes from lack of understanding of how your cat sees the world -- in terms of ownership or territory.

After the jump, Jackson's tips for solving these problems.

January is National Train Your Dog Month. To celebrate, we're holding a live dog-training Q&A on our Facebook page this Friday, Jan. 27, from 12-2 p.m. ET! Dog-training expert and CEO of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers Mychelle Blake is joining us to answer your questions.

How to participate:

• "Like" Petfinder on Facebook
• Visit our Facebook page this Friday, Jan. 27, from 12-2 p.m. ET
• Ask your dog-training and behavior questions!

About Mychelle Blake:
Mychelle Blake, MSW, CDBC, is the CEO and executive director of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers, an organization dedicated to promoting education for dog trainers.

Mychelle has a masters in social welfare from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant through the International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants. Her background is in working with shelter dogs and cats and she is a community training partner with Best Friends Animal Society. She lives in Las Vegas with her husband and her two dogs, Buzz and Kaylee.

January is National Train Your Dog Month. Check out our dog training videos.

Q: My 4-month-old Lab-mix puppy bites everything -- my kids, their clothes, our hands, my robes. Everything. We've got a wide variety of chew toys and edible bones, which she likes, but redirection only works about one out of three times. What else can we do? She isn't fun to be around for the first few high-energy hours of the day. -- Sara L.

Andrea Arden, CPDT at Andrea Arden Dog Training in New York City, writes: Pups mouth their littermates in play as a way of having fun and learning valuable information about bite inhibition. That is: When they nip too hard, the other pup stops playing.

Likewise, your pup needs to learn that nipping delicate human skin results in the end of the good stuff, albeit just temporarily. Here's how you can teach her:

Q: We have a 1-year-old Husky/Golden Retriever mix. She is very friendly but when we have guests over she barks and her hair stands up, like she's being overly protective. It makes our visitors nervous. She didn't start doing this until she felt more comfortable in our home after we adopted her. How can we curb this behavior? -- Jennifer H.

Andrea Arden, CPDT at Andrea Arden Dog Training in New York City, writes: Firstly, yippee for the adoption option! Dogs, like people, have some situations where they feel more comfortable than others. I for one, love chatting with people at parties, but my best friend gets really nervous. We're both friendly people, we just have different comfort levels.

With that said, we tend to hold our canine companions to a pretty high social standard. We want them and others to be safe and we want our friends to get to see how wonderful our dog can be.

I think your girl will greatly appreciate your efforts to help her build a larger social circle by doing the following:

Q: Help! I love having houseplants and I love having cats, but my cats won't stop eating the plants. None of them are poisonous (I checked) but my cats are killing the plants and then throwing up. Any suggestions for how to deter them? Thanks! -- Jamie H.

Mychelle Blake, CDBC, pet trainer and deputy director of APDT in Las Vegas, writes: Is it possible to block access to the plants? If not, here are some other tactics that may deter your cat: [Editor's Note: It's important to check whether your houseplants are poisonous to your pets. To find out whether yours are check out our article Plants Toxic to Cats and Dogs.]

• Make the area near your plants unpleasant when your cat approaches. You can do this with a motion-activated environmental deterrent (such as SSSCAT) which makes a noise or sprays a sudden burst of air when your cat gets near it.

Q: How do I get my dog to stop biting when I try to give her a bath? It's like she becomes a ferocious attack dog. -- Jason S.

Andrea Arden, CPDT at Andrea Arden Dog Training in New York City, writes: You can teach your dog to enjoy bath time with brief -- about 3-5 minute -- sessions. Here's how:

• Practice having her in the tub, if that is her bathing spot, with no water running at first. Running water can be scary for dogs, especially with a high-pressure faucet.


• Put down an inexpensive rubber bath mat so she doesn't slip (slipping can add to her nervousness).


• Have her on leash and have a helper gently hold her as you let her lick from a sterilized bone (such as those made by Gimborn) stuffed with a creamy food like cream cheese or peanut butter. Gently brush her as she works on the bone.

Find out what to do next after the jump.