HELP!! Our puppy is ruining our trim and other areas

My wife and I are having a serious issue with our dog urinating in our landing. He goes on the corners of the doorframes i.e. on the wooden trim. I can easily replace the trim if needbe, however I want to try and stop this if possible. He is also going on a wooden "dresser" type thing (my wife would know what it is calleD) that was given to us as a wedding gift.

I am gone all day at work but my wife typically comes home to let him out once or twice. I guess there really is no pattern as to why he does this. Generallly, when he needs to go he start running/walking around as if he were looking for something. After a long day of being home by himself, we generally come home to find that he has not had an accident.

Is there anything we can do to help break this habit? We rarely catch him doing it. I was told it is wrong to discipline him unless we actually catch him in the act. If that is the case, he is pretty good about obeying the "outside" command. It seems like he thinks it is ok to go in those areas.

Get a crate and use it. Do not leave the dog loose in the house while you are gone. You can get a large crate, and put bedding and toys in it so he can be comfortable, but not mark your things while you are away.

Use baby gates to restrict him from off limits areas where he is marking.

Get him neutered if he is not already.

Encourage and food reward all outdoor elimination.

Supervise him strictly when you ARE at home so he has no chance to mark these areas without you seeing it.

:hail: HUGE if the pup's older.

also, the only thing i could add is clean up your woodwork using an enzymatic cleaner. If you don't get all the urine up (just because you can't smell it doesn't mean it's not still there, dogs have amazing noses) he'll just keep going and going and going... I use simple solution (available at petsmart, psp...). I have used it on doors, walls, the floor, carpet, cement... saturate wherever he's gone! NoMos (if you can get it) is AWESOME!

As far as the other issues you are describing with this dog, with all due respect he sounds a little spoiled.

I would recommend a positive reward based training class so you can learn how to teach him to work for the things he gets.