I lost your email address and had to go to the website to find it.  Hope you are doing great - know you keep busy that's for sure.

Need your help with potty training my new Papillion.  We lost our Gizmo in February and in March we found a little 3 yr old rescue that was at a foster home looking for a forever home - he came with us!  We named him Zorro but call him Lil Z - he is all of 7 lbs. and full of energy. 

The foster family had him for 2 months and had worked on crate training him, but still was not house trained.  The first week we had him, I got my old airplane travel crate and he loved it, so I got a regular nice looking crate (looked so much nicer), he wouldn't go near it.  We kinda got away from the crate then.  He was doing his business out in the fenced in back yard (only if we were nearby).  Next thing you know he's peeing/pooping in the house.  I put out potty pads and he uses them some, (misses a little all the time), we still take him outside in the back, walk him now and then...it has been 6 months and I am at wits end what to do.  Can you help?

He's very sensitive to noise, so walking him and getting him to do anything unless it is perfectly quiet out is trying at least.  I've been tempted to take him to obedience classes but wanted to run it by you first.

Look forward to hearing from you and hope all is well in your part of the world.

Tricia's Loving Care Pet Sitting
Marietta, GA

Dear Tricia –

What a lovely surprise to hear from you - and how wonderful that you adopted Lil Z.

The solution to his problem is easy as pie: first you need to take a good luck at your copy of The Dog Bible, where house training is a fairly short section because people only need to accept that successful house training is a question of being committed to a schedule and being consistent. Unfortunately you haven't understood this clearly and so the little guy does not understand clearly when and where he is supposed to relieve himself.

As you knew yourself, a crate was the best way to draw clear lines about where and when canine bathroom activities took place - you should have stayed with that old airplane crate that he was comfortable in, who cares what it looked like? This will only be a temporary setup.

As I explain in the book, paper training is a contradiction in terms with house training (to go OUTSIDE) so you will confuse a dog by allowing some indoor relief. As for the dog hitting the paper or not, in order for paper training to be 100% effective you'd have to put pads over a much larger area than most people want to so that you can avoid "well-intentioned bad aim."

However, I don't recommend training to pee-pee pads except for people who live in a terribly cold climate, or in a high-rise apartment, or are themselves unable to walk a dog regularly.

And this is the bottom line of why you've had 6 months to teach your Lil Z the "whenever, whatever" rule by which he is going: there is no dependable consistent routine.

Starting tomorrow please try this: he sleeps in his cozy crate overnight and then first thing in the morning you WALK him outside for a pee. Give lots of praise and a small treat. If there's a chance his system would ordinarily have a bowel movement even before breakfast, then you must walk him until he has gone #2 and then lots more praise and another treat. In either case, you go back inside and he can be in whatever room you're in (not unsupervised in the whole house) until you're ready to give him breakfast and are prepared to take him right outside afterwards. You said you walk him "sometimes," but that's not good enough - he needs the exercise regularly, even if he is small,

In order to become reliably house trained he MUST have a walk immediately after his breakfast and the same thing after his evening meal. It should take only days for his digestive system to accommodate this so that after eating he will be ready to poop - but you must be ready to walk him immediately afterwards. And every time praise and a tiny treat, to reinforce this.

Any time you are not going to be home he gets a walk (with you) to make sure he empties his little bladder (again praise and a small treat) and then he goes back into that crate. He LIVES in that crate (and will be quite happy to, as you saw) any time he is not under your direct vision and has already relieved himself "legally' outside with you.  

Lil Z is going to do fine but - just like teaching table manners to a child - it takes lots of constant repetition and patience from the parental figure!

Good luck and let me know how it goes

Tracie Hotchner

FOLLOW-UP:

Tracie -- thanks so much for writing back - it meant so much to me to hear from you and get my very own "professional" lesson!  I knew I was confusing the little guy, but I was confused as to where to start and that is exactly what you have done for me. 

I did go to my "Bible" and I still needed your input...thanks for getting me on the right track.  I'll keep you posted and THANK YOU!!!

Just in case you would like to see "Lil Z"  I've attached one of his first pictures...

Thanks and let me know if you are ever in Atlanta...

Tricia