6 month old female boxer still not reliably housebroken

Question
QUESTION: Hi Nicole,

First, I'd like to thank you for volunteering to answer boxer-related questions.  I have a 6 and a half month old female boxer puppy, Brooke (not yet spayed), who still cannot be trusted in the apartment.  We got her when she was 8 weeks old and started crate training her right away.

The issue is that she will be very good and not "go" in the house at all for 2 or 3 weeks to where we think she may finally be housetrained, then all of a sudden will pee in the house even if she was let out within the hour.  She never poops in the house and will always sit at the back door and whine or paw at it when she has to poop, but for some reason she doesn't give this cue when she only has to pee.  She seems to know she is doing something wrong when she pees because she will immediately move away from the spot with a guilty look on her face, to where I can tell she has just peed in the house before I even discover the accident just by her reaction.  I've read many articles saying the dog doesnt know that it has done something wrong, but her reactions tell me otherwise.  I always clean up the pee stain with "Resolve for pet stains" and I would like to steam clean the carpet to further eliminate old odors but I don't want to do that and then have her re-stain the carpet.  

I'm at a loss for what to do other than just keep her in her crate except for when I can fully monitor her.  Also, when I catch her in the act of peeing and I yell at her "Brooke NO" she does not immediately stop peeing.  She will be so good for a couple of weeks and then pee in the house multiple times within 24 hours.  I'm totally confused as to the reason behind Brooke's accidents.  Please help!

ANSWER: Hi Lara,

You're welcome :)  Hope I can help.

Ok...I know you don't believe it but she does NOT have a guilty look on her face.  That's step 1...getting that through to you.  She's reacting to something, definitely, but it's not 'uh-oh, I'm peeing, I'm bad'.  It's either your body language or your voice.  Remember, dogs communicate mostly through body language...subtle movements still catch on.  When a dog sees negative body language or hears a negative tone in your voice, they'll slink, put their ears back, bow their heads, things like this...all signs of submissive 'please don't hurt me, I'm no harm' behavior.

Stop yelling 'no'.  Big mistake that people make.  Dogs start to think this is their name it gets used so much.  Save 'no' for when you really, really need it.  To correct her, use a phrase like 'eh-eh'...something short and sharp.

There comes a time, during urination, when it is physically difficult (if not impossible to stop) ... try it ;)  lol  

Alright then.  Brooke is not housetrained.  If she is able to have multiple accidents in a 24 hour period, you aren't doing something right.  How have you gone about training her, other than the crate?  What are you doing?

The mistake people make is in assuming you can just pop a dog out of a crate at a certain point and all is ok.  Dogs have to be un-trained just as slowly as they were trained.  That means you leave her out of the crate, go for a walk to the corner and come back.  Several times a day for a week.  If she's good, great.  If not, shorten your time.  The next week, double the time.  The next, double the time, and so on.  If at any point, she has an accident, you go back to the time she did well at and start again.

I know it's a pain in the butt but if you do it correctly, you'll be much happier in the long run.

And btw...it took one of my dog about 4 months to be able to come out of the crate reliably, it took another a year.  :)  Each dog is different!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the speedy response, Nicole!  Our method of training has been to let her out when we first wake up in the morning, shortly after eating, and after letting her out of her crate when she has been in there for any extended period of time (over half an hour).  We also let her out whenever she whines at the door to go out (signaling she has to poop).  Whenever we take her outside we say "Go potty Brooke" multiple times until she goes potty and then we praise her with the standard "Good girl" and "Good potty" while she is going.  I'm pretty sure she has learned the Go Potty cue because if we are on a walk and I stop and tell her to go potty she usually listens and at least tries to pee.

I don't mean to sound stubborn, but here is an example of what makes me think she knows she shouldn't pee in the house:  on a couple of different occasions now while Brooke was out of her crate, I was in the bedroom while she was roaming around, and all of a sudden instead of playing with her chew toys in the living room she comes into the bedroom and plops down right next to my chair and just kind of stares at me, when she usually doesnt sit still for a second.  I just don't see how that can be a reaction to my body language when I didn't even know that she peed in the house yet.  After her acting weird like that for a minute or two I did a walkabout of the apartment and discovered the pee.  Also, she is still crated whenever we leave the house - I have yet to attempt to leave her uncrated without one of us being home.  She really is a good dog other than these occasional mishaps (she has yet to destroy anything other than her toys, although that may be because she hasnt had the opportunity) and I would love to start gradually un-crate training her, but first I have to get her not to go potty while we are still in the house:)

Answer
lol, you can be stubborn if you like.  :)  I just won't bang my head against a wall trying to convince you.

I would suggest to you, after this post, that you not allow her out of your site.  You KNOW she's not completely trained, you KNOW she may pee, yet you're allowing her free run of the apartment.  You have the bigger brain so you get to be the smarter one (YAY!!!)

Babygates are always helpful as is the bungy method.  Looping her leash through your belt loop and keeping her tethered to you.  She should also be going outside every hour to reinforce what you 'think' (*wink*) she knows.