House Training

Question
We adopted a homeless miniature poodle found on the street. From the
length of his hair (extremely matted and long) he must have been on his own
for a while. He was so skinny.
The vet said he probably would not have made it much longer.
Long story short and $700 dollars later he is a part of our family but I cannot
get him house trained.  I take him outside (he has a doggie door too) and
wait for him to potty then praise him. Once we come into the house and I
walk off he will go and pee in the kitchen.  I tell him NO  and take him back
outside.  Believe me he knows when he is in trouble.  5 months later...He is
not trained. I am so frustrated. Can you help me?

Answer
Hello Patti,
First off, you need to be sure that when you clean up his messes that you use a product made to clean pet messes up.  Otherwise, your dog will still be able to smell those potty spots and will want to return there thinking that its ok to go there.  I like a product that you can get from Wal-Mart called Kids N' Pets. (and it works great for both).  In my Wal-Mart you can find it in the cleaning section.  Follow the directions on the bottle and this should help your dog to not go back to those spots to potty.  

Next, if you take your dog outside and he doesn't potty the first time, bring him in and put him in his crate for about 5 minutes, then take him back outside.  Repete this until he will potty outside, then praise the heck out of him.  You should also take him to the same spot everytime so that he knows that this is HIS potty place and will want to do it there every time.  

If he has problems pottying at nighttime, you can remove his water and feed about 2 hours before bedtime.  This way, he won't have food or water on his stomach during the night.  Also, make sure that you feed him on a schedule rather than letting him eat whenever he wants.  This way, you know whats going in, so you can have an idea of when it will need to come back out.  

Give this a try and if you have other questions for me, please feel free to ask.

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim