housebreaking

Question
Dear Kim,  I recently lost my standard poodle to juvenile renal disease, she was only two.  I decided to get another puppy and went to what I thought was a reputable breeder.  I purchased a 4 month old female standard who turned out to have entropion.  I refused to take her back, the breeder offered me a little money for the surgery, but I took her brother who wasnt selling instead.  To be honest I would have taken all of them if I could have.  Duchess was 14 weeks and Duke was 16 weeks when I got them.  I am havng a very difficult time housebreaking them at first she was doing great, he wasnt, now he is and she is backtracking.  I have been in rescue years and housebroke many dogs of all ages.  These pups were kept in a 10X10 kennel inside from birth till I got them, peeing and pooping on nasty newspaper,Im sure that didnt help but with us they never soil their crate and they are always crated when they cant be watched,they will be 6 months Sept 10th, any suggestions?  Thank you so much.  Tammie

Answer
Hello Tammie,
Sorry for the loss of your 2 yr old.  No matter whether you have had them for 2 months, 2 years or 10 years, they are still family and it still hurts to lose one.  

As to housebreaking them, first be sure to housebreak them one at a time, rather than taking them out together.  This way, they can focus on you and their business, rather than each other.  
Next, if there are spots they tend to frequent inside, you might put some papers (I would use potty pads with newspaper on top) where they tend to go most often so that if they do return to those spots, at least there is something to go on other than the floor.  If they do go on the pads, take one of them that has urine on it out to their potty place and use it as a scent marker so that the puppies will want to return to that place and use it again.  
You'll also want to clean any messes up with a Pet mess approved product so that the puppies won't want to return to those spots because of the smell.  I like a product that Wal-Mart carries, called OUT.  It has a picture of a dog and cat holding their nose.  It works both on the stain and the odor, actually "eating" the smell out of the carpet.  If your dogs can't smell the urine anywhere, they won't waste their time re-marking their spots.  

You may have to go back to the beginning and start taking them out every 4 hours or so until they retrain their bladders to go on your schedule rather than this one they are on now.  Also, put their water up about 2 hours before bed so that they aren't sleeping on a full bladder.  If you are free feeding them, you might want to switch to small meals throughout the day (at least 2 X a day).  I am sure that if you are in rescue you probably already know some of this, but it doesn't hurt to put it in.  

If housebreaking still isn't going as easy as you would like, you can try Belly Bands for boy dogs and the female diapers for the girl dogs.  They have them at www.kennelkomforts.net or you can Google Belly Bands for Male Dogs.  If you check prices you can find them for cheaper.  Ebay may also have them for sale at better prices than you can find them on SEARCH.  
The Belly Bands help because the dog realizes that if he goes potty while wearing the band, he gets wet.  It can help extend the time that the dog has to hold his potty, while discouraging him to potty whenever he has to.

You might also teach your puppies to alert you that he needs to potty.  This can be him/her sitting at the potty door, ringing a bell placed at the door or barking for your attention.  Just have them do the action before they go out to potty.  Be sure that you only have them do it when you are taking them out to potty or they will be barking, or sitting, etc whenever they want to go out, whether they have to potty or not.  Praise them for doing what they need to do at the door, then praise them again when they potty where you want them to go.  

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

Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim