8 mos. old miniature poodle not yet housetrained

Question
Please, oh please tell us how to properly train our precious male miniature poodle. He has been fixed, and is adorable. He pees outside and sometimes poops outside too but with very little regularity---even though we praise him galore when he does so. Goes both ways inside whenever the spirit moves him. We are having carpet cleaned today and are moving into a city apartment next week................how can I absolutely make sure he finally gets trained.

Answer
Hello Fiona,
The first thing that I can recommend to you is the Belly Band for Male dogs.  It is a band that goes around the dogs middle and catches his urine.  You can find them at http://www.bellybands.net/  
You will need to feed your dog 2 separate meals during the day rather than free feeding him.  Also, be sure that you pull his food and water up about 3 hours before his bedtime.  You need to be sure that any potty stains are well cleaned because even if you can't smell any odors, your dog might be able to and will come back to those spots.  Wal-Mart sells a great product that helps with both pet stains and odors.  Its called "Kids N' Pets" and you can find it in the cleaning section.  
Try to get him on a schdule of going outside about every 2 hours or so.  You can extend it up to as many hours as you want, but start off with 2-3.  Take him to the door where his potty spot is and have him either sit, scratch the door with his paw, or you can hang a bell at the door and have him touch it with his nose.  
Take him out and see if he will potty, and if he doesn't right then, put him in his crate and take him out 5 minutes later.  Keep doing this until he will potty, then praise him and give him a treat.  

If he does potty inside, clean it up with a paper towel and put it out where you want him to go.  When he sees that he has pottied there in the past, he will want to go there again.  

Give this a try and let me know how he is coming along.  If you have other questions about this for me, please feel free to ask.  
Thanks for using AllExperts.com,
Kim