Dog training

Question
I have a Carin 8 yrs and a Westie 2 yrs.  The Carin has never had any problems.  The Westie is still not 100% trained.  We leave the Carin out in the house for 8 hrs work and have to crate the Westie as she sometimes will poop in the house or crate. The will be ok out of crate for a few days and then have a major accident and we put her back in the crate. Short Walks in AM and PM. Long walk or dogpark on weekend.  The westie is otherwise great and very affectionate etc. No kids, two adults. This is getting very old.

Answer
Mary

I can imagine you would be very frustrated.

Crate the westie every day. She probably doesn't mind, and at least the house will be clean.

Now, you need to make sure to walk her 15-20 minutes after she eats. So in my house, the dogs go out when I first get up, again before I leave for work, immediately upon my return and every hour thereafter if I am working with a foster dog who is not reliably housetrained.

Combined with crating, I've had wonderful luck with that simple routine... And if you want to more strongly reinforce the pottying outside, you can add a tiny bit of high value treat (like a pencil eraser sized piece of cheese) whenever she poops outside.

-Beth