RescueDogHousetrainging

Question
Dear Kristin,
We adopted a year and a half puggle (part beagle, part pug) from a no kill shelter that rescued him at about a year. He has a friendly, energetic personality. We are a young couple, new to dog parenting, and we live in an apartment... so we invested in a homestay dog training for three weeks. He returned to us pretty much able to do these commands: sit, down, stay, go to his place, walk on a leash. We have been working with him daily, and he is getting better at each of these things. We also are working on "come" but he seems to be so distractable, it is coming along a bit slower. We feel pretty comfortable that in the three months we have had him, we and he are getting better at all of these things.

One area of great concern is his peeing and pooping in the house! He has been crate trained, so he can stay in the aptartment while we are at work... no more than 6 hours. There were times in the beginning when he'd wet in his crate, even though we'd let him out before, and weren't gone that long. He rarely does that now, but will still wet on the carpet, and even our bed when we are in it! He does this even after coming in from a walk! He doesn't hesitate to poop too, so we have to be prepared anywhere we go to have stuff to clean up after him! Rarely do we catch him in the act, but of course we yell for him to stop, and quickly pick him up and bring him outside. But by then it is too late. Nothing has changed his behavior. It seems so random to us, so we don't know how to discipline or how to prevent it. Is it merely an accident?

We would be so grateful to you if you could give us some guidance on this issue. We are frustrated! Are we doing something wrong? Is he a dog that will keep doing this? Help!
Zoey

Answer
What you might want to try since the crate doesn't seem to work,is to either lock him in one room(with a door or babygate)or get him a little pen and put down either puppy pads or papers,and what you do is put them down and encourage him to go on them,then once he does that,start moving them towords the door,and that often moves them outside,esp if you eventualy put them next to the door