Toilet training poodles

Question
Hi,
I have a 1 yr toy poodle (Barney) and I am having trouble toilet training him.
We live in an apartment on the 16th floor, so it is sometimes difficult to let him out for the toilet, we also work full time.
Therefore we have bought a half crate for him to use as a toilet, most of the time he uses this.
At night we let him out in the house and he has his toilet available in the front corridor, and when we are at work we put him in his room (a large empty spare bedroom)where we then move his toilet he also has a bed and some toys.
However when we get home from work, he has messed the whole room. recently at night he has also started to mess the house (far away from his toilet area). There are also times when hes goes in the area of his toilet but not actually in the half crate but around.
How can we train him to go in the toilet every time?
Thanks
Lisa

Answer
Hi Lisa,

You need to contain your dog to a smaller area, because he's not yet house trained.

Use a couple of child gates, or get an indoor dog pen to contain your dog to just part of the room, and heavily paper the entire floor of the containment area.

Your dog needs to be contained even when you're home, if you can't be monitoring him for signs that he needs to go outside. That means over night too, because you know you can't trust him NOT to soil in your home.

This is the kind of dog pen I'm talking about:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=16677&cmpid=01cseg...

How fast your dog learns to be house trained depends on how well you prevent accidents from occurring in your home! Every time he soils inside, is another setback. Even though you live on the 16th floor, you simply must provide your dog with the opportunity to go to the bathroom outside.

Best of luck,

Patti