18mnth old cocker still not housebroken

Question
Hi, we have a 7yr old female spayed cocker, and an 18mnth old male neutered cocker, he was neutered at 10 months, did exactly the same puppy training as the female (who was house broken by 5-6 months) we seem to have an issue in the morning if he has the run of downstairs he wees by the door into the conservertory, when we go out (longest 3-4 hours) we normally come home to a wee and a poo, this was all not too bad as I know some dogs take a lot longer and he is a very young 18mnth old, the other day my husband and I were having a discussion, and he weed by the door to the consevertory, but the other morning I noticed a dried wee on our rug, a place where he has never had an accident. I am sure he is not a dirty dog as he does bark to go out, when he toilets outside he receives lots of praise, and I have gone back to letting him out every hour on the hour. we have been away in our caravan and he seems to be able to hold on till 10am much much later than at home, am thinking about crating him, when we go out etc, but not too sure about the older dog as they are very close, but also do not have a lot of room for a crate, Is there anything we are doing wrong, he seems quite a lingy dog, but quite responsive and eager to please.

Thankyou

Louise Savill

Answer
You may have to crate him.  At his age, he may not adjust to it well.   A dog that has not been crated since it was little, may take some work. Start out just putting its toys and treats in the crate. Praise it for going in. Feed it in the crate. This is also an easy way to maintain order at feeding time for more than one dog.

The "shut the puppy in a safe room" is a fallacy. Very few houses even have a safe room. How many of us have a room with a hard surfaced floor and nothing else? Most rooms have electrical cords to chew if nothing else. In addition to destroying anything a bored puppy finds to chew, it may choke or have intestinal blockage from the pieces. I had a friend that left her dog in a "safe" room. It ate a hole in the floor covering. The safe rooms fail to give the dog the comfort of the enclosed space their instinct requires. Nor do they restrict activity extending the time the dog can go without relieving itself.

It could be he is challenging g you for leadership.  The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/ For more on being top dog, see http://www.dogbreedinfo.com./topdogrules.htm