puppy mill rescue

Question
Hi Kristin.  I recently adopted a dog from a puppy mill through a shelter.  She was a breeding dog and is 8 years old.  It' s miracle she survived, she was so badly treated.  She needed surgery on her legs and was debarked in the mill so she has a collapsed trachea.  She is such a gentle, sweet and loving dog but she is not housebroken.  I'm not very familiar with training older dogs or former puppy mill rescues.  I don't want to crate train because I feel like she would think she was back in the mill and be very frightened.  If you could give me any advice on how to housebreak her (she goes outside, but forgets very frequently and relieves herself in the house) it would be so helpful.  I am willing to try just about anything.
Thank you
Ashleigh

Answer
I do volunteer work at a shelter,and a lot of owners don't want to crate there dogs,or in a lot of cases the crate isn't working,and in some cases the dogs are too large to fit into a crate-don't worry though there is another way

The other way I tell people to try is to keep them in one room,and take them out every few hours,and don't let her through the rest of the house until fully house trained-the best thing to do is to watch for sniffing in circles and just sniffing a lot in one spot and take her out as soon as she does that

Since she's an older dog it shouldn't take that long anyways,and crates are more or less more for puppies or really messy dogs,or dogs that destroy things when the owners are away-crating a dog and keeping him or her in one room pretty much works the same,it's just what the dog needs or what the owners prefer

You would have been an owner I would have recommended keeping the dog to one room anyways