My son has a 7-month old Australian...

Question
My son has a 7-month old Australian Cattle Dog -- beautiful, sweet little dog, but housebreaking him is a huge problem.  He is crate trained and goes for frequent runs and jogs and trips to the great outdoors, but continues to pee and poop in the house the minute my son's back is turned.  Any suggestions?

Answer
His crate must be used as a tool to achieve the housebreaking.  I would feed him on a schedule and take him outside on a schedule.  If he does his business outside he can have some limited freedom in the house, if not, he goes in his crate and you try again 20-30 minutes later.  He must earn the freedom he gets inside.  Until you are confident that he is pottying in the approprate place do not leave him unsupervised.  It is absolutely imperitive that if he has a mishap inside that you are able to catch him in the act of doing it and clap loudly or use a shake can to distract him and get him outside to finish his business so you can praise him.  Scolding him after the fact will have no effect except for him to associate the scolding with the person doing it, not the act itself.  They say you have less than 15 seconds from the behavior to praise or discipline for the dog to associate the two.  That's not much time.  Use the crate to  your advantage to control the unwanted behavior, praise the desired behavior and he'll be an old pro in no time!