please help me with my toy fox terrier x maltese

Question
QUESTION: Hi,

My toy fox terrier x maltese,Beans is having some potty training issues, she's 3 months old and uptil a week ago I thought I had her pretty well trained on the potty mats. she was pooping and peeing on them ( we keep her in an closed off, baby pen style space in our home when we are away during the day) - seeing this progress I decided to try taking her outside to go poop after I feed her. I have read that small dogs usually need to poop 10 to 15 mins after eating, but this isn't the case with Beans. Sometimes its taken on hour, other times its 3 hours, other its the whole day/night. I'm happy to have her pee on the potty mats inside for the time being, but I would really really LOVE to have her pooping outside. any help would be AMAZING.



ANSWER: Training a dog to go inside isn't the first step to training a dog to go outside, as folks seem to believe. If you want to train the dog to go outside you have to retrain her all over again.
Check out my article at http://www.thegooddogjournal.com/2008/11/housebreaking-made-easy.html for more information.
It generally takes 8 hours for the poop to make its way through, though sometimes a big meal will stimulate a bowel movement as well.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for your quick response and helpful advice -  that article has some excellent tips, I will deffinitly be implementing the noting of pooping times.

however I am unable to watch my puppy at all times, I work full time quite a ways away from our apartment and my husband, who works closer has been deployed over seas - so Beans is left alone, indoors, in an enclosed space with heaps of toys during the day - while I try and implent a routine of taking her outside to go potty twice in the morning and three to four times in the evening - I leave the potty mats in her enclosed space just incase of a pooping accident and also to give her a place to relieve her self during the day, as I find it would be cruel to ask her to hold her pee and or leave her with out water.

I have tried leaving her in her crate for short periods of time, but she's had two accidents already and I'm afraid if she has more she will start peeing and pooping in her crate regularly.

Thank you,

Answer
To use the crate for housebreaking you have to make sure it's the right size and that she's properly trained to it and likes it. Check out this article for more information on that http://www.thegooddogjournal.com/2008/11/crate-training-without-trauma.html