[Rosiethedoggo]

We adopted our dog Rosie last year after a relative found her running loose in a local cemetery. No one ever reported her missing or claimed her when she was reported found. She is assumed to be a JRT/ Chihuahua mix. We believe her to be an escapee from a local hoarding situation that was recently uncovered extremely close to where she was found. From day 1 we knew she had never had any kind of training. We would wait outside with her for a half hour plus just to teach her that outside was for potty. And now she has come so far that she is trained to ring bells and goes potty almost immediately when brought outside. BUT. She routinely has accidents inside if we aren't watching. She also pees in her crate every single night. We have tried tethering her to us, crating when we aren't directly watching, positive reinforcement with treats. And all of these methods helped us train her to where she is but now she's stuck and hasn't made progress for months. We have read that training a dog that came from puppymills/ hoarding situations have unique needs for potty training. We are specifically looking for info on this. Thank you in advance!

 

[JoanneF]

I wonder if she might have been scolded or punished for toileting indoors. That can make dogs wait until they are alone and not being observed, like at night.

You are on the right track, the suggestions I have would be to intensify the reward for outside toilets so it's even more rewarding to toilet outdoors. So make sure your reward is immediate to be clear that it's for toileting and not for anything else and make it super-generous to make it really worth her while to wait until she is outside.

To a dog, a lot of tiny pieces of something is more valuable than one piece of equivalent size. Maybe use something that is only used for outside toilets, like frankfurter sausage?

 

[Curls]

Regarding the peeing in the crate at night, could you set an alarm to take her out and slowly shift the time forward until she sleeps through the night?

Take her out for a final pee right before you put her to bed in her crate, so she's good and empty. Set an alarm for 2 AM. Grab some amazing treats - string cheese, dried fish, dried liver - and take her outside with them. Reward her with multiple pieces of amazing treat when she squats. Put her back to bed with a final piece of amazing treat.

Do the same thing the next night at 2:15. Again the following night at 2:30. Keep rotating her schedule forward, encouraging her to wait longer and longer for her nocturnal jackpot, until she is holding her pee until a more normal early morning hour.