Expert: Lisa Miller - 5/10/2007

Question
I have a 9 month old bt named Tuxedo who is still not potty trained and my husband and I cannot figure out what the problem is apart from that he is still a young pup.  We have tried crate training, paper training and let him out constantly until a couple of months ago when i went back to work full time and my husband and I are gone 10 hours everyday.  When we come home his crate is soaking wet of pee and poop and he does not seem to care that he has been lying in it all day.  We know one of the problems is probably because we are gone all day and he is stuck in his crate, but do you have any ideas to help him learn to hold his bladder for longer periods of time or another way to potty train him since we are gone all day.  We do give both are bt's a walk everyday and they are loved a lot by us, my bt's both are obedience trained and both do agility and this is his only behavorial problem, he is a great bt.  We are just frustrated beucase our older bt was easy to house train and when we got her we were both working long hours and had no problems.  What can we do differently this time with Tuxedo?  Please help we do not know what to do anymore.

Answer
Hi Judith,
Wow, ten hours IS a long time and he IS still pretty young.
What I would do is feed him when you get home from work. Do not feed him before you go to work, That way, he will not have full bowels all day. The urination will work itself out. He is young and he will learn. But at least you can save yourself a log or messy to clean up by noting when you feed him.