Expert: Liz Gregory - 7/12/2009

Question
I have a two year old male cavalier king Charles spaniel and a German shepherd which is three but the king Charles spaniel has not been easy to toilet train he will play out side all day as now its hot i leave all the back door open for the dogs free to roam in and out but the cavalier will spend hours in the garden only to come back in side to pee up against my kitchen side it seems like he thinks this is the place to go i have picked him up and put him back out side to hopefully convince him that out side is where he should go but this had been going on now since we have had him and i am getting tiered of having to clean up after him he is a very friendly affectionate dog and my kids love him if only he could be toilet trained he would be perfect

Answer
Hi Teresa,
First question, has your boy been castrated? At his age, if he hasn't, he is probably marking territory. If he is, or even if he is not, he will need retraining. Positive reinforcement for pinching a penny outside, negative inside. As I am sure you are aware of by now, Cavaliers don't like an unhappy owner. What you are going to need to do is to confine him to a crate/cage or small room, and act like he is a puppy all over again. When he goes outdoors, you go with him and tell him how splendid he is when he does his business there. But be firm if he does this indoors. It should work in a relatively short amount of time, especially since he is used to running free.
As the owner/breeder of German Shepherds before Cavaliers, I can commiserate that your little Cavvie is NOT a GSD being housebroken in about 3 days! They actually are very trainable for a small dog and one of the easiest to train. But German Shepherds, they are the ultimate in German Engineering, they are very smart dogs.
Good luck, let me know how it goes.
Liz