No matter how often or long I take my dog outside to eliminate he will not do it, but will wait until we get back in the house to go. What am I doing wrong?

Question

Hello, I really hope you can provide me with some guidance in housebreaking my puppy. I have an 8 week old Yorkshire Terrier mix and am confused as to what I may doing wrong in attempting to housebreak him. No matter how often or long I take him outside to eliminate he will not do it, but will wait until we get back in the house to go. Even when he's showing obvious signs inside the house that he's about to go, and I direct him outside he still does not go until he returns in the house (no matter how long we're out there).

    I take him out first thing in the morning, then again after he eats, again when I come from work, again after he eats, several times during the evening and again before we go to bed. Sometimes I may just let him roam in the yard and other times I will actually walk him. Nonetheless, no matter how long we stay outside (I've attempted as long as 2 hours on several occasions) he will not go outside. The most I've seen him do is pee outside on a couple of occasions, but that's it. But as soon as I bring him back inside he goes potty. It's as if he thinks inside the house is the place to potty, instead of outside.

    I've tried everything, but nothing seems to stop him going in the house. I crate him at night, but I don't feel comfortable leaving him in the crate all day after having been in the crate all night, so I put him in the bathroom with newspaper during the day while I am at work, which is the only time he will go on the newspaper, even though I leave the newspaper down in the bathroom at all times.

    I've even gone as far as to pick up the poop from inside the house and put it outside to try to mark the yard with the scent in hopes it will encourage him to that spot, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

    I am truly at my wits end. Please Help!!!

Accepted Answer

You have created this problem with the dog. Here is what needs to be done:

Rather than just leaving the pup outside you need to take the pup for walks. Exercise will make the dog poop and pee. Just letting it run around in the yard does not get the job done.
When you do not have time to walk the dog put some paper down on the grass. Gradually reduce the size of the paper.
Put all of the dog’s poop in one spot outside. When you pick it up from the house - put it in the same spot outside.
CRATE THIS DOG. Make it live in the crate. This bathroom thing is the WRONG thing to do. Leave the crate in front of the TV or with a radio but there is nothing wrong with crating the dog during the day as long as it had a good walk in the morning.
I would recommend the video I produced titled Your Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 Months. I give this video to all of my puppy customers and never get questions on how to raise a pup. Read the description of the tape on my web site. It has 2 hours of solid information and does not cost a lot of money.
If you would like to learn more about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video. You will probably find that you have not had the full picture on the steps of training a dog must go through before it can be considered fully trained. You can also read why I am not a fan of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes.

Read the Q&A section on my web site about house training your dog. You may get some other ideas.