I got two young daschunds from a no-kill shelter about six weeks ago. They are litter mates, and are 17 months now. They never had been either crate trained or housebroken as they were aggressive with the other dogs at the shelter, and they basically were largely by themselves in a pen together, except for exercise. The shelter held out until someone came along who was willing to have a privacy fence around their yard (to inhibit the barking), was willing to keep them together (they are very closely bonded), and could deal with their lack of housebreaking. That was us; we have hardwood floors throughout the house. Well, they are sweet little dogs, and the barking at moths flitting past the window or the neighbor's dog going out in her yard at night have subsided, and while they are a little destructive, it is nothing we can't handle. (Mostly my kids' Barbies and stuffed animals, and the kids are okay with the concept that if they don't shut their doors, then they can't blame the dogs for eating their toys.) They did learn to tolerate a shared crate, but the trouble was you couldn't separate them even if you had in two crates next to each other, because they would both howl like crazy and tear at the wires for hours if you tried to keep them apart, and they have different levels of bladder competence. The bigger dog (Bennett) could probably have been trained to hold it very quickly, but the smaller dog (Peanut) did not seem to even notice when he wet. So we put a pet door into the fenced back yard, and made an indoor pen in the living room with their unlatched, open crate inside it. Then Bennett wouldn't let
eanut sleep in their crate with this arrangement, so we put the second unlatched crate in the pen as a den for Peanut, and that worked pretty well after we got a crate cover for Peanut's crate, and Snugglesafe's for each of them. (It seems that
eanut likes caves and Bennett likes a view, and they like Snugglesafe's and night-night bones). They quite often sleep together in each other's crate now, but it is clear whose crate belongs to whom. Bennett did learn to take his business into the yard during the day (neither of them will go outside at night), and
eanut is willing to use peepads in the pen, so we are beginning to get a handle on the housetraining thing, although Peanut still tends to dribble a bit in the night, and now that it is colder, Bennett is also using the peepads rather than takego out into the yard. They both tend to pee when they are excited, but I think I will try putting plexiglass on inside of their indoor pen to direct the flow back at them as opposed to outwards onto the floor. We
ut pet diapers on them when they are out of the pen, and they do not seem to get those wet, so I think they are getting a clue. So. Given this history, what would you recommend the next step be in terms of getting them to the next level of their housebreaking? I would like to eventually give them the run of the house.