Almost 2 years ago we adopted a 1 year old female boxer from a rescue. We were told she was housetrained. She is a sweet girl and is just a love (WHEN WE ARE HOME). We bought a nice crate for when we were at work, only to find she urinated and deficated in it, and worse somehow had thrown out the "poop" out of the sides of her crate. Before we leave in the morning, she eats one scoop of food, and is taken out twice to do her business. I do not leave water for her during the day. On weekends or days off, she is fully capable of "holding" it, it is not that she can't do it. It is just when we leave that this happens.
After this had happened for a while, I got sick of cleaning for an hour and giving her daily baths. I understood why her first owners must have taken her to a rescue...
We were told her crate was too big, so we went out to get a smaller one, only to have the same thing happen again. I have tried confining her to the kitchen, to come home and find puddles of urine as well as a gift of #2 at times. I have tried the doggie diapers, and 9 times out of 10 she gets them off somehow, and rips them apart, and does her business anyway. My current attempt is to corner off an area of the kitchen with baby gates. I put a nice carpet, and her bed inside with her. I come home every day to a pile of urine, and I am just exhausted of the whole thing. My heart will not allow me to return her to the rescue, I don't want to give up on her, but I am at my wits end. Please help!!

This is not a problem I have had and so I don't have successful experience fixing. I see many such questions, but very few reports of success. Medication from the vet may work as well as anything else. You could try leaving her at a doggy day care.

poskam, quite often shelters and rescues will tell a prospective adopter that a dog is housebroken when in fact, it isn't. It is not necessarily intentional on their part. The people that deal with the public repeat what they have been told by the person performing a perfunctory assessment when a dog is first brought in. Quite often, the assessment isn't long or thorough enough.

If you have had this problem since the day you brought her home, I am sure you realized that she was never properly housebroken at that time. What did you do to train her to understand that the place to do her business was outside? How many hours do you leave her alone during the weekday while you are working? How often do you walk her on the weekend/days off when you don't have an issue? How much exercise does she get on a daily basis? What distractions do you provide for her while you are away during the day? All of these questions are very important to finding a resolution to the problem.

My Z has emotional issues. I wish I could give you a magical answer but for my family it has taken A lot of time and effort to fix the issues. I find that a smaller crate with nothing put in it works best. Also making sure to walk him for at least 20minutes each time we take him out. When he messes up we scold ( not tooo harshly-they already have issues) We bring him to the mess then scold and crate him for 15min. It took 7m but he is now perfect!! It is rough but the love they give back makes it worth it. Just really repeat processes and repeat them again and again and she will learn.

kattygirl, I am glad you managed to get your Z's issues under control. How old is he? Was he a rescue?

Personally, I do not ascribe to the bringing them to the mess and "scolding" method. I have found in my work with rescues that it makes for a nervous dog. If the dog is not caught in the act at the exact time of their "messing" it takes longer to housebreak them. They don't have the capability to connect their elimination with what we view as unwanted behavior. So, they don't connect the elimination they did a few minutes ago to what you are upset about right now. All they know is that you are angry with them. I have found that winds up training the dog to be fearful of you. Their mess doesn't register to them as part of the whole process. The best method is to watch them closely and as soon as they start doing their business, you give them a very firm and sharp "NO", getting their attention focused onto you, immediately grab their leash and collar, and whisk them outside ASAP. Then, walk the dog until he/she finally eliminates. Lavish praise on them immediately. If you don't catch them in the act, don't say a word or acknowledge the dog in any way, and clean up the mess. I was able to housebreak a 5/6 month old that did not have any training whatsoever, in two days with this method. I stayed home and kept her with me at all times. I watched her body movements and as soon as she started sniffing around, circling, was about to squat,. I immediately stopped her with a NO, got her outside and showered her with happy praise when she did her business. BTW, if a dog is highly food motivated, you can use a small treat with the praise every other walk. Dogs are highly social animals and crave attention from their pack leaders (you). They do connect that they get your attention when they eliminate outside, and no attention when they do it inside.

Very good Ruby. I have sometimes used the term neglects.

From the sticky at https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/dogs/information-articles-our-dogs-expert-labman-53153.html#post251809

''You can hardly be expected to be attentive
Enough to avoid all accidents. There is no sense punishing the puppy for your
Inattention. It is not fair to punish you either, but you still have to clean
It up if you didn't have the puppy outside in time.''

Labman, I keep forgetting to reread your sticky. I know you update it every once in a while. That is a PERFECT explanation of what I was saying.

I was left wondering what kind of "emotional issues" kattygirl states her dog has, how he came to have them (if he was a rescue, that might not ever be known), and if she and her family are trying to resolve them. But, this is poskam's thread so I will not delve into it here.