This is probably a tough one.. . My shih tzu is about a year and a half old. He is still not completely potty trained. I think we thought he was doing okay because he will not urinate in the area where he spends most of his time, which is our uncarpeted (vinyl) kitchen and dining area. It's a pretty large area--probably 15' x 15'--and he stays there (with gates blocking the doorways) when we are not home through the day, and even most of the time when we are home because that's where WE spend most of our time. Our yard is not fenced, so we take him outside on a leash to do his business (as well as for long walks around the neighborhood at least twice a day).

But the rest of the house is carpeted, and any time he is out and about through the house, he pees! He usually does this when we're not watching. We take him out into the living room and play with him a lot in the evenings, but it's only when we're not watching and he goes into another part of the room or goes upstairs into the bedrooms that he does this. I don't know if he thinks the carpet is the same as the grass, or what. Also, it's not that he really needs to urinate at these times. He usually just goes a very small amount, and has just recently been outside to do his business. He has been neutered, if that is something you would need to know about him.

Another problem that he has, which at this point honestly doesn't aggravate me as much because it's so much easier to clean up, is that he will defecate in the house--anywhere. Yes, he will go outside if he's ready, but if he's not ready and we have to go on to work in the mornings, he will do that when he's ready in the house, in his non-carpeted living area. I know this is a problem, but as I said, it's so much easier to clean up and the odor goes away when the mess is cleaned up. However, I don't want him doing this either!

At one point I thought that maybe because he had had so many accidents on the carpeted area that he was still smelling his urine where I had not cleaned it up well enough or had missed a spot (I use Nature's Miracle to clean his messes) and has felt compelled to go on the same spot. So I bought a carpet cleaner and filled it with the pet-odor cleaning stuff and completely & thoroughly cleaned (and even did the extra "rinse" on) the carpets. It didn't help.

I started him out with the crate, and I know that was a good thing, but I guess when I realized he wouldn't go (urinate) in his living area anymore, I thought we could do away with the crate. I also thought at first that the defecating was something he would eventually stop doing in the house. But he just seems happy to do that outside OR inside at this point.

So.. . I have been thinking that maybe I need to put him back in the crate, but I truly would hate to do this, especially since I know I can leave him in his large area the whole time I'm at work (7:30 am to 3:15 pm) and he will never, ever urinate. He's not even in a big hurry to go once I get home, and will stiff around outside & walk around a while before going, so I think he really does have great bladder control. Also, if he has defecated outside already that morning, I know he won't do that either. My husband takes him for a walk around 7:00 every morning to give him an opportunity to do all this. We also take him out usually around 6:00 am to relieve himself after being in all night. He normally eats after this, and then the 7:00 walk is when he will go again, and about half the time he'll go #1 & #2. He'll always go #1 on this walk, but not always #2. I did leave him in the crate the other day when I went to work because he hadn't had his morning bowel movement, but when I got home and took him out he still didn't go. I think maybe sometimes he only needs to go once a day--but usually it's morning and evening.

I'm sure we've pretty much done everything wrong. We have really tried, and we will do whatever it takes. We love him and he gives our whole family a lot of joy--he's like our baby. He seems very happy with us, and is very playful and energetic. But I actually believe that I'm starting to have knee problems from climbing over the baby gates all the time to go in and out of the kitchen/dining room area. It would be so nice to be able to walk freely through the house again, and allow him to do that also.

Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

It sounds like you should try potty training from square one. I would recommend you get a dog training book or two. I just answered a similar question, and my recommendation is the same. There's a great little book out there called how to housebreak your dog in 7 days. You can get it from amazon.com if you can't find it in your local bookstore.

You should always give him lots of praise (and even treats) when he goes where he's supposed to. Think pee party. It helps... a lot!

If he's going in the same spots, I've heard it recommended by warren eckstein (the pet trainer and radio host) that you divide each of his meals into smaller plates, and then put some of the plates in the spots he's been peeing/pooing in. leave the plates down all the time, and keep this up for a few weeks. I haven't tried it myself, but it might be worth a shot. The idea is that dogs never pee/poo where they eat.