We rescued an Aussie from a shelter who spent 5 months of her life in a kennel... we have still not identified how she came to spend that amount of time, assuming her owner abadoned her there and never came back. She's an adult female... but since coming into foster care, we have struggled daily with potty accidents. At night, she will often pee in the crate... during the day, she poops and pees.

We did get her housetrained as far as when we are home; however we let her out several times per day. We will let her out 30 minutes before bed time and she's not left overnight for more than 7 hours. She will whine and scratch at the crate after she's gone to wake me up. How do you correct a dog when you can't catch them doing it?

No accidents in the house, but poop and pee every time I come home. We adopted her out to a family and they returned her stating the resident dog was pooping and peeing in the house when they were gone and being destructive. I'm sure she wasn't the one destroying things, but am not sure she wasn't the one pottying in the house. She is in the smallest crate I can find that is humane for her.

Now she's gone to another home with someone who works from home and gets someone to come in midday to walk the dogs. While we had no issue with her pottying in the house when we are home, just the crate problem; her second adopter is now complaing that she's pottying in the house and they are frustrated to say the least. I was very open about the challenges we've seen with her... but we never had an issue with her going in the house while we are home.

They have restricted her movement around the house and I suggested tying a leash to themselves so she can't get out of sight or tying her off to a chair if they're working so that she can never go off and have accidents. She's a very laid back dog, a little nervous in new situations, but otherwise a very well behaved dog.

I'm at a loss. My solution to housetraining issues has always been to crate a dog... and obviously that won't work with this one. I hate to think of euthanizing a dog like this, but no trainer can seem to tell me how to fix this problem.

We have left her out a few times to no avail - it seems whenever we aren't close by she will go to the bathroom wherever she is. I have never encountered this issue.

I cannot continue to adopt her out only for her to come back, and no one is going to want to adopt a dog that is impossible to housetrain. Help!

Have you tried doing separation anxiety training with her?

It may have nothing to do with her being potty trained but rather being stressed out in the crate, or when being left alone.

You might need to find a person who is willing to work with her not just hand her back because she is a 'problem child'

In a perfect world, everyone would be willing to work with a dog, but I've been doing rescue for four years, and there are very few adopters out there willing to take on a project and the number one reason dogs are turned into the shelter is for housetraining issues, that is very telling. Her behavior is not SA = she is not nervous or upset while in the crate, goes right in in the morning and at night.

She may be destined to be an outside dog, I don't like the idea of outdoor dogs but it's better than the alternative.

By Aussie, do you mean terrier or cattle dog?
Cattle dogs are very active and would probably be more suited to that lifestyle anyway.

I had a Shih Tzu who was impossible to house train and she ended up going to a family who had another Tzu, they knew about her problem and worked with her 24/7 and eventually got her trained... she just needed constant reinforcement until she was confidently going outside.