I will tell you what I have done with Millie - as soon as we woke up we took her out to pee (and poo, maybe). Then we would feed her. Before we left for work, we took her for a short walk, to make sure she had all her pee out of her and to give her a chance to poo, if she did not do it earlier. Then we would crate her. No water and no food.
When we got home. We would have her go out immediately. She would pee a couple of times and she would poo once. Then we would take her for a walk and after we would feed her and put her water down.
We took her water up again at 7 - 7:30pm. Thru out the evening we would take her out every hour on the hour and make her walk to the door and say "let's go potty. Let's go outside and go potty."
Initially, at about 8 months old, she would come to us and stare at us. She would not go to the door to ask to go out. So we had to guess that that was what she wanted. Only after she was over a year old, did she actually go to the door and stand by it to go out. No barking or scratching. Just standing there. She now scratches at the door, but she is over 3 years old.
So you see, it is a long evolving process. As long as you keep your puppy on a potty schedule and his food and water on a schedule, you will see progress little by little. |