I just finished cleaning my carpet for the third time in two months because I'm sick of the smell of pee. She constantly misses the pad So I finally said, we're housebreaking you!
What I've done so far is taken her out every 2-4 hours. I don't wake her up to go though. I know she can hold it through the night because she's never gotten up to pee in the middle of the night on the pads.
So this is what I've done.
1)She wears a harness all the time, I take it off to brush though.
2)Every 2-4 hours I say, "Do you have to potty?!" and out we go, while she's on the leash. ( I want to start bell training her.)
3)I go to a part of my backyard and keep her fairly close. If you let them off leash their just going to think they are playing, at least she does.
4) I give her 10 minutes. Once we're out there I ask again "Do you have to potty"
5) I try not to say anything while she's sniffing around.
6) when she finally squats, I say "Go potty." "Good girl! Good potty"
7) we have a little party and she get's a treat, sometimes she denys the treat though ... she's a weird one.
I've had her going outside before, but not all the time, I wasnt strict with it. When I first started I brought out a used pee pad a few times and this seemed to help a lot.
The only problem we seem to be having is her actually pooping. This morning I knew she had to go but we had been out there for 10 minutes and she just layed down. I was going to take her back out in 5-10min. So I brought her inside, went to the bathroom for not even a minute, go back and she's pooped inside.
When I'm away at school, she mostly sleeps and I never come home to any pee spots on the wee pads, so I'm hoping the schedule I have for her works! The longest I'm gone is about 5 1/2 hours on Monday's... so I plan to leave out a pad just in case!
Good luck with Maximus! Think positive and be consistent. You have to train yourself to take him out.
