I adopted a 10 year old Shih Tzu with fear aggression issued from a shelter about 8 weeks ago. He has made HUGE strides as far as his aggression and has been doing very well. The only problem I am having is his potty training.
I don't believe he was every housetrained before and the foster home he was in had a lot of dogs with issues so he was allowed to go in the house though whether he did or not is unknown.
I have tried the methods in SSF with some success. I have incorporated crate training to prevent his accidents. He is kept in his crate at night while we are asleep and now during the day while we are at work. This puts him in his crate for nearly 8 - 9 hours at a time. He doesn't seem to mind which is good, in fact most days he doesn't want to come out or if he does, he will go outside to go potty (I take him via leash outside) and when he comes back in he goes right to his crate without being told... I leave his crate door open when we are home but sometimes he does not come back out.
He is still friendly and affectionate so I don't think he thinks he is being punished while he is in his crate but I would like to allow him to run around with the cats during the day while we are at work.
The crate training is working great... He does not and will not go in his crate and he is not in a huge hurry to go outside and go potty when we get home and let him out so I don't think it is causing any damage etc...
Should I just continue with the crate training?
