Housebreaking a Toy

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I have recently been given a 4 month old female toy. She is very bright but does not seem to get any part of housebreaking. I have never had so small a dog (4 pounds) and can readily see that her bladder must be very small - how best to housebreak her? She does not seem to be aware of what I want from her - praise does not seem to work as she is seemingly unaware of what I am telling her - good girl!! she is off to other things by the time I get the words out of my mouth. She sleeps at night in a crate big enough for her to relieve herself as she of course can't make it all night - but during the day she is either in the kitchen where there are puppy pads (which she sometimes use and sometimes not) and I take her out hourly sometimes to have her do nothing at which time I bring her in and she will immediately elimiinate on a pad or on the floor - she just doesn't seem to get it - we have been doing this for about a month now and I'm sure things will get better but I need to know the best way to do this - now so she can get the right insruction. I have been told by other poodle owners to use a cat size crate and crate her and take her out every couple of hours and have her relieve herself, then play with her for 15 minutes, then recrate her - and repeat this every two hours - I can't do this!!! She is so small and loving and energetic that she needs more time out to move around than this would provide her. Any help you can give me would be so greatly appreciated. We have a rescued about 8 years old female toy poodle who came to us beautifully housebroken - so that is a puzzle how they did it!!Again any help you can give me would be appreciated. Thanks again - Mary Wall\marycwall@aol.com

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

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