Dogs Training Blog

I have a 1 year old yorkie/maltese mix. he’s a smart little guy, and i thought he was house-trained. I had him since he was 3 mo old. I started out using a wee-wee pad, he got used to it pretty quickly. At about 5 mo i started weaning him off of it. I would take him out every hour, then every two hours, then extended it. now, if i am home, he can hold it up to about 5 hours during the day, if he is alone he can hold it in for about 8-9 hours (if i leave for an extended period of time, i leave him in the bathroom with a baby-gate). At night he is crated and can be fine without needing to go outside for up to 12 hours. I also started leaving him in the house as a free chicken. He is not confined to a specific are, i started with leaving for 30 min right after i took him out to do his business. I am up to about 3 hours, but today he urinated before I had a chance to come back, and two days ago he pooped. He has gone through obedience training, knows commands, and i’m pretty sure he knows who the is the alpha of the house. He doesn’t really do anything else distructive, I take him out for at least two long walks during the day – about 45 min each. At least once a day he goes to a dog park and plays with dogs.Did i give him too much freedom to fast? Is there any other way to teach him to wait to be taken outside to do his business? Is there a way to teach him to ask to be taken out? How soon will he grow out of this phase? I would really appreciate some answers. Thanks

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