We were able to bring home our 11 week old mut (border collie, lab, pointer, Brittany mix) a few days ago and was told that the people with the mom had started potty training her. I understand its a new house for her but she goes in it all the time. She is outside for the majority of the day and when I see her go outside I praise and reward her. Whenever she comes inside she's not in there for 30 seconds before she starts peeing, so I put her back outside for 10 or 15 minutes and scold her. I'll let her back in and it won't be long before she does it again. I've cleaned the floors (vinyl wood looking) to try to remove any odor. We've been working on this for about 4 days now but it seems like she has a tank that's always full. One night she pee'd in the house 5 times. She will also pee in her crate at night which leads me to the next part.

Like I said, she's outside the majority of the day unless I'm home over lunch or in the morning and nights. I think she misses her mom or doesn't think we'll come back for her. The crate is in the opposite side of the house since it is closest to the back door. The first night she whined and howled for about 30 minutes. It's been pretty consistent on that. Last night she cried for a couple of hours and pee'd the crate. She has a bed in there and there is a shirt of one of ours so it has our scent. I tried putting a warm bottle of water as I heard that was a trick to make her lay next to so she wouldn't feel alone. Our vet told us to just put her in and leave her so we don't make it any harder than it is for her and she'll learn. I know that she is a puppy and it takes training, but are there any tricks that would make any of this easier that have worked well for anyone else?

We had two crates one for during the day and one for the evening in our bedroom. That worked really well. Just gotta stick to your guns. Also, this dog went from having plenty to entertain it to be basically abandoned most of the day. SHe is bored and feeling abandoned. Get a second dog.

We have successfully crate trained 3 dogs,
an anatolian female who passed away
a boxer we got as a shelter dog
and a mutt I found at the gun range I gave to my IT manager at work because his other dog died and we had 3.

All three were crated at different times,
the boxer earned trust enough to not be crated at all after 6 months.
the puppy was crated when we were at work because she fucking destroyed shit.

Lately there has been a lab that's been able to play with her and keep her company. The person who is fixing up our house has been bringing it so they can play together. I'd love to get two dogs but between the process of moving, work, training this one, fixing up the house, and planning a wedding one seems like its enough to deal with. I might try the two crate thing and put her in there a little throughout the day so she can get used to it and not just at night.

Is the crate a lot larger than the pup?  

I know it sounds cruel, but if the pup doesn't have space to piss on one end of the crate and sleep on the other end, it will hold it.

If the pup can piss and sleep, and not get piss on itself.......it will piss.

Get some melatonin and some greenies pill pockets.  Give puppy a 3mg melatonin in a pill pocket before bed.  Will help puppy feel relaxed, less anxious.

Yeah, the crate is larger than what she needs right now. I read about putting a box in it to fill the void space. I will be doing that tonight. I'll look into the pill thing.

The real problem is that you are not truly crate training. With the dog only in the crate at night it is not learning quickly enough what you want. Classic crate training has the dog either in the crate or tethered to you 100% of the time until housebreaking is complete. With our last dog I pushed my day to the late side, my wife to the early side, and we hired a mid-day let-out person so that the pup only had 3 hours max. in the crate at a time. I realize that this approach probably doesn't match your lifestyle requirements, just sayin'...

With our current pup, which is still a work in progress, my wife no longer works so things are a bit easier, but our silly dog was peeing the crate (see my other thread on this) even though it was a shoebox. Every dog is a unique challenge. We seem to have the crate business solved and now accidents only happen in the house if we are not doing our job. We're getting close!

Basic potty training 101.

make sure that the dog never goes in the house.

1. If the puppy just woke up, take it outside, don't take it back in until it "goes". Reward the dog for going outside with a "yes" and a treat IMMEDIATELY AFTER it finishes. Not 10 seconds later, IMMEDIATELY after.
2. If the puppy has had water, take it outside until it goes.
3. If the puppy has eaten, take it out within 10-40 minutes until it goes.
4. If the puppy has been playing for a little bit, take it outside until it goes.
5. If the puppy hasn't been out for 30 minutes or so for other reasons, take it out until it "goes".
6. If the puppy is sniffing at the ground, take it out.

You control the situation so that the dog never goes in the house, and she will do the rest. Dogs naturally don't want to go in their "dens", but their "dens" by nature are a few square feet, not a few thousand.

Plus, they can imprint the feel of certain textures under their feet (like carpet, grass, etc.) with "potty places". Control the situation, show kindness, and it will work out. *IMMEDIATELY* reward with praise and treats the instant the dog is done going outside.

Now, the dog IS and WILL show signs that it is going to go to the bathroom, you just have to watch for them. If the dog goes in the house... smack yourself and say "I should have watched my dog more closely".

tag for new pup learning

So what do you do if you work a 8 hour rotating shift schedule? Oh and dont have any vacation till next year.

1) Shrink the crate. We did this and it eliminated all problems with the crate.
2) Optional: Say "Go potty" when they are actively peeing outside. Helps down the road if you need them to go quickly
3) Take the pup out first thing when you wake up, before you leave, and when you get home.

Accidents will happen though. We've gotten ours well trained and it took a while - he used to spray a little pee whenever he got excited so we had to start ignoring him when we first got home until after he went outside - now it's no longer a problem.

Jsut baby steps

The other thing you want to do is when you take the puppy out is tell her to "go pee". My dogs will now go on command pretty much. It's a wonderful thing during shitty weather.

Ummm....You don't get a fucking puppy.

Maybe that was a bit harsh.
Puppies need somebody around to take care of and train them.  If you can't do that, you really shouldn't get a puppy.  An older dog would be better, but even then then you should plan to be around a while.

I put a doggy door in. He loves that shit. I love that shit. You'll love that shit.

A puppy or even a dog is probably not a good choice for you, then.

We waited a long time before we got a dog. We were always away on weekends doing things dogs couldn't do with us. Both working long hours. But finally there came a time where we found ourselves doing things on the weekends that a dog could join us in, and we were able to adjust our work schedules so that I worked later and my wife worked earlier. And we were able to afford a midday let-out service. So we got a dog and it was almost never alone more than 3 hours at a time, and it always had plenty of things to do and accompanied us on all of our adventures.

Now, even more later in life, my wife no longer works, so now we have 2 dogs