Housebreaking - Help!

[fats]

DH and I might be adopting a new dog. We've got one at home now and would really like a second, but agreed that we should get an adult because we both work full time and it'd be impossible to housebreak a puppy.

Best laid plans, right? Since we want a full bred boxer it's not that easy to find an adult - the rescues are very strict and they have a high demand. I did find one dog - about 8 months old - who is in a nearby shelter. He's not housebroken though because he basically lives in the crate and the shelter doesn't have the time to take him out all day. I asked my vet and she agreed that since he's an older puppy, he can hold it in a lot longer than a baby puppy and that it shouldn't be hard to housebreak him. We would let him out in the morning. We've got a dog walker who comes in the afternoon and then we'd be home at night. We'd keep him in a crate until he's housebroken (longer if he likes it - for some reason, some dogs prefer to stay in their crate when they're alone).

Anyway, my question is - how does that work? I mean, if this little guy has been basically living in a cage for the past few weeks, and peeing and pooping in the cage, then how do we teach him that it's not ok to do that? Does anyone have any experience with this? Please help - I'd really love to take this guy home, but I'm worried about the housebreaking and if we can't break him, DH will break me.

[imagirliegirl]

Is he in a cage right now or an actual crate? I know the reasoning behind crate training is that the dog won't deficate where it sleeps. If it's in a large cage and has room to go to the bathroom in one place and get away from it to sleep then I would think transitioning it to the crate wouldn't be terribly hard. It just goes in it's cage because it can and doesn't have to lay in it. You know? If they have it in a small crate and he still does that then I'm not too sure. I'm sure someone else will know.

[fats]

Thanks for responding. I haven't seen him yet, but I'm guessing that he's in a cage since he's in a shelter. And I'm sure he goes in the cage because he has to - they don't take him out often enough for him to go outside. I was thinking that maybe he's in a cage where all the 'stuff' can fall through the cracks, so he's not stuck lying in it. I've got a crate at home from my first dog (although she never took to it and she crapped all over it and herself!), I just hope it's not too big. I've heard the same thing - that it needs to be small enough so that he can't go in one space and then be able to get far enough away from it so that he can sleep in another spot.