Thank you Sunset, for your comments. It seems maybe you did not read the remainder of this thread, and my responses to people, or you would have read that she is not isolated in the basement, she is in a different crate upstairs in the kitchen. And since my last post, she has been allowed out and about in the house in increasing increments of time, and I have been keeping a sharp eye on her. One accident in the basement when my daughter was in charge and I was in the toilet, of course as I was getting ready to take her out to potty.

I got a dog because we want a dog. However, my home is not a toilet. I don't allow people to potty on the floor, and will not allow my pets to do so either. I know accidents happen. We have had 4 now since we got her on Saturday. (3 were Sunday) In fact, this whole 'adopting a dog from the shelter' experience has not gone at all like I had planned. We are trying to roll with things as best we can.

I also mentioned in a previous post that it was not my intention to isolate her in the basement, but it was a nice place to put "her area" with a nice big rug. The basement is unfinished, a great place to play ball and 'fetch the bobo' and get other running exercise. While we do take a couple long walks a day, they are walks, and she has tons of energy and needs to run around. Our house in not huge, and I would like her to know that basement=running around (with and without humans), while living room and kitchen=lazing about with the humans. Dogs are smart. If they can learn where to poop, they can learn where romping play is acceptible.

So anyway, my question was this: While I am taking perhaps days to get her coaxed into the crate, do I just allow her to run loose and poop everywhere?? Seems like this would negate the effects of trying to crate train/ housebreak her in the first place. I am home all day, but I do have to do things, like go to the bathroom myself and sleep, times I cannot supervise her. (((I originally asked this question from a training standpoint, not from the 'mess up my house' view, although in my mind they go hand in hand.)))