Originally posted by My Peanuts
Sylvia is almost 8 months old and she is still having a lot of trouble potty training. We have been potty training her since the end of June. We are very patient with her, but she just won't learn. All our dogs in the past potty trained quickly, so we are not used to this. We use the postive approach, she gets yelled at for going in the house and praised for going outside. She has the pee down, but the poop is giving her some trouble. I think she knows where she is supposed to do it, but she won't ask to go outside. Honestly, I think she might be a little slow or have a learning disability. My dad already said if she never learns she's not going anywhere (I have the best parents!) Anyway, my questions are... How did you find your doggy schools? Do I go with her? (Cause I want to) Also, what is the cost roughly? Or is doggy school not what she needs?
Thanks for any help.
My grandparents have a pug and he wasn't exceptionally hard to train. They used crate training though :-)

What you might want to check into is teaching her to ask to go outside. You can put a string of bells on the door and get her to nudge it each time she goes out, or you can just get her excited enough to bark or scratch the door. I did this with my male sheltie. He would never ask to go outside, he would just circle in front of the door, but of course if we weren't in the room to see it we had no idea he wanted out. So whenever I let him outside I'd stand by the door and excitedly ask him if he wanted to go outside until he got so excited he let out a bark. I'd then say good boy and throw the door open. Now he is pretty good at asking.
One thing about your approach, do you yell at her if you catch her in the act, or if you come upon it later? It is better to do it when you catch her in the act. But some dogs might be sensitive to yelling and will just go and hide to do their business. A better approach may be to just utter :uh-uh" in a low disapproving voice and then take her outside to finish with lots of treats and praise.
Also remember the number one rule of house-training:
Carry a rolled up newspaper with you everywhere. When you come upon a mess swiftly hit yourself 10 times over the head and repeat "I should have been watching my puppy, I should have been watching my puppy"
Seriously though if she is not trustworthy then do not let her out of your sight. Each time she carries out the bad behavior enforces in her mind that it's okay as long as you aren't there.
Here is a link to many on housetraining issues:
http://www.uwsp.edu/psych/dog/lib-SpecTrain.htm#house

Finally to touch on your question of finding a doggy school, the number one important thing to do is go and observe a few classes before signing up. Make sure that instructors methods are something you feel comfortable with. Talk to others in the class to find out their feelings. And make sure you have fun!!

Good luck!