I have and still do have sort of the same problem. We have been having very cold weather as well as some nice warm weather. My 4 month old lab still doesn't always like to go to the bathroom all at once..Sometimes she likes to go outside and collect rocks,sticks,whatever she can find....We can take her out 5 to 10 times in a hour. She has been much better lately. I just watch her closely and we havn't had any acidents for a long time. I also got her around xmas and we always seem to have bells on our door all year round so she has learned to ring the bells when she was about 7 weeks old when she needs to go outside.