Ahahahaaa, oh my, as I was reading I thought, "she hasn't said the breed, bet it's a bichon," and then BANG you say part bichon!!!

Bichons are notoriously difficult to potty train. They are very busy dogs, and potty training does not even make it onto their "TO DO" list! So I suspect this is what you are dealing with. It is typical for a bichon to be about 1 year old before being potty trained, and many take till age 18 months to be reliable in the house.

This means you CAN potty train the puppy, just not on your time schedule. Be patient and consistent. When doggie goes outside, have a pawty! Clap, laugh, dance around, praise and TREATS, lots of them. When doggie goes inside, just clean up and move on. It is OK to make sounds of disgust when you are cleaning up (ick! yucky!) but do NOT make eye contact or even look at the dog when you are doing this.

My Tasha is a puppy mill rescue, born and raised in a cage. She came to me at almost age 5 and it took 18 months but we got there and she is now reliable in house. Mill rescues of any breed are very hard to train as they are used to sitting in their own waste, so the natural instinct not to soil in the nest is missing. We got there, with this huge issue, and you WILL get there as well.

As adults, bichons pee every 4 hours. As puppies, they need to go even more often. The bichon breed has a very small bladder, even smaller than other small breeds. There is a study in France just now looking into WHY bichons are the way they are, lol.