we have a 18 month old patterdale female who appears to be resisting my attempts to fully house train her. Basically if she does not poo first thing in the morning outside then she is more than willing to do it inside after we have left the house. This is the only time that she does anything inside, if she does go out first thing and goes, then we have no further accidents even if she is in for a while. When at home she will ask to go out or wait until it is walk time. It seems to be a particular problem when i work nights, my boyf lets her out in the morn she wees but nothing else, he then leaves for work and I get home approx 1hr later and shes  done it on the kitchen floor.
When i am up early to work days tho she knowns that she must poo early and does and then there is no problem for the rest of the day.
any advice on how to break her habit, it does not happen regularly approx 1-2 month which makes it more frustrating. we have taken to putting her in her crate which stops her but doesn't actually solve the problem. Have tried returning to basics treat after going etc, but cause she is older she'll hold it is she needs to. we never had a problem with our other dog.

I'm having the same problem with our dog.  He refuses to go out in the garden in the morning, even if I go out with him if he knows I am going out for 30 mins (to take my daughter to school)  At weekends and school holidays he is fine and always asks to go out when we are in.  If I make him go out he just runs back to the back door again and sits there waiting to go in.  He wees and poos in the kitchen every time I leave him and I am getting really fed up of the mess too.  I had to miss my daughters harvest festival assembly this morning because I knew that he would have messed and would probably end up lying in it or walking in it if I left him longer than 30 mins :-(  I have never had this problem with a dog before neither.

Anna

When your dog goes outside, do you give him a treat?  You need to make going to the toilet outside to be a really rewarding thing.  If you always give a treat every time he goes outside, soon he'll start to go outside just to get the treat.  Then, when he's going outside all the time, you can phase out the treat and just praise.

If you are just going out for 30 mins to take your daughter to school, couldn't you bring him with you?

As for longer times or times when you can't take him, I'd suggest you buy a crate.  Dogs don't want to mess in their crate because they consider it to be their 'den' and bedroom.  So they will usually hold on as long as they can in there.  Try to make sure he's empty before you put him in though, because it's not fair to leave him in there desperate.  You have to introduce the crate as a nice place to be, by hiding treats in there.  Then you can close the door while you're at home, doing things.  Then you can start to go out for a short time.

I have a similar problem with my puppy, but it's the same thing I had with my older dogs at that age, so it must be the way I train! She's now 10 months old and very nearly always takes herself out through the dog door to wee or poo, though if it's shut for some reason she won't ask to go! The problem I have had with her is that if she is in the crate overnight she is clean, not even particularly desperate to go out when I let her out in the morning. But if she's loose in the kitchen with the other dog, she messes overnight. My older two did the same thing, and they were about 14 months old before we could trust them not to do it. Hopefully your girl will improve with age as well!

Boduke - Dogs are creatures of habit.  And it seems that maybe this is a bad habit that has developed. 

You say that the crate stops it happening.  That's great, I wouldn't dismiss it as not solving the problem yet, because I think you should keep using the crate for an extended amount of time, maybe several months.  This should be long enough to break the habit.  It will become an unconscious thing for her to toilet only outside.

Then you could try leaving the door open to the crate, and finally removing it. 

This happens to the co-owner of one of my dogs.  Never have a problem when she is with us - when she is with my friend she sometimes poos on the dining room floor.  With her I think a lot of it depends on whether she is taken for a walk in the morning or not.  I always take the dogs for a quick walk if I am going out to walk, longer walk if not.  Walking tends to stimulate the need to pee or poo and even if they do not perform on the walk they will go in the garden as soon as they get back.  Back at my friends house she doesn't always get a morning walk and putting her in the garden for half an hour does not always encourage her to poo, she will just come back in and do it on the floor.

I know it is a pain but as said before, they like to have a routine and thier body clock gets used to it just as we do so get up a little earlier and go for a walk with your dog it may work wonders.

Has anybody thought the dogs might be messing in protest to being left?????
Mine used to do this when i left em....never any other time..
Try leaving something with them so they dont feel they have been left alone.
I alwys give my dogs treats that take them hours to eat....all their attention is focosed on the treat rather than being alone.....try filling a konga with either meat or cheese spread or infact anything they love and freeze it...it takes them longer to eat it.
Failing that either leave your tv or radio on....or if its your voice they miss record youself having a chat with someone and leave that playing.
Dont punish the dog if he messes....just loads of praise when he gets it right

Have you tried maybe putting her out 30 minutes before you need to leave and if nothing kennel then try again 10 min later, if does great praise/treat if not kennel for another 5 or 10 minutes ect ect.

Is there a field or green nearby where you could take her just for 10 minutes to do what she needs to do? My boy is fine and always goes on the back garden first thing, but my girl looks forward to her short walk before I go to work. Bit of a problem when the weather is bad but it saves any accidents.

I agree with that carol99 - I think the short walk is the key.