Another secret to successful house-training is to be consistent. A full week of concentrated house-training is better than a half-hearted month. Follow the schedule, praise your pup lavishly when he goes in the proper place, and your pet will be completely house-trained with a minimum of fuss.

But what do you do if, despite all your best efforts, that dog still goes in the house?

You say you've tried everything and your patience is running out - FAST. Just remember that as every human isn't destined to be brain surgeon, every dog isn't going to be a house-training genius. Some dogs simply aren't very smart. Some have been mishandled. And some are very, very stubborn.

Sometimes a dog will eliminate in the house because of a human error. The best trained dog in the world will have a hard time holding it if you forget to let him out before you go to work.

Sometimes a dog is just ill, or in the case of an older dog, may be having trouble with his bladder or bowels. When an older dog, with a excellent house-training track record, suddenly starts having accidents in the house, be patient and have him immediately checked out by your vet.

Correcting your dog when he eliminates in your house is a must, and there are right ways and wrong ways of doing it. Never, never, hit your dog and rub his nose in his mistake. You'll only make him more difficult to handle. Never, never, call your pup to you to punish him. You'll only make him wary of you.

Never, never, punish a dog for a accident that happened hours earlier. He won't remember something he did that long ago.

And finally, try not to let your dog see you clean up his messes.

When you correct your dog, do it firmly but humanely. Carry him or walk him (you can grab him by his collar to do this) to the site of the accident. Give him a couple of shakes and a swat under the chin, telling him all the while in a gruff, growly voice, what a bad dog he is.

Say something like, "NO, Bad Dog." Then walk him to the door and out to the spot where he was supposed to go. Leave him out for awhile, then let him in.

If you can't leave him out put him in his crate for a little while. This will give you a chance to clean up the mess so he doesn't see you doing it.

If you have an older dog who has never been house-trained, you must start from scratch, the way you would do for a puppy. Schedule him and confine him. Clean the house thoroughly, making sure there is no trace of previous accidents and punish him when necessary.

It shouldn't take very long for an older dog to get the message, but if it takes time, you must be patient with him. When the house-training habit isn't ingrained in from the very beginning it can take a long time to undo the damage. But be assured, eventually the message will get through.

Sadly, officials at pounds and humane societies across the country will tell you that the number one reason dogs are turned over to them is a problem with house-training.

With that in mind, you must correctly house-train your pup from the very start, and that way he won't become another sad statistic on the destroyed page of a pound ledger and a lingering, unhappy memory for you and your family.

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