Nijiro was a runt and only 6 weeks old when we ended up with her. She was about the size of my akita's head and wobbled around. My friend who breeds akitas came out a week or so later and said she would put Niji's development equal to a 5week old puppy. We fed her carefully and she is now a 9 month old healthy, if a little smaller than average, husky. She has good natural manners and the best recall of all our dogs. The only problem is housebreaking. She was kept in a stall on a cattle farm and only outside when the children were carrying them. Then we gave her a bit too much freedom while so young and she was scared of the noises and lack of cover outside. It was hard to get her to do anything outside except keep cramming up against the yard gate or end of the leash. She is very confident outside now but seems quite oblivious of outdoors vs indoors when it comes to going potty.

We started out not doing anything when she went potty inside except taking her outside immediately and praising when she went outside. It wasn't working so we added treats when going potty outside but she never seemed to put the treats to the action and soon wouldn't do anything but stare at you waiting for a treat when taken outside. We increased negative consequences for going potty indoors just by sharply saying "no" and then taking her out but she learned to do it quietly and quickly when you weren't looking. She is incredibly stealthy about slipping into a corner or something before you can check where she went. I tried crating her for an hour, taking her out, letting her do things supervised for an hour, crating her for an hour, taking her out... There wasn't and still isn't a pattern to when she goes. Sometimes she'll run around outside for hours and then poop within minutes of coming inside. She vet checked healthy. We tried a variety of ways to get her to signal she needed to go out but it hasn't caught on still and I know my other dogs will quickly learn to knock bells or anything on the door in order to go outside just from boredom. They are quite obvious when they need to go out.

Things went on for another couple months while we continued to try to find something that would trigger her to potty outside and to tell us when she needs to go outside. We made a tiny bit of progress that she now maybe 50% of the time says she needs to go out but then promptly poops or pees nearby without waiting. Again the vet says she's healthy. We resorted to puppy pads in the places she likes to potty indoors but she peed around them and pooped on the edges then buried it so there was no more flat pad if I didn't get to it quickly and put a new one down. The past couple weeks we implemented a new system. We moved my husband's computer upstairs where mine is and I spend most of my time and we confined the dogs to the upstairs with us. Then we plastered the short hallway she liked to use (she does not potty in her crate or the bedroom) in puppy pads giving her no choice where to pee and poop and she was confined with us instead of hanging around downstairs alone sometimes and getting into trouble occasionally.

So we have her using puppy pads but not by choice. If there is a gap of no pad she will use that spot. The pee is starting to leak into the wood floor despite it being sanded and sealed within the past few years. That doesn't help the situation. I was hoping I could transfer the puppy pads toward outside but she's not using the area because the pads are there. She's using it despite the pads being there. Like I said there is no real pattern to it. You can wait around outside forever playing with her or calming her down in the hope she feels like going outside but around 1/4th of the time she still poops or pees immediately upon coming indoors and another 1/4th of the time she does it within an hour or 2 with no or 2seconds of warning. We took her on a hike a couple times since the weather got nice and while the others start pooping and peeing several times Niji does not. She does poop and pee in the yard when the mood strikes her. Peeing is more often outdoors than pooping. I'm not sure what's left to try. My japanese spitz I have were housebroken by the time they came home at 8weeks and had minimal accidents they never repeated.

I would probably look to tether her to me when she's in the house so that she can't slip into a corner to do anything. Then if she looks like she's going to squat you have a quick means to verbally and physically correct her and drag her out before she can get the task accomplished. She would lose all rights to any room in the house that you weren't in with her and on the tether. Make sure you are using an enzyme spray on all the spots she messes to kill the smell. When they can smell their old spots it's like they have designated that spot theirs and they will keep going to it if they can and it can cause the other dogs to try and mark it in their own way whether it's to pee on it too or to roll on it.