I've posted a number of times before regarding my 15 month old trindle Basenji, Griffin. I can't tell you what a great resource this forum is and I hope everyone out there isn't sick of my questions yet. We adopted Griffin from BRAT when he was 9 months old and he's a sweetheart - loves to cuddle and is VERY talkative for a basenji.
I grew up with basenjis, so I'm very much aware of their personalities and idiosyncrasies. I think Griffin may be missing the "basenji cleanliness gene." Every dog I've ever had has been very clean and lived a very typical "basenji" life. Griffin is like no other basenji I've ever had - he willingly goes out in the rain for walks, when we tried crate training - he pooped and peed in the crate (even with a bone in there with him too) and now he's pooping and/or peeing in his "area" during the day while we are at work. And if you saw my last post - he sometimes eats his poop.
While I love that he goes out in the rain for walks - the fact that he still goes to the bathroom where he sleeps is getting very tiring. We've tried crate training and we were not successful - he would completely freak out and make a total mess in the crate. He's housebroken in the sense that - he won't go to the bathroom while we are home. And there are even days when he won't have accidents at all - but those days are few and far between now.
He is walked very regularly - I even come home from work every 3 1/2 to 4 hours to walk him. If we are home, he can go up to 5 or 6 hours without a walk. But, if we leave - we need to come back within 3 hours to take him for a walk - and even then usually there's an accident waiting for us. We've limited his food and water intake (this helped a little). We exercise him regularly. We even bought that pheremone thing (that helped a little too). We've been to the vet and ruled out any more UTIs, diabetes or any other problems. At this point, I am convinced that it's a behavioral issue - maybe separation anxiety. But, what is confusing is that sometimes he's good - and sometimes he's not.
Is there a general guideline as to when basenjis are totally housebroken? If so, I'm assuming we are WAYYY past that. Other than giving treats when he goes outside, regular walks and praise - what are some other housetraining secrets?