Hello. Help needed!
We've just adopted a new dog. She's around six months old and we think a Saluki-Husky cross (with probably a bit of various other breeds in her as well). For context we found her hiding under a car having chewed threw the rope she was tied up with and run away from wherever she was (we're in the Middle East and dogs not necessarily treated that well here).
She seems well fed but cowers if you raise a hand to her and we suspect she's be kept entirely outside and probably hit a fair bit. We've had her about a week now (and have been to the vet to check if reported lost etc).
Anyway, she's a lovely dog. The problem we are having is she cannot seem to get the hang of toilet training.
We have another dog and are following the same process with the new one we did with the last one - regular trips outside, first thing in the morning, late at night. middle of the night etc and then lots of praise if she toilets outside. However, she just won't. She will wait until she's finished a walk and immediately sneak away and go to the toilet somewhere inside. This morning we were out for about 45 minutes and she went on the doormat as soon as she got home!
We take both dogs out together and do elaborate praise when the 'old' dog toilets in the hope the new dog gets the hint but that doesn't seem to work either.
How do we change this? The 'give lots of praise' approach doesn't work if she never toilets outside to be praised! I appreciate patience is required but a week in we have made no progress at all.
Any thoughts on what to do really appreciated.