The thing that helped Tucker the most with peeing was boosting the value of his treats. He was just getting dry, hard dogs treats for going potty outside and these same treats were used for regular training and rewards.
So we bought Natural Balance rolls and cut those up into treats that we use ONLY for pottying outside. That helped tremendously. He also went out every hour and now every two hours otherwise he would still likely pee inside.
Pooping is a whole nother ball game. He often doesn't feel the need to waste his fun outside time pooping but I think it's getting much better, you just need to restrict his accress to the yard to one section until he goes, then we can explore the rest. I think my parents don't do this, they let him alk the whole yard and when he does finally poop they take him in, which is esentially punishment for pooping. I also love taking him on walks because I know at the end he's completely empty, he poops, pees, and then marks until he's as empty as empty comes, so then you can let your guard down a bit. But every dog is different. For instance if he pees outside, there is no chance he'll pee inside again for almost two hours. Right after we switched to the good treats that was an issue though as he'd try to only pee a little so he could pee again and get another treat. But sometimes he got taken in before the next pee so he'd stil have a relatively full bladder going in and would have to pee inside. So we made sure to only give treats for the first pee and that problem is gone.
I would do the umbical cord though, if my parents had done that Tucker would probably be housebroken by now.
She'll go outside and pee and then come in and pee in the house ten minutes later, I just don't get it. She doesn't seem to mind peeing in her crate either. She'll wake up and pee before she even makes a noise. I guess it's time to try the umbilical cord method.
