Often-times though, paper training has the unfortunete side-effect of teaching the dog to go inside the house and they don't much care if the papers are there are not. It's much easier and simpler to teach them from day 1 to go outside in the yard. It takes work, diligence and patience on the owner's part but the results are solid.
I agree with this ... for small-medium, medium, and large sized breeds. Outside-immediately and outside-only is how I trained my Golden and GSD from puppyhood, and both were solidly reliable in their housebreaking for their entire lives. But many dogs that are in the toy groups and some of the smallest among the small breeds never do grow to have large enough bladders to be able to wait overnight.
Whenever I see books and articles identifying many small or toy breeds as "very difficult to housebreak" ... or ... "may never be reliable with housebreaking" ... I read it as "owner needs a tiny dog with it's tiny bladder to be able to hold itself all night, or all day while the owner is at work" This simply may not be possible for many of the smallest dogs.
Barring personal anecdotes from those with toy breeds who have dogs that hold all night with "no problem whatsoever" ... to those folks, well maybe YOUR toy dog can. But just like people all dogs are individuals, meaning someone else's toy dog of the same breed may
not be able ... and many times it has nothing to with "well then they housebroke it all wrong!". Instead, it's often a matter of physical ability, or lack thereof, because of the small bladders in these dogs even when they are adults.
In those cases it's a good idea to litter train ... using a litter box with either dog litter (not kitty litter!), absorbent pads, or just plain newspaper. It's really NOT necessary to buy one of those special "indoor potty" gadgets. Those tend to be very expensive, not to mention appear to be much more difficult to clean than a plain litter box with newspaper! Still, some dog owners might say "Ewwwww!!" at the prospect of litter training at all ... but they usually own medium or large breeds and so rightfully cannot imagine litter training their dogs!
But just like with cats, as long as a small dog's litter box is kept scrupulously clean by the owner then there will be no indoor odor problems. Instead, what will certainly cause odor problems is a small dog that continually "goes" in various areas of the house! I litter trained 5 adult dogs that belonged to other people ... dogs that always had accidents every night and had owners who claimed their dogs were "impossible to housebreak".
One was a yorkshire terrier, one a mini-dachshund, one a toy poodle, and two mini-schnauzers that were way out of standard in that they were very small for their breed. All were very easy to litter train and not one got "confused". All understood that the litter box was their potty for overnight and/or while their people were at work, at all other times they still reliably went outside. In one case, the mini-dachshund, litter training saved the dog from being given up to the local no-kill shelter because after 4 years the owners were fed up with cleaning messes every morning. It had never occurred to them to litter train because "well she's not a cat".
Sophie is my Maltese she does very well with potting unless it is raining than we have mistakes on the carpet. She is 5 years of age is there any hope for Sophie when it rains?? If so please let me know? I feel this is my fault for using puppy pads with Sophie.
I don't think it has anything to do with your previous use of puppy pads ... it sounds like she just has an aversion to rain! There are some dogs that don't like rain .. sometimes it could be storm phobia, but a few dogs just hate getting wet!
If you want your Maltese to only ever "go" outside then you might try a very large umbrella ... perhaps a golf umbrella. If that doesn't work then as an alternative you could litter train her so that she has an acceptable place to "go" during inclement weather instead of her using your carpet. It's far, far easier to clean a litter box lined with newspaper or absorbent pads than it is to continually clean doggy accidents from carpets! Urine especially can ruin a carpet, because it soaks down into the padding which will eventually need to be replaced. Litter training in this case can save your carpet.
