[Kissies]

I have a 8 and a half month old bassett/beagle mix who is house broken. She's very well behaved, won't get on the furniture (except when we're not home sometimes she'll sneak a little nap on the bed ), she's eating her normal portions and drinking the normal amount of water. Everything is normal, except that she has heartworms. She's getting treatment in the next two weeks.

Now, here's the problem: She won't do her business in the morning with me! She'll do it at noon, she'll do it in the evening, she won't do it in the morning.
Today I stood there for about 30 mins, till she finally went. When she did go I praised her and she was happy.

The spot where she goes is also used by other dogs...could that be the problem? We don't have a backyard so this is where we take her.

She does go with my fiance in the mornings and up till about two weeks ago she was going with him in the mornings and then I would take her out the rest of the day.
She gets a lot of attention. I've been home with her almost all day except for about three hours. I play with her, give her treats, and always make sure she has plenty of food and such.

So I guess my question is, How do I make my dog go on command? My family's dog goes on command, but we've had him since he was eight weeks old. I just remember telling him to "go pee" and eventually he learned what it meant. Do I do the same thing with her?
Do you think it has anything to do with the heartworms?

Thanks

[CaseLogic]

Well first question I have is, are you sure she's not going in the mornings inside the house before you take her out? That could be why she struggles to go in the mornings, cause she doesn't have any!

The best way to train her to go on command is, anytime she starts doing her business, say your command ("go potty!"), and immediately after she finishes, give her lots of praise, act excited, and give her a treat or two. Eventually she'll learn that potty is a great thing to do, and she'll also associate it with the command as long as you're consistent with it.

I don't know if the heartworms is the issue, but I would assume not if she goes normally during other times of day.

Good luck with everything!

[RockyBalboa]

I have my dog trained to go on command and i would definetly think about trying to teach it that because it saves time and is much easier then waiting for them. The way that I trained Rocky to go on command was every half hour to an hour or whenever i could, i would take him outside to where i wanted him to go potty as we called it:P and then just kept saying "Rocky, Go Potty" and such and after a couple of days not even he caught on to it very well. I began this training as soon as we got him which was a month if im not mistaken. I also recently purchased Bugg (Boston Terrier and a Pug Cross) and tryed the exact same method, to my surprise she caught on quicker then Rocky did. Unfortunetly, a couple days after i had her fully pottytrained she was diagnosed with parvovirus and Giardia and was put down a couple weeks ago, but the point is that i think you should try to train your dog to go on command.

[Kissies]

She's finally going with me. She's getting the idea. But she still looks at me like I'm crazy on some days. I'm trying to teach her the command.

Oh, and she's not having accidents in the house. She sleeps in our bedroom with the door closed and wakes up when we do. She has her two tags on so we can hear her when she gets up.

Thank you for your advice. I guess it just takes time and patience.