in the house, and that can confuse them.
When I had dogs I just spent their training period on hyperalert, always walking them within 25-30 minutes of eating for poop purposes and watching like a hawk for piddle signals that might occur in between regularly scheduled piddle walks. I also taught them the words "poop" and "pee." Dogs can actually learn some words, and the smarter breeds and individuals can learn quite a few words. It takes time and patience, and it helps if you are not trapped at a job for long hours (as a college instructor I do a lot of my work at home and spend only a few hours at a time on campus).
Once they learned the words, which I reinforced incessantly whenever they peed or pooped, and praised them outrageously for, they would actually develop a conditioned response. Their bodies would learn when they would be taken out to poop or pee, and the encouraging words would trigger the response if they were taking longer than usual.
My daughter's dog has also been conditioned to, ah, "release" on command when on a poop walk, since my daughter doesn't want the pup to go in people's yards. (Even after being picked up, dog poop leaves some damage to grass, just from being there for a moment while the collection bag is being readied.)
The smaller dogs are made small by breding that favors neotony, so they retain a lot of the puppy look and behavioral patterns. That is why small dogs can be harder to potty train. Also, I am sure the smaller brain is less trainable to complex behaviors. But I love all sizes of dogs, and you get so darned much cuddly cuteness from a little guy that it it worth the extra effort it can take to fully train them, not just potty training but other things, like not jumping and licking at faces in a frenzy of excitement when greeting someone. That is a puppy behavior that derives from the way pups in the wild who have just moved to solid food lick their parents' mouths to trigger them to vomit up the food they're bringing back from a hunt for the newly weaned babies.
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