My Li'l Girl was around a year old when we adopted her, and she wasn't house trained. We used a crate for training. When we couldn't watch her, she was put in the crate. Other times, we kept a close eye on her and took her outside when she started sniffing, circling, etc. It didn't take long, but we did have other dogs which I think may be a help since they seem to learn from one another.