Help-Please this is urgent

[TerriCupcake]

I have a one-year old German Shepard/Rot mix. He's been a joy to have since we brought him home from shelter. We found the dog on petfinder.com and my brother has Captain's brother. He is approximately 65lbs. (which is alot smaller than his brother) About 2 months ago, he has started urinated and having bowel movements in the house. We have a large area rug in our living over hard wood floors. I'm not sure what the problem is, he generally does this during the night. He's gotten in to the habit of waking us up either after or not at all. He's ALWAYS woke us in the past therefore I'm confused. We took him to the vet to see if there may be a problem, cuz hasn't gone in the house since we brought him home or unless we were gone for a long time. The vet said there was nothing wrong. He had him fixed, which one testicle was up inside his abdomen, which they said wasn't an issue, just harder to find and more costly to us, we had the surgery. At the same time, we also had his dewclaws removed on the front. My boyfriend is very frustrated with him going to the bathroom in the house and so am I. He wants me to find a new home for him or train him to stop!!! I don't know what else to do.

What cleaners will remove the smell from our area rug & the hard wood floor? I don't want him to keep going there, he seems to choose the same general area of the rug. Any tips to training him would be greatly appreciated as I have to start working with him now or like i said find a home.

Thank you,
Terri

[Nettle]

You need an enzymatic cleaner to take the smell out of your carpet/flooring, and you need to take the dog right back to puppy training for the housetraining issues.

We have a ton of threads on potty training - do have a read through and come back with your questions. Potty training is dead easy, but you have to do it the right way.

[Salomé]

Hi Terri,

Nature's Miracle is really good at getting out the smell and the stain as I think it has enzymatic stuff in it to break down the urine. But if he's peed on actual carpet, you may need to get at the underlying pad in order to get the smell out once and for all. That's expensive, so let's hope he's just been going on a rug.

Onto your issue, a few questions: was he house-trained before all this started up? How long have you had him for and how long until all this started? How often does he go out to do his potty stuff? Is he fed late at night or on a free-eating schedule?

If this is just a new thing, has something happened in your household to act as a stresser? Some massive change with you or your BF? Dogs are very sensitive and German Shepherds in particular are very, very smart (I own one, so I"m biased. LOL). Dogs pick up on everything and can read your face, body language and more. If something has happened to change the existing dynamics or stress levels in your house, that could be one factor, but in the absence of more information, it's hard to know.

[maximoo]

You may have to crate him at night / put in an xpen/or small room until the problem is solved. No reason to re-home him. This is a minor problem compared to what a severe issue could be. You may also need to adjust his feeding schedule to facilitate reqular bathroom habits. Make sure he eliminates before going to bed for the night. Also what food are you feeding him? It may be making him go potty more often if its not the right food for him. Look at the problem from all angles & I'm sure within a short few weeks he'll be as good as gold!
Good Luck!

[luvmydogs]

I have a GSD that will do the same..How do you feed him?? I give 2 meals a day instead of 1.. I think splitting it up will help with the digestion...I also try feeding her at least 5 hours before everyone goes to sleep so everything will have time to process.. It might have to do with the food.. You might change want to change what he is eating.. Look under dog food analysis .com...That will give you more detail on what is good...Are his stools soft or normal?? ..I will give my dog some rice in her food if I notice her stools are soft ..I know that helps..Some people like pumpkin but I've never tried that..Not the pumpkin filling though...Does you pup try to wake you up when he has to go??? Mine does and sometimes I will get up and let her out and sometimes I will have to get the rug cleaner the next day I know it can be frustrating but I would never give up on my pup because of this..Crating will help keep it under control if you can't get up during the night...You can definatly get this fixed so don't give up...

[TerriCupcake]

Thank you to everyone for your responses. I bought the special cleaner. And we decided we are gonna have to go back to the crate when we are gone. BUT, the other day when he was put back in the broke the welds on the front. So we zip tied it back together. I put him in today when I went to work & he ate it!!!! The whole plastic tray that goes on the bottom Now, what are we to do?

[Leigha]

Did you train him to be okay in the crate, or just put him in there and expect him to be okay with it? I'm not trying to be a jerk by asking it that way, but you have to build up the association that the crate is a wonderful place to be and fantastic things happen in the crate before the dog is actually going to be okay with it. Also, do you give him things to do while he's in there? If he has no toys or puzzles or treats or any other forms of amusement, he might find them for himself.