my wife is having a problem...
 

Hey, how's it going. I got a 3 month old blue german shepherd and she is pretty well house trained. She never goes to the bathroom inside while I am home. But the past couple nights while I go to work, my wife is home, and she just constantly goes. Last night she peed about 5 times and pooped once in only 8 hours while I was gone. I know she is still a puppy. But this never happens when I'm home. But the thing is, is that she let's her outside. Leaves her out for about 5-10 minutes just like I do, and she would come right in and in about 5 minutes, she would potty in the house. Anyone have any suggestions on how we can fix this? I know she is very attatched to me cuz she walks by my side where ever I go. I would appreciate the help. Thanks!

Don't just leave her outside...actually go out there and make her do her business. If she doesn't do it, walk inside, then take her right back out. Do this until she goes. When she goes, throw the biggest party you can think of. Do this over and over again until she gets that she's supposed to go outside. It's also possible to hang a bell on the door...ring the bell before each time you go outside to make her potty, after a while they get a hang of the fact that if they ring the bell, they go outside, and get to potty. It's very useful for a puppy that can't hold their bladder for extended periods of time.

Definitely take your pup out on a leash to go potty. That is the only way to ensure she not only goes potty, but goes in a designated area. Then you can praise her to high Heaven. When our puppies have accidents in the house, it is because WE are doing something wrong.

As others have said - take her out and WAIT for her to potty then lots of praise and bring her back inside.

Once inside the puppy should either be in a crate or your wife should be 100% aware of where the pup is at all times. The easiest way to do this is to put the puppy on leash and have your wife attach the other end of the leash to her waist.

When a puppy has an accident in the house it's not the puppy's fault - it's the HUMANS fault for not watching the puppy.

That's why we call it house training. They don't come into your lives as Rin Tin Tin. It will be hard work and house training is the lesser job even.

Besides what everyone else said, how about having your wife take your dog for an on-leash walk. Make it your wife's special thing and reward your dog when it goes pee and poo. Our dog is 2 1/2 and we still say, "good girl" or good pee or good poo, when she goes on our walks.

Also, is your wife just not paying attention to your pup when you are gone?

FYI, with our current dog and previous dog, neither could hold their bladder or bowels at 3 months old all night. I think I woke up to let our dog outside in the middle of the night every night until she got to be about 7 months old. There were times with our previous dog, a GSD mix, even as an adult I would occasionally have to let her out in the middle of the night.

I appreciate it. The only thing is... Is she does just done when I'm home. We don't need to attatch her to my wife, as she is a "foot dog" always in your feet. She said she saw it happen everytime. But by the time she actually saw, it was too late. I let her run around the house out of my site, ill take a nap on the couch for a couple hours without her in her crate. And nothing. I'm just very curious why only when I'm not home.

And she does hold everything all night long. From like 1am when I get home. Til 9 when I wake up.

It's difficult to say as to why without watching her activity when you are home and when you're not home. I doubt that this has anything to do with YOU and more to do with that you're gone during the day and home at night so the dog has different activities it does during those times.

Our rule of thumb when it came to training our dog was, he drinks, he goes out, he eats, he goes out, he sleeps and wakes up, he goes out, he's been awake for 2 hours, he goes out. It took about a week for him to be house trained and then another week or so to understand the use of the bell (which was then abused because he'd ring it just to go outside for a walk).

At this age she should be able to hold her bladder for about 4 hours. So its not surprising you can take a nap. The issue with just letting her out for 10 minutes and then letting her back in is that she doesn't connect the outside to doing her business yet and you're not helping her do that. It actually sounds like she doesn't want to do her business outside and thinks she's supposed to do it inside (since she's going out and then coming in and doing her business). This might also be that when you did catch her inside, you corrected her, so she's realized that YOU will correct her, while your wife won't do anything so she's allowed to do that inside.

Your wife doesn't need to be connected to the dog, but the dog should always be contained in whatever area she's in. It was easy for us because we lived in a 500 square foot apartment so when he went to the door, I could see it. In your case, the dog might need to go out, she actually signals this, but because your wife isn't around the dog she doesn't see the signal. So the dog goes after waiting as long as it can.

Her activity during the day is to play with my other dog. He's an 11 month german shepherd mastiff mix. And all they do is play. At first o would go outside with leighla and she would potty right away. And now as soon as I let her out she goes right away. Then I just let her run off some energy with gunner (German shepher mix) for about the 5 to 10 minutes. She let's me kkow then she is ready to come in after she runs around the yard. When I'm home she will either lick my face while I'm sleeping, or sit by the door if om awake to go outside. Do you think she can be that attatched to me to be suffering from seperation anxiety when I'm not home? Even though my wife is?