[KarmaPuppy]

I posted this in the welcome forum as well...

We (my fiance and I) have been doing dog rescuing for awhile now (she has done it for 15 years), and we have saved and re-homed several different breeds (mastiffs, boxers, rotts, etc). We also own 2 English Bulldogs (Bubba and Yeti), and this past Fathers Day we were able to pick up a female GSD that we named Karma.

She is amazingly smart (compared to our bullies) and willing to please, and play, and learn. We are slowly training her to be an amazing dog. However we have hit one hurdle that we just can't seem get over, and hope someone here can help us out!

We crate our fur babies at night and while we are at work. When we are home, it's a fury of fur everywhere! That isn't the issue. What we are running into with Karma, is that it's a hit or miss on her going the bathroom in her crate. She is house broken, and isn't fixed at this time (only 6mo old). This past week I started to let her outside to do her business alone, 10 minutes before we go to bed (9pm), and when we wake up, (5am) she has gone the bathroom 4 out of the 5 mornings this week. One morning was #1 and #2! Coming home (5pm) she has gone the bathroom 5/5 times this week.

This morning she was let outside for the 20-30 minutes with the bullies like she is every morning. Put her away at 545, and i went to work. My fiance let her out at 8am-830am this morning, before putting her in the crate and left to run errands. She came home at noon, and Karma had peed in the crate again. We have talked about putting her back into a smaller crate to see if that's the problem or not.

We understand she is still a puppy and accidents happen, but at one point she had gone a month without accidents, through the night, and/or the day in her crate. Then she started having them, and they went away again for 3-4 weeks, and now they are back again.

Any advice? This is our first experience owning one of these beautiful creatures, and I like how she stays close to my two little girls (one reason we got her).

 

[Bramble]

With a female I'd get her check for a UTI and rule out any medical reasons. If that comes up clear then go back to basics with house training. Take her out on a schedule, by herself and go with her and make sure she potties and praise for pottying oputside. It is quite likely she getting distracted by the other dogs and playing rather than going potty.

 

[LuvShepherds]

Keep track of how long she pees, too. Females can hold back like males do, so they need to pee more than one time. Mine will usually go twice before she comes in, so I try to pay attention to that. If I really want her to get it all out, we walk. She can go as many as 8 times on a walk.

 

[tc68]

How old is she? I think it's far too long between pees/poops. If you're taking them out just before 9pm and then nothing until 5am...that's far too long for a small pup. A general rule that I followed is...for every month a pup is alive, that's how long it can go in hours. So for example, if your pup is 2 months old, then it needs to go out every 2 hours.

Also, I used to keep a poop/pee log....wrote down every time he did something. It helped me to predict when he needed to go out and when I could start letting him out later and later. It helped me a lot because sometimes I don't remember what time he went out. Sometimes when days are the same you sometimes can't remember if it was yesterday or today.

Clean the spots in the home with any pet protein remover cleaners. Get that smell completely gone.

With my dog, on the 3rd day of getting him, he stopped pooping in the house. Peeing was a different story. It took far longer....a few months.

 

[KarmaPuppy]

she doesn't go in the house thankfully, just in her crate. She is 7 months old now. Last night we tried something different and had her in our room with us for most of the night. At one point she jumped on the bed to snuggle with us, and she actually took up more bed than my fiance!! So today i will be getting her a bed of her own

 

[atomic]

Good luck with that! She’s been in bed with you, no “dog bed” is going to compare. All my dogs have slept in bed with me since the day I brought them home, I’d sleep light and at the slightest stir I’d pop up and take them out. I didn’t sleep much but they were comfortable and house training was a breeze. But I would second that possibly she has something going on like a UTI.

 

[KarmaPuppy]

So we tried a dog bed this weekend. Had a nice long weekend that i could get up in the middle of the night multiple times to let her out if needed. She did AMAZING! took us a couple tries to show her where her bed was, but after about 5-10 minutes she got it! Gave her a nice deer antler to chew on and she was happy as a clam.

No accidents all weekend. She even comes over to my side of the bed (to the pleasure of the Mrs.) and wakes me up with a nice wet nose and lick to my face. She got LOTS of praise for everything this weekend. belly rubs, butt scratches, a new chew toy, and a deer antler. NOW the next issue.. Poop eating.. time to research on how to stop that due to the previously mentioned early morning face licks....

 

[Chuck94!]

You have to at least post some pictures!

 

[KarmaPuppy]

Ignore the shaggy appearance of yours truly.. It's hunting season, and i'm getting married on 12/31.. so letting everything grow out until shortly before the wedding lol.

This was about 2.5 milliseconds before i was face licked