13 month old GSD house training problems

[Doglover2010]

This may be a bit long but I've not posted anything on here for months so apologies for that.

We have 2 GSD (Dino and Holly - 13 months) we have had since they were 6 weeks old. We already have 2 very old GSD (Leon & Bonny - 13 yrs) and one GSD (Oscar, 6 years).

Some of you may remember me posting issues at the beginning of 2010 as Oscar bit and killed a pup (Leah)we got with Dino, we replaced Leah with Holly. The majority of 2010 was fine but we had to segregate the pups (as we call them) from Oscar (but not the old dogs, they have been fine). Oscar always now has a muzzle on in the house when we are altogether which is every day as they have free roam of the house and sleep with us at night (as do all the other dogs). We have a massive 25' bedroom so don't worry!

House training was tricky with the pups and I suppose I got a bit lazy as they messed in the kitchen sometimes where they tended to live (yet another 21' square room) and they went out in the garden a lot.
Holly is fine, she is trained and usually doesn't mess in the house (typical female!). Dino, on the other hand has been more difficult. If we catch him often he does go out with the others and pees and poos but often went in the kitchen at night. We shut the door of the kitchen at night to try and stop the habit and now he poos on the upstairs landing.

We feed the dogs about 7pm after our meal and the Dino usually has to relieve himself about 2.30am (ish) which, as you can appreciate is difficult to catch. We are going to try and feed them all earlier (4pmish) but that may be problematic as they go for long runs each afternoon and we can't feed them before. We also can't feed the dogs in the morning either due to our working patterns.

Dino hasn't found a place for himself in the pack which may be also contributing to this problem. He sometimes pees if we shout at him for messing, and if Oscar growls at him through his muzzle, Dino pees sometimes!

Any ideas.

[sami]

I think this might simply be a case of him being lazy and he has too much space. Most dogs wont mess where they have to sleep but it has to be a small enough area to bother them. I have always found that restricting the space they sleep in house trains 99% of dogs. Either a small room to sleep in, and I do mean small he has to only be able to stand up and turn around kinda thing or he will be able to mess in a corner and still sleep away from it. Or caging him at night, not a big fan of cages myself but they do work very quickly for this sort of thing.

Good luck

Tracy

[LOVEGSD]

I agree with Tracy sometimes they need a smaller space, perhaps you need to go back to basics with him as well and take him out at regular times, do you give him a command to go?

Originally Posted by Doglover2010

This may be a bit long but I've not posted anything on here for months so apologies for that.

We have 2 GSD (Dino and Holly - 13 months) we have had since they were 6 weeks old. We already have 2 very old GSD (Leon & Bonny - 13 yrs) and one GSD (Oscar, 6 years).

Some of you may remember me posting issues at the beginning of 2010 as Oscar bit and killed a pup (Leah)we got with Dino, we replaced Leah with Holly. The majority of 2010 was fine but we had to segregate the pups (as we call them) from Oscar (but not the old dogs, they have been fine). Oscar always now has a muzzle on in the house when we are altogether which is every day as they have free roam of the house and sleep with us at night (as do all the other dogs). We have a massive 25' bedroom so don't worry!

House training was tricky with the pups and I suppose I got a bit lazy as they messed in the kitchen sometimes where they tended to live (yet another 21' square room) and they went out in the garden a lot.
Holly is fine, she is trained and usually doesn't mess in the house (typical female!). Dino, on the other hand has been more difficult. If we catch him often he does go out with the others and pees and poos but often went in the kitchen at night. We shut the door of the kitchen at night to try and stop the habit and now he poos on the upstairs landing.

We feed the dogs about 7pm after our meal and the Dino usually has to relieve himself about 2.30am (ish) which, as you can appreciate is difficult to catch. We are going to try and feed them all earlier (4pmish) but that may be problematic as they go for long runs each afternoon and we can't feed them before. We also can't feed the dogs in the morning either due to our working patterns.

Dino hasn't found a place for himself in the pack which may be also contributing to this problem. He sometimes pees if we shout at him for messing, and if Oscar growls at him through his muzzle, Dino pees sometimes!

Any ideas.

So do you give the whole day's intake in one sitting then at 7pm? That will make it harder for him to hold on with a very full bowel. Large breeds should have their food in 2 sittings really, so is there no way you could alter your morning routine to do this?

Mine are fed am and pm and go twice, sometimes three times, a day.

Don't shout at him for messing, he doesn't know why you're shouting, peeing is a sign he's stressed because you've shouted. Poor dog doesn't deserve that

[Doglover2010]

Thanks for the comments. We had both the pups in crates when they were small, Holly got very stressed when we put her in her crate and eventually it was just a toil of a pleasure forcing her. Dino loved his crate but for a GSD is very tall, higher than the 6 and 13 year old and even though the crate was the largest we could buy he stopped going in it and again we didn't want to force him.

When they were small we used to put them in their crates and then lock the kitchen door to ensure Oscar who has to be muzzled couldn't get at them. Even now he has to be muzzled, as he just can't be trusted even though they are older.

Neither my husband or me shout at Dino for anything really as he is such a good dog, so if he pees or poos in the house, we don't usually make a fuss, it is rare and only at night. We did try feeding them twice but when we they got to about 10 months they just didn't want the morning food at all and we kept chucking it away.
We have always fed our GSDs after we have our dinner in the evenings about 7pm and the pups want to eat their dinners with the other dogs, they just won't eat otherwise (well except for Oscar, he always eats on his own or fights will break out). They never exercise after their dinners either they just chill. All our other dogs relieve themselves when we let them out so it might be just a matter of time.

Onwards and upwards eh? German Shepherds are an absolute joy for 99.9% of the time, so little problems like these are not a major issue for us.

Regards

Jackie