Should my nearly one year old GSD be completely housetrained now?

[loopylou6]

He should really shouldnt he? Its over night thats the problem. Id say an average of 3-4 times a week i will get up in the morning to at least a wee on my kitchen floor

Hello

Bit of GSD tbh.

Has he ever been crate trained?

What do you do when you find the wee in the morning?

Hiya where have u beeeeeen?

Nope was never crate trained

I go in, see the wee and say to him "you DIRTY naughty boy" then i boot him into the garden whilst i bleach the floor.

I've been touring with Jon

Seriously , do you tell him off? Don't! No point - dogs can't connect being told off to anything they have done in the past. Telling off only works for things you catch them in the act with . What he understands is that sometimes (for some unknown reason) Mum comes down in the morning and shouts at him. So he gets anxious - and wees!

Stop telling him off and maybe try limiting his water after say 8pm to help him a bit . It may take a while for him to stop, but in the meantime don't tell him off or he'll be doing it forever.

HTH & nice to see you again

p.s. Bleach not needed - urine usually sterile . Dilute bio washing powder or specialist odour removers are best

Lol ok, U where greatly missed

Ok i will stop telling him off
Have already tried stopping the water after a certain time, so i spose i just gotta hope he grows outt of it really.

Very interesting RE the urine, i will try the washing powder from now on...Do i just sprinkle it on the floor and mop over it?

Just thought I would share a little bit of my recent experience with you - it won't help but it may make you smile - and let you know you are not alone

My GSD (now 8mo) is clean and dry at night, has been for a while and, obviously, is during the day...at least he was until a couple of weeks ago when he has come up with a new trick

Basically, when we eat he is closed into one room away from us. Sooo, my lovely, kind, intelligent pup has clearly been trying to work out how to get our attention whilst we eat, he tried barking, whining, scratching the door...nothing worked...so he decided to try peeing on the floor whilst we eat tea

The first time must have been my fault - I cannot see that he could have worked out to try it unless it was an accident so I guess I must have not let him out before I put tea out... of course I hear the tell tale tinkle (thanks to the wooden floors), leap up and escort him quickly outside. My clever little angel obviously cottons on that this is great. The next day he tried barking for a bit, then came the tinkle...he has worked out now that he does not need to wee even, he just cocks his leg as soon as I start putting tea out and has me wrapped around his little paw! Obviously it is not even a tiny bit funny but I have to say the intelligence of him really makes me

I am currently trying to think of ways to out fox him on this one - but he is a very bright boy, it may not be easy!

So Bellabonjovi, how are you about the GSD now? Or do you just want any that is not mine?

With our dog dh did something which I was a bit about but which seemed to work great (since he cracked it in no time at all). He would come down in the morning, inspect the area the dog has access to and if there was no pee would make a huge fuss and congratulate the dog.

If there was pee, he wouldn't say anything, just put the dog outside while he cleaned up.

Within a few days, we would come down and if the dog hadn't peed, he would be bushy tailed and escort dh round while he made his inspection - if he had peed he would look a bit downcast and stand by the door.

He carried on doing this for a good few months after the dog had stopped ever peeing inside - seemed unfair to have him miss his congratulations just because he was being consistently good!

Loopy - aw, thanks. Doubt very much I was missed, but very kind of you to say so

Just make up a solution of whatever biological stuff you use - powder or liquid. You can keep it in a plant sprayer bottle so it's always to hand. Or get Simple Solution from pet shop.

Let us know how he gets on. The same goes for anything he does which you might tell him off for (chewing, stealing food, etc) - there's absolutely no point unless you catch them in the act. Dogs can only link the telling off to what they are doing at that exact moment, which could just be sitting there, looking at you! Sneaked another look at your pics - he is gorgeous, btw, although I suspect quite a bit bigger now

Hesays - pmsl, so to speak. What a very clever dog you have there. I have one who knows that a sure fire way to get my attention is to take books off the shelf and drop them noisily on the floor - she then stands there, waiting for the attention with a wagging tail. You have successfully trained your GSD to pee as you eat your dinner - well done, you! Forgive me if I don't try that one at home

ib - interesting, although I would argue that the dog was just responding to the positive (rather than negative) attention he was getting in the morning. Glad it worked

Thanks Bellabonjovi, I was quite impressed with myself too

The thing that got me (and IMO there is a lesson here for all dog owners, especially GSD owners) was it only took one occurance to teach him this bad behaviour, just one incident and he has caught on to this new trick. Luckily for me it was something obvious that I latched onto quickly too. It does make me wonder how many smaller behaviours we are training them into without even realising it si happening!

I have got the peeing stopped now, I still have to work out how to get him to stay on his own whilst we eat without peeing everywhere - currently he lays under the table like the king of sheba

I wonder if I could teach him the book trick instead? Mind you, knowing my luck he would drop the book on the floor and then pee...

Exactly - a less intelligent dog would have needed several repetitions before he got the hang of peeing during dinner, but not your boy!!!

You can argue that some methods of teaching a dog to heel actually teach them to pull! Dogs pulls, owner stops and waits for dog to return to side, then praises/clicks, so dog pulls again to start the whole cycle and get the resulting praise again. They're a lot cleverer than we give them credit for sometimes.

What is wrong with dog lying under table during dinner? Works for us - cosy footwarmer in winter too

LOL at these messages

Woke up this morning to a wee I'm getting really downcast with all this tbh...
Its not just the weeing, he keeps jumping up on my worktops and kitchen sides etc, and if hes been out then it leaves muddy prints everywhere, hence lots of extra bleaching and extra work, then theres the trying to walk him problem - He takes me for a walk then theres the jumping on people problem arghhhh

I spoke to a lady whos in the know and she says he thinks he is the pack leader, so its obviously me whos done something wrong, she says it sounds like he has no respect for me and is spoilt

I really gotta sort something out, coz DH is having a right old moan about 'my dog'

He dribbles, he licks feet, he trumps, every now and again a little (well big) nose pops up and lays on the table next to someones plate and starts sniffing closer and closer....

And that is before you even begin on the crying and whining! He is not welcome at my dinner table

Of course things have improved somewhat, it was not that long ago when he would jump up onto the table (all four feet) as soon as everyone got up to clear the plates, it was a race between you and him to see who got to scrape the plates off first [blurgh]

Sorry, loopy - missed that! Was too busy talking gibberish as usual.

The weeing overnight will take time - he needs a while to learn that he's not going to get told off any longer.

He sounds like a normal bouncy young dog who just needs a bit of training, tbh. Not spoilt, not necessarily a pack leader (be very wary of anyone who talks in terms of packs).

Do you do any training with him? Can you get to classes?

These are great for pulling:

here

I will take your Halti Bella and raise you one of these they are leather so much more solid than a halti. Solid mean they don't move around on the face at all, one of the problems with haltis is that they can pull round across the eyes etc and become an irritation, with a leather headcollar that does not happen - and they are far harder for the dog to get off meaning you are less likely to be chasing him across fields unintentionally

I swear by leather headcollars for any large dog, even thos who walk well can take you by surprise occasionally (from someone hauled into traffic by a previous large dog who was so well trained she didn't need a lead at all - except for that one time...)

Training is a must IMO, choose your trainer and club well and just do it for the fun of doing something with your dog, things like agility can come later and they are great fun!

Kitchen sides... well, somepeople get on well with double sided sticky tape all around the sides, the dog hates the feel on the paws - supposedly, may be worth a try? The main thing though is just not to give any attention when they are doing something wrong, even shouting is attention. Just push him down. Later on ask him to sit next to you and then praise him/give him attention but never when he is on the side IYSWIM.

I dont take him to classes, but i really should, im gonna look into that right now i think.

I do training with him for certain things, like roll over lie down high 5 etc, and he picks it up very quickly, but as for the lead thing im at a point where im to scared to take him out, coz hes sooo powerful and also very protective of me, he barks at anyone whos in the vicinity, not really his fault as i havent socialised him properly...

I think i need to do alottttt of work with him.

The sticky tape on the works tops, i cud try, but hes so big that i wud have to actually cover the whole sides up to the wall

Loopy, mine is a big GSD too, even for a gsd IYSWIM!

THe protectiveness is not a good thing, it is the sort of thing that will run im into trouble if he keeps it up, he should be relaxed when out walking. The major thing, of course, is socialising. Have you done any socialising with him at all? If so what sort and when?

Has he been neutered btw?

No hes not been snipped

And the only socialising he gets is when people visit our house which is frequent, we also have another dog who he bullys plays with Im aware he needs to go out on walks, but i gave up after he nearly broke my wrist pulling me, and now ive took the wimpy route and let him run round in the garden.

Have just been googling for trainers and have come across 'Bark Busters' Has anyone heard anything about them?

Sorry, that was not meant to sound judgmental, I was just asking for further information

Ok, well, at 1yr old and having problems with being protective I would suggest that it is time to think about having him snipped, unless you are going to breed from him? It may not work but the chances are that he will feel a little less inclined to be protective with you out walking. If he is more relaxed then you will be able to concentrate on getting the behaviour you want from him rather than worrying about how you are going to hold onto him if somone comes walking past (or whatever his trigger is)!

If he is not out walking then things like jumping on the sides etc will be made worse, just as an outlet for his energy and interest.

I honestly think your first step is to find a way to get him out as much as you can, I would say through buying a headcollar and having him snipped but you may have other ideas? Once you have got him a little more calm and listening to you going to training classes will help you get his mind working on something positive IYSWIM?

Thanks for that what you say makes total sense, and yes his trigger is someone walking past, and i do worry how im gonna hold on to him, so spot on lol.

I desperately want to get him lead trained coz i agree with you, i think it would solve alot of problems, so im going to look into paying someone to show me how to do it properly, it'd be worth it if they can lead train him

This is a good website for trainers:

APDT

Thanks Bella, might give one of those a call and ask for prices