I have a 7 month old german shephard who seems to hate going to the bathroom outside especially pooping outside. He goes through periods where he does really well but other times he will go in his cage. I am outside with him up to 40 minutes waiting for him to go outside and he seems to go in kennel.

Try walking him or other things. Exercise stimulates the body to eliminate. They can only walk and hold it so long. The one Shepherd I had was more difficult than most of my Labs have been. Over the winter She decided the ''right'' place for bowel movements was at home in the garden covered with leaves. Often she would put off, until we got home. They are able to go longer. This worried me when we would be out in public for extended periods.

I have a 7 month old german shephard who seems to hate going to the bathroom outside especially pooping outside. He goes through periods where he does really well but other times he will go in his cage. I am outside with him up to 40 minutes waiting for him to go outside and he seems to go in kennel.
I have tried taking him for walks at nighttime especially since he is going in the cage at nighttime. I was outside last night for 45 minutes and he finally went to the bathroom outside, but this morning there was a mess again. How can a dog have to poop that much? We do not feed him after 6 pm.

How much are you feeding him at each feeding? Can you move up his feeding time to 5:00 or 5:30? Walk him early evening, exercise him well to tire him out, and walk him again right before you go to bed.

GSD & Huskies are both breeds that aren't the easiest to housebreak. If they were ever given any opportunity to eliminate in a kennel as puppies prior to your purchasing them, they quickly train themselves to be comfortable eliminating where they sleep. If the eliminating occurs inside during the day when you are around, you need to train yourself to recognize the signals. Circling, sniffing, restlessness, are all signs that he needs to do his business. Labman may have additional input.

At 7 months, you could feed once a day in the morning maybe eliminating bowel movements at night. Unfortunately, Shepherds are bad about deciding somewhere is the right place, and better able to wait until they have a chance. I forgot to mention lavishing praise on him when he does go outside. There may be more such helpful details at https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/dogs/information-articles-our-dogs-expert-labman-53153.html#post251809

A well cared for Shepherd puppy is easy to housebreak. I am tempted to put up a picture of my Gretchen and the lady that had her mother. She now has Gretchen as breeding stock. I have a picture of her sitting in the whelping box with Gretchen and her first litter in her living room.

As a shepherd owner I have a suggestion. When you take him out to do his busniess do not play first. Gsd can and usuaslly have a very strong play drive. And going potty is secondary to playing. Walkthe dog until he's does his potty. Praise him and then play. My dog will forgo food and potty time to chase the ball. But he knows potty comes first and the play. He snine now and he still needs a goood walking to find the purfect spot.

Do you have a fenced yard? Most of the time Gretchen was allowed out when she wanted. She was free to choose a time and spot she liked. We have kept Belle from her first litter a couple of weekends plus other assorted young Shepherds. Same thing with them. The problems were when we had them out somewhere. You can't just open the convention hall door and let the dog out. Some dogs don't like to eliminate on leash. Are you using a command as in the sticky?