I recently rescued a German Shepherd mix puppy from a family who kept him tied in their back yard to a tree with no shelter, food, water, or attention. My vet and I guess him to be about 6-7 months old. Considering this poor pup was chained outside for the first months of his life with no socialization at all, he's doing remarkably well. Yesterday was the 1 month anniversay of me bringing home, and to celebrate he's started pooping in the house! He's been doing very well with housetraining. He goes every time I let him out (pretty darn often) although he still doesn't seem to know how to "tell" me when he needs to go. Because he's been doing so well I'm not watching him with a hawk eye anymore, and now he's begun to poo indoors. I know I'll need to revert back to watching him at all times, but I'm wondering if anyone has any tips for training an older puppy to tell me when he needs to go so I don't have to keep guessing and hoping I'm letting him out at the right times. Thanks so much.

Here's a site I found that might help. Just click on the link.

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/housebreaking.htm

Good luck.

May I ask how often you get him out for exercise? Since Shepherds are a very high energy breed, they need a good walk or run at least once a day to drain their energy. If they don't get this, it can cause them to revert back to old or attention getting negative behaviour. If he gets out for his daily exercise, and you get his bowels moving, he will empty his bowels after his walk, and then he won't go into that negative frame of mind, he will be in a happy state, and more likely to obey your commands.

I sure don't know why people get a puppy, and then tie them up outside with no food, water, or shelter. Bless you for rescuing him! :)

I got my Dudley when he was 10 months old. He wasn't fully trained and had some issues with pottying. I trained him to ring a bell when he needed to go out and it works wonderfully. I am handicapped and stay mostly upstairs where I can not see the door. The bell provides Dudley with an audible way of telling me he has to go out. I bought a small cowbell type bell at a craft store, hung it at his nose level and every time I took him out I would ring the bell. After about a week I would push his nose against the bell so it would ring and then let him out. He got the message real quick.