Hi all

I normally post in the cat section but we also have a German Shepherd.

Me & my partner work all day and the dog used to chew anything he could get his hands on. This includes fixtures too such as flooring, skirting board, window sills etc. He also destroyed a bed setee. It drove us up the wall.
This caused so much tension between me & my partner and we used to argue over it.
It got to the point where we were seriously considering sending him to my parents to live.

So we decided to introduce walks in the morning to see if this improved. We get up an hour early before work to take him for an hour.
Since we have done this he has stopped the chewing (but there is nothing left for him to chew now anyway - i dont doubt he would still chew given the chance).
I did a lot of research on the net about what was causing this problem.

So after a few months of being good and being taken for walks he now decides to wee and poo in his room (conservatory).
He has done it when we get up in the morning, also at lunch time when we go home to let him out and also at night when we get home from work.
He has also done it while we have been there too.

Most of the time when we have been out we dont tell him off for the simple reason he cannot tell us that he needs the loo. But there are no excuses for it when we are there!
We always make sure he goes in the garden for at least half an hour before we go out or go to bed.
But we do tell him off sometimes because we believe if we dont then he thinks its ok to do it in the house rather than hang on till we get home.

Now the chewing did affect my relationship with the dog, but then we started to build it back up again when he started being good. But I feel its going down hill again and i dont know what to do.
It makes me feel like I hate him. And it puts me in an awful mood when he has been bad (which at the moment is eveytime we go into his room).

Sorry for the long post - please help!!!!