Hello!

Thank you for the advice. This morning when we got up he had weed and pooped but I didn't say anything I just cleaned it up without a fuss, so I will continue to do that. It was extremely frustrating when he first arrived because his poop was not solid he was producing what looked like diarrhea and was a greeny brown colour but it is becoming more solid and easy to pick up. He also had a dry nose when he arrived which we though wasn't right at all.

I'm sorry to hear that. I believe he has really improved today generally with behaviour confidence and potty. I think he is beginning to understand us better so I will see how he goes for the next couple of days. It's nice to feel like I have some support from others so thank you everybody I'm glad I joined the forum. :-D

Yay! By the way are there any doggie photo threads where we can post pictures of our lovely pets? I know there's a general chat forum but I wouldn't want to start a thread that was already there of course. :-)

Welcome to the forum katherine. Lucas looks lovely!

I'm Emma and I've got an English Springer Spaniel called Pepper and a Springer/Pointer cross called Ellie. Ellie is quite a nervous/anxious dog too and did have some issues with toilet training. We adopted her when she was 9 months old, and she would often go outside then come back in and pee on the carpet. We couldn't understand it, but ended up staying outside with her until she went, then praised her lots. Like puppypal said, jackpot treats could come in handy here. Another thing we found to help was shortening the length of time between her walks. When he does go in the house, make sure you've got an enzyme based cleaning product to clean up after him as if you've used an ammonia based one, it will still smell like urine which will make him think that that's where he needs to go.

As for him not liking men in thick, dark coats, you need to try and get him socialised with all kinds of people. I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that you may have missed the recommended window for socialisation, but the more people you can get him to meet the better. You can get them to feed him treats too, which will make him realise that strangers aren't necessarily scary. You can even get them to dress up in different coats etc. if you only have a few people you can get to come round.

Another thing that may help with his stress is Dorwest Herbs' Scullcap & Valerian tablets. We've used these for Ellie after she got spooked on a walk by a motorbike and was very nervous on walks afterwards. She is much improved now.

If he hasn't growled at anyone wrapped up outside, it might have been more to do with your dad coming into your house dressed like that, or even just coming into the house since he hasn't met him before. Unless he used to growl at them outside before?

You're right though. You need to find what works for him and the build on it. All dogs are different, so what works for one won't necessarily work for another.

Earl feeds off my emotions, and he is not a rescue. Your very right!

From what I have found out, every human emotion lets off a unique scent in which the dog picks up on and reacts to. E.g. an angry emotion would probably lead to the dog skulking off into the background. A happy emotion would lead to the dog boding up with his tail wagging.