thanks for your replies and ideas....i'll try to cover everything you've suggested.
i do not train with treats so there haven't been any extra treats in his diet. maverick hasn't been getting anything out of the ordinary (table scraps, etc) and there's nothing he can get into when he's in his room. we do not have cats so there's no kitty litter to get into.
since he's not going to the bathroom in "his spot", i haven't been letting him outside unsupervised. so i know he's not getting into anything outside.
he's "crated" in the laundry room because he got too big for his wire crate and we didn't have the room for a larger another one. we thought the laundry room would be a perfect place because it's big enough to spread out in but small enough to confine him (it's gated). he's been in this arrangement for about a year. are you suggesting we forget the whole laundry room idea for now? i might be able to borrow my niece's crate, we'd just have to put maverick out in the garage at night. when maverick was crated before, he'd still have accidents for "no apparent reason."
when i told my trainer about maverick's "problem" on walks last week, she suggested i go back to the prong. i quit using it in january because the trainer wanted us to get used to using a choke in class since we can't use one in the obedience ring anyway. maverick didn't respond to corrections any differently to the prong than he did the choke when we went for walks so i figured i'd use the choke for walks. she suggested i get a heavier prong as well. i had a fine/small prong and she felt it wasn't "strong" enough for him ...according to her, that that's why the correction didn't phase him. i was considering getting an e-collar for him but she didn't feel it would work well on a rottie and therefore i'd have no one to help me train with it. i'm very curious to what she has to say about his good behavior this weekend while i was gone. i still can't believe he did so well for my husband than he did for me.
i will call the vet tomorrow and she what she says. when i called last week about the blood i saw and explained what was going on (this was the day i left for my trip), she suggested trying immodium to stop the runs. but because he only had the runs once (meaning he'd only have the runs once a day), i thought it was pointless. i'll be curious to see what she says about the fact he had no runny stools while i was gone but "started up" again when i returned home. this whole thing is very odd.
thanks again.
