Problem 1 : The urine odor. Try saturating the smelly spots with Natures Miracle or Odoban. Let air dry (keep windows open day and night), then have the rug professionally shampooed. Chem Dry comes to mind. Good luck. Problem 2. Regarding the behavior of the Nanny. My daughter is a self-employed nanny. She has plenty of customers because she is darn good and kids love her (and she loves them) . She is reliable, always on time, will clean up a little, make meals and feed kids, changes diapers, has her own transportation (Mom and Dad keep her car running, but she buys her own gas). Anyway, my daughter would never, ever have a pet. She owns a cat that lives with us (Mom and Dad). She had an apartment for a while but her cat remained with us. So, allowing a Nanny to even have a pet is OUT. Tell your sister to be very careful in her next hire. And my daughter's in New York, and not willing to re-locate, so I guess she's out.

I would get take it to be professionally cleaned.They wash wool rugs. For cleaning 2- 10x11s a 3x5 and a 5x8 it cost us $340. And I would have them store it while you work with your dog. We had just gotten a puppy and got a few pee spots on the rug so we took that opportunity to take all the wool orientals out to be cleaned and stored while we housetrained. Only then did the rugs come home. The rugs came home smelling clean i. e. no odors. Then we got another new puppy but took the rugs up before he could hit them. :) We havent needed to have them cleaned since we put them down after the second dog was housebroken. I dont know how old your dog is but its my understanding that if they pee in the house they are not truly housebrokenn no matter the age (elderly and sick dogs are different). I heard this from a reputable dog trainer. Got more information than you wanted I think, but that is the only way to take care of it and prevent it. As a 2 big dog family, I know. Wool rugs are a big investment and we want ours to last a good while. HTH Sue

prairie love you may be right. Hubby and I have been talking about getting someone to help us if it continues. She has gotten better with some things. Hubby thinks its just because she had so little interaction with things when she was young...everything is so new to her. But she has been with us a few months already. I do not know if she afraid of walking or if she does not want to do it. Mazer...she was just at the vet last week and he already checked her out. She is in good shape. She is 45 pounds so a bit too heavy for me to carry. As I write this she is running around the house searching for hubby. When I mentioned that she was afraid of her shadow to the vet he said give her more time because she is still a puppy. She seems to get over her fears eventually...just new ones pop up....she got over her fear of the pole :-) and would jump it when she wanted to...just not on command...in fact when I left it out there with her and went inside to spy on her...she had her toys right up against the pole...I think the many suggestions I have recieved have been quite helpful. My dog is not shivering in her skin so to speak. I have seen dogs do that. But she does seem to be unsure of many things....last night when she tried to run from her shadow I held her in place and spoke to her and told her that it was okay and couldnt hurt her....I petted the shadow and she moved closer to smell it....she finally settled down. I would rather try to solve her problems ourselves as I believe it will make us bond better....but if nothing works we will seek help. But so far this forum has been a blessing. Mazer....we walk her different routes everyday ...we just make sure to always pass by my neighbors eventually. They do not walk their dog....most people in my neighborhood don't and they have some pretty big dogs. We don't have huge yards or anything either....probably why all the other dogs get so worked up. Alot of the dogs also aren't fixed. Her friend is not fixed and we think that's why he always tried to pee on her...to mark her as his so to speak. We have tried to set up play dates for her but nothing really works out. We have been taking her to Bully meet ups to stay socialized, but those aren't nearly often enough. I mentioned this for the stimulus aspect.

Have posted on other forums but am new here. Hope you don't mind if I join in. I had a German Shepherd who had hip problems. At times he too would have trouble walking outside or getting back in so I kept a large beach towel handy. I would put the towel under his belly, hold the ends together above him and help him walk out, let him do his business and then replace the towel and help him back in. The towel was wide enough that it didn't cut into him belly. Maybe this would help when Sadie can't get up. I also found that a bean bag chair was a wonderful bed for dogs with arthritis. Not only is it comfortable but when my Thor got to the point that he would occasionally wet himself, the beanbag cover was such that it let the urine flow thru to the paper below and kept the wetness away from him until I saw it and cleaned it up. (Need to have a two beanbags ) The "beans" were in a cloth bag container and I would hose them with soapy water and hang it outside to dry and just throw the main cover into the washer. I finally had to have my Thor Man euthanized after he had a stroke. He was 14 years old. It's been over 12 years and I still miss him. Good luck with your Sadi. It's so hard to see your "babies" growing old. I have a 14 year old Australian Shepherd/Chow mix, an 11 year old Lab/Chow mix and two 9 year old German Shepherds. I can see the age making changes in even the 9 year olds but we just adjust our ways of doing things and continue on loving and enjoying each other.