re housebreaking

Question
Hello Nancy,

I have a 9 1/2 month old female rottwieler x masstif. She is very smart and learns quickly. I am having problems with housebreaking. I have house broken her 3 times now and it looks like i'm going in to my fourth time. Here are some details: I got her when she was three weeks old and she was house broken very quickly (1st time) then i moved and she started going to the bathroon in the house again so I retrained her by crate training (2nd time). I understood why she started going to the bathroom in the new house  because it was a new place. Then she started going into her first heat, having symptons and she started going again in the house but only pooing not peeing. I crate trained her again (3rd time). She hasn't been feeling good today, constipation, and she is starting to  poop in the house again. I'll have just taken her outside to go and i'll bring her back in and then two minutes later there will be a pile on the floor. I don't catch her doing it so she dosen't understand that what she did was bad. She is left unattended because she is house trained. The crate training works, she becomes retrained every time and quite fast but as soon as there is some kind of incident, not feeling well, etc., she has to be retrained all over agian. because I don't catch her doing it she thinks it's ok to keep going in the house and it just gets worse. She asks to go if she has to but as soon as this pooping problem arises she stops asking and just goes. I want to get her spayed but I'm afraid I'm going to have problems with her going bathroom in the house again and I can't keep her in her crate with the cone on her head.

Why does she start pooping again and need retrianing every time something happens? She will be fine and ask to go and know not to go in the house until something like this happens. It's like she forgets her training. Am I training her wrong? Will this be a problem if I spay her?

Please help!

Thanks,
Laura  

Answer
Hello Well first of all you were right about the first time. Moving a dog to a new place will do that to a dog. It sounds like the dog was never completely trained to me. You are doing everything right it sounds like.Do you praise the dog outside when she goes? That is important. I would go ahead and get the dog spayed and start again and dont assume she is trained for a few months.  Good luck and keep me updated..oh ..you might need to get a larger crate while she has the cone on her head.
nancy