charli73

Odette, I went away for a week for work and left my 7 month old GSD puppy with hubby for a week and when I got home she wouldnt listent to ANYTHING I said when I returned. Her recalls, sits, drops and stands were great before that but I think It was unishment for me leaving.... I was the alpha before then but It swapped when I got home I had to re-establish my position in the heirachy and let her know I meant business. I was a tough bugger but shes back to her normal self and Im boss again... Keep persisting, you'll get there....

Well since i posted i have been giving her tough love and extra praise when really well behaved and she has been great the last couple of days, even had her interacting with our cat without jumping at her which is huge.. gardens have been reinforced also.. thank you all for your input, i will consider getting her fixed sooner..definately, as she sleeps by my feet..

no shes not near any other dogs always on lead, and the small white fluffy toy dogs either side of our yard are indoors and couldn't get into the yard if they tried. so i hav flava, were your girls this feral at 7-8 months? She is heaps better today i must say.. and i wish vets had a general concensus on this topic, what an easy job...

Desex her now. She doesn't need to have a season. Hi Luvmywhiteshep, Were the reasons I was given above incorrect or just irrelevant by the vet? Alanadndora, My vet bred shepherds in England for 30 years and he has advised us to wait to let her hormones, and female anatomy etc as you described mature also.. The young newly qualified vet at the practice has said it doesnt matter so who the hell knows what to believe!!!! I do know that if its not done correctly they can have incontinence problems later... Also had a behaviouralist say wait till she has first season then let her hormones settle back to normal then have it done... Personal preference I guess... and considering shes still pretty immature I may wait... thanks for the advice though....

Thanks guys, we had training tonight and she did really well, trainer suggested getting some maturity into her before being passed up. She goes twice weekly & has had private lessons when things get really bad.. Teenage years arent fun! The triangle thing i read over, but i already have her watching me completely from a distance until i give her a command to eat.. hope this is the aim? better read again....

Hi cats mother, Im hoping some GSD thread ppl will have a look and have sent a PM to one also..... Thanks and good luck with your pup...

Hi All, I am close to losing my mind... Our 7 1/2 month old F GSD puppy is going to send me over the edge.. My hubby and i both work full time and have a pretty well behaved pup. We both had last week off and I went away while hubby stayed home with pup, but went out occasionally not to get her too clingy.. This week she has destroyed all of the new trees I planted by chewing her way through trellis in the garden, (garden bed fenced off) and been digging up the yard and eating the $1500 outdoor furniture which i spray with repellant.. Now I have returned, she wont listen to anything I say (I was alpha before I left) but now ignores my commands... Im being really quite hard on her now and shes barking at me when she doesnt get what she wants and I sin bin her if she even looks at our cat the wrong way... they dont really get along. I need to know whether this is normal behaviour?? Im not sure If I can handle much more... We walk her in the morning and at night to get her out and she goes to ADT training twice a week and was the model pupil till this week although school has just resumed... Shes prob due to come into season soon, we're waiting for her to have one season on our vets advice before getting her desexed. Is this making her crazy??? She is very possessive over her toys and will bring them back to me but when I go to take them she snatches them back.... So Ive been taking them and putting them away to show her Im the leader....Im giving her a aussie dog tucker ball, kongs and other toys and rotate them every few days but only give her 2-3 toys a day... Ive thought that maybe she is bored but Im not sure what else we can do?? She gets Advance food wth other treats/raw chicken also.. We feel we are doing all the right things, Sorry about the long post but I need to know if its normal behaviour or should we get some help... Advice would be greatly appreciated, as this is our first... Has anyone alse been through this and made it out the end? Im sure not all GSD are this bad, or are they??

hello and congratulations! i remember how it felt, tips? where to start, just expect some sleepless nights, early mornings and wet floors... we had a warm bed, clock & water bottle to settle our pup in the kitchen. This will be the hardest few weeks ever but it will get easier & take lots of photos, they grow quick.. lots of advice & suggestions on line so best of luck and enjoy, and dont forget to post pics!!!

hi! agree with all of the above, dont forget the tools at home like mower and vacuum so down track puppy doesn't freak out.. but from a distance at first...12-16wks being the important period you only get one shot. we took our pup near a train and traffic lights as know dogs who freak out down the street when they hear the tick,tick, tick of pedestrian lights.. car horns and all types of people especially as already suggested. only little things but im sure down the track you will be glad... good luck!

The dog isnt aggresive just wants to play with the cat... She gets jealous when she sees the cat in the lounge with us and barks then the cat runs away... we do bring the dog into the lounge with us and all she wants to do is sniff out the cat but we keep her on the lead with us and wont let her track down the cat. Alot of hard work ahead... sorry to hijack the thread belgian...

well c4c 4 ever i wish our animals were like yours.. our 6mnth german shepherd pup still chases the 2yo cat. there is a baby gate separating the kitchen from the rest of the house where the cat roams. we stop the pup when she barks or scares the cat by we are at a loss as to how to integrate the 2 of them...the cat wont defend herself she just runs to higher ground.. maybe the puppy will grow out of it but i doubt it..

hi, yes i made that mistake too, who eats fish with tomato sauce anyway? i gave it to my 6mnth GSD pup and she was fine and the cat got some too. Didnt rinse them but scraped it off. Wont make that mistake again...

hi Lolly, sounds like you're doing all the right things. We did exactly what you're doing with our 6mnth GSD and said 'toilet' as she was doing her business then praised her as she finished and now she goes where we want her to (down the side of the house) on command so keep up the good work! It will pay off. She also used to carry on crying & barking while making her dinner so id walk away & return when she was quiet. Always eat before her, we never used to as we heard it didnt matter but i have found her behavior change HEAPS since we started to only a few weeks ago. She also was barking at me for no reason except attention so I found walking away taught her it wasn't on! It did the trick too. Lots of different ways but these helped me when i had exhausted all other tips, something to try anyway Goodluck...now if we could just get her not to scare the cat...

Thanks, it is now on the shopping list and on my shopping list, thanks for the links too im off to research kikuyu grass!!! thanks guys

Hello All! My Shepherd puppy is a clever little thing and Im trying to keep the lawn alive by using dog rocks but she does not like them in her bowl, she takes them out of her water bowl and puts them in the garden.... now that were re-sowing the lawn, is their any brand or type of grass seed anyone knows of that we can use with any kind of resistance to pet urine, preferable natural? thanks

Our GSD gets two meals being a pup, eats only after we eat first... then we put away her bowl... We used to feed her first to get it out of the way but her behavour was incredibly bad, she thought she ran the household. Had an amzing turn around in her behaviour now that we eat first, no matter what time of the day. She doesnt jump on the bench for food anymore, doesnt winge now she knows her place... Strict yes but it sure works...

Hi Moggy, We tried about 7-8 peices of pineapple for it to make a difference, and it did for a little while but then she just grew out of it, or realised we werent interested in getting to it before she did.... You may find the same thing..... Good luck!

Newnewf, Can totally sympathise and I feel your pain! Our well behaved 5 1/2 German Shepherd puppy Zoe ( first dog ever for my hubby and I ) was so obedient up until 5 months she stopped listening, didnt sit when we told her, recalls went out the window and she started tearing her toys into shreds.... There is hope! We put our foot down now that we have recognised it, and even had a home lesson which saved our sanity and now she seems to be really settling into the 'oh so Im not the boss' routine.. Hang in there, Im sure there is a light at the end of the tunnel, its just a long tunnel..

From memory Frontline recommend you wait 48hrs before washing, to give the treatment time to spread over the oils in the skin, which would be washed off if you were to bath him... Just check the instruction leaflet in the packet if you still have it but I would try to put treatments on straight after bathing... Id at least leave it 24hrs..

Very interesting Jensta, am currently giving GSD 6month old Eukanuba but am getting too many/soft poos, heard it may have a heap of preservatives so Im switching to Advance as its Australian.... So far so good... Good to know its from the same manufacturer as RC as I was looking at that brand also.... Has anyone else heard of Eukanuba having lots of preservatives?

our 5 month GSD did this as i would wait till she went then picked it up asap which made her think it was a game, so i tried pineapple but didnt make a huge difference so i diverted her attention as soon as she went then waited a while till she wasnt around before picking it up. She grew tired of the game & grew out of it after a couple of months...

hi, i can understand your dilemma. Our gsd pup is 13wks old and we stopped her 3 meals cos we had to go to work too, so she gets one at 6.30am then 5.30pm and has a kong during the day. She still needs to go during the night and to stop bloat we soak her eukanuba puppy lg breed in warm water before giving it to her like the breeder use to do.. im hoping she will learn to hold on as she gets older, goodluck!!

thanks guys, will just keep an eye on things and assume she will grow out of it..

Good morning all. I have an 11 week old German shepherd who sleeps on a bed which is a big canvas dog cushion thing with a polar fleece blanket over the top. She is in a cosy corner of the kitchen where is is quite happy to retreat to and happy sleeping at night and at she is outside during the day... So she has on a few occasions weed on her bed... Now i thought this was the only place dogs wouldnt wee on but once when i put the bed outside to wee she weed on it and then she has ripped the polar fleece blanket off and weed on the bed itself... Why would she do this on purpose? She can go to the toilet on command and knows outside is where she goes. We have borrowed a crate but are not going down that path, although Im sure its great were going to manage without it as the crate as thousands have done as its too large for the kitchen and the metal noise scares the hell out of our cat.. So the crates out (sorry guys) We also move the bed around at times (she doesnt like this) and we sit on it it to show her its our property just as the instructors at obedience training told us to.... Any suggestions?

Thank you for your feedback. Already I am seeing an improvement although she is still going to the toilet in the house when the door is open, eating her poo and bringing in poo form outside.. Is she trying to show me how well shes done? She has been to puppy training for a couple of weeks now and she loves it but is a bit wary of the big dogs.. I will look at crate training although trying to get her to stay in it rather than chase the cat will be a challenge. Im sure you will hear from me again... Charli73