poodlefan

Could be a hot spot.

A&E: It is of little consolation to the victim of a serious dog bite that the dog was probably only scared. A dog that cannot be handled safely by shelter staff is a disaster waiting to happen and when it comes to dog aggression size DOES matter. It may not be "fair" that very large dogs get no second chances when it comes to aggression but I fail to see how killing all dogs that give aggressive warnings would be an improvement. If you want to give a dog a death sentence, buy a crossbred pup (preferably black or brindle) that grows into a very large dog, don't socialise or train it and then find yourself unable to keep it. Those adult dogs have bugger all chances of rehoming in most pound environments.

BellaDonna: Nearly all vet puppy classes accept pups from the age of 8 weeks. Quality varies - shop around.

Your OH deserves a lot of praise. I hope it all goes well at the vet.

They look like "angel wings" - patches of lighter pigment that appear on the shoulders of many dogs.

Laundries are heat sinks - the coldest room in any house. I'd suggest you think about crate training him. If you have not commenced obedience training with him, I'd recommend that too. You train him and all the family can reinforce that training.

Sounds like a perfectly normal, unsocialised untrained gundog with a few anxiety issues, due to limited life experience to me. I'd be starting with some general training, increasing his exercise and putting in a dog door. When he goes outside, give him a filled kong or a nice bone to chew on. Right now everything he wants is inside. If that doesn't help, then spend some money on a behaviourist. For what its worth, I'd not be tying him up outside shops. But if that's something you want to train then it has to be trained in a far less stressful environment first. You'd be amazed how more relaxed a well exercised dog can act.

Go and buy a copy of Grow Your Pups with Bones. Everything you need to know to successfully raise a puppy on raw food is right there. I would not feed VAN to a growing pup. I'd be feeding RMBs and a bought or home prepared BARF mix. Talk to other GSD breeders who feed raw. Its not rocket science but it does need to be done right. Are you getting this pup aged 7 weeks? I hope not. :D

If he doesn't growl at the girls unless they move him or wake him, what makes you think them walking past will be a problem? He's 12 weeks old - a baby. Any dominance issues are likely to be down the track some. I think you should look toward what's happening in your daughters' interactions with the pup rather than looking towards dominance related answers. Many issues are human, not dog created, so its best to eliminate those first. As I've said, HOW do they move him? Why can't they call him? If he sleeps in a dedicated space that's his spot, he won't NEED to be moved when asleep.

Covered crate with a night light? Is he night blind?

The first thing you need to do is teach your kids to respect the pup's space and NOT to touch him when he's sleeping or lying. The next thing I'd recommend is you establishing a crate or pen where he can get away from the kids and that they are told is out of bounds to them. He needs his sleep and he's not a toy. The growling and snapping are warnings.. heed them. It may be as simple as them not handling him as well as the older members of the family do - they could be hurting him inadvertantly. Get them to call him if they want to play and to leave him on the ground as much as possible. He's only going to get bigger.

What do you intend to do with the pup? Do you have any show or dog sports intentions for it?

I was hoping that the OP heeded all the good advice she received and took the puppy inside in a crate. We had Elbie in his crate at night and took him out at 2 hour intervals at the start, then three hours. Now he can last 6 and a half hours - probably more, but we're being gradual to be cautious. He hasn't had an accident in ages, he toilets on command and he toilets in one section of the yard allocated to him. Admittedly it was a lot of hard work and sometimes it felt very surreal to be out there standing in the freezing cold giving effusive praise to our puppy just because he had eliminated Ah yes, winter puppies. Not ideal but they have to learn to toilet in all weathers I suppose.

Haha. OK, I feel better then ... err I guess ... It was that poor puppy that I was worried about. I wonder what happened to it.

The OP has been online very recently asking about "Schnoodles". He/she can't have been too put off.

Is showing the be all and end all of being a good breeder? Of course not. On the other hand, if you breed purebred dogs and never take them off the property, trial them or have others do this with dogs you've bred, how on earth do you know if what you're producing is up to scratch? Some people can pull this off but not all. Good pet dogs are sound, of good temperament and should conform to their breed standard as closely as possible. Strangely good show and sports dogs require the same attributes for the most part. The idea that show breeders can't produce good pet dogs is simply wrong. That's what most dogs bred by such breeders end up being anyway.

Everything you've suggested exists now. The reason there aren't more quality dogs on Main Register is that no breeder with any real sense of ethics will sell a dog on Main Register unless its going to a definite show or breeding home. That doesn't mean that dogs can't be upgraded with breeder approval. What breeders need to be encouraged by is people who've done their homework, are committed to learning, take some effort to show their dogs and have realistic expectations about what breeding involves. Doing the apprenticeship in the show ring or in a breed appropriate dog sport is a good start. Co-ownership doesn't have to mean "giving your dog back" - its about what the co-owners agree on. However what good is an experienced mentor breeder that's not with the bitch at 2.00 am in the morning when the bitch is whelping and things start to go wrong. An inexperienced dog owner can create a lot of harm for an inwhelp bitch without realising it too. Witness someone I know of that had a bitch abort pups close to term because she wasn't provided with appropriate shelter from the elements on a stinking hot summers day. The fact that she might have needed something more than the other dogs got never occured to them. :rolleyes: Breeders who refuse to sell dogs to novice showies and breeders irritate me but I understand that they've often been badly burned by buyers before. I do know that if I were a breeder there's no way in hell I'd sell a Main Register bitch outright to a dog owner I didn't know and who had no track record in showing or sports.

If you're breeding dogs you ARE a breeder. Most of the people I see at shows consider their dogs pets and don't breed much. However,iIn order to do it responsibly you need to register yourself with your CC, obtain a prefix, learn how to judge your own stock and the mechanics of whelping. You also need to obtain Main Register dogs and health test them appropriately. A mentor is no substitute for those things. As I see it, there is nothing stopping anyone with a passion for purebred dogs becoming a breeder now. However nothing is going to make the process easier or less emotionally draining for those who embark on it.

Fill the kennel with straw. Or partition off your kitchen from your laundry with a decent baby gate, add a dog door and make a warm bed in the laundry.

You've got to move past the "pups in the petshop" image to tackle what lies beneath it: * Is it acceptable to anyone who gives a damn about animal welfare to see pups whelped in large scale facilities where they lack human contact, good nutrition and adequate space then shipped age 5 weeks for sale? * Is it acceptable to see pups that are only partially vaccinated mixed in with other litters, in less than hygenic circumstances and handled by people off the street who are not sterile? * Is it acceptable to see pups impulse bought without any vetting of the buyers suitability to raise and care for them? * Is it acceptable to see pups forced to live, eat, sleep and play where they eliminate, breaking down their natural inhibitions about cleanliness? The answer to all of those questions for me is a flat NO. I don't care whether those events occur in a retail outlet or a back yard. If that makes it more difficult for people to obtain a family pet than so be it. Hopefully the upshot of that is that fewer pets will end their lives with a needle at a pound.

It's not that you shouldnt "worry" about the behaviour. Its more that I think you'd benefit from someone knowledgeable and experienced analysing what's going on and assisting you to deal with it. You need a behaviourist, not just a trainer IMO.

1. Toilet training 2. Reliable recall.

What a tragedy.

Humour is a very personal thing - be careful making jokes about someone's dogs unless you know them. We all love our dogs. It pays to bear that we don't all love other people's but they don't need to know that.

I match cord of lead to dog and bling to me. Howie's (fawn Whippet) show lead is taupe paracord with purple bling. I'm not a fan of coloured leads that contrast with the dog and "split" the neck picture.