A Bit Of A Terror

[GSDhandler]

ok, i know that after only one week thre is still miles for improvment, but am just looking for some advice to stop me doing everything the wrong way.

my GSD is going on 9 WKs, and she has lessened her crying, but when she does cry now, (mainly when i get back from outings and before her feeding) ignoring her doesnt seem to work.

also when i put her out to toilet i have to be out with her. she doesnt care if im on the other side of the yard but if i go in she screams her head off, and i dont want to upset my neigbours just yet as we are still settling in ourselves. any way. during the day when most normal people are at work, i put her out by herself and let her cry it out, letting her back in with rewards for being quiet but it doesnt seem to be working (impatient i know). maybe im looking for reassurance that becuase she is still so young she has a lot of learning to still do.

she amazes me though, as after 3 days she was already telling us when she wanted to go out for pees, not so much poos. she knows outside is her toilet. problem is she wont go quietly. she runs around squeasking and whimpering for 10 minutes before hand, and at midnight it isnt a good idea for us to wake everyone up. i know its not making thengs clear for her but i need a way around grumpy neighbours and training the dog wring.

also she is a terror for chewing. she has bitten a hole in the middle of the carpet.

she is a good dog from K9 police lines so for some reason loud nioses and growling at her arent really working, but she is still to young to physical reprimand (and im agiant that anyway).

she mouths terribly, and the yelp ignore isnt working, and i cant use the "make them gag" method becuase she bites corners, like elbows and such.

a lot of problems but help on any is appreciated.

[Flaves]

she is a baby.

When you take her out, go with her.

My boy is 11 mo and i still go out with him to make sure he goes.

When they are babies they find other stuff to do and forget to go to the loo

Daire sometimes cries to come in, when he was a pup i ignored him until he was quiet even if it was a split second and rewarded that.

I still do that now but i make him be quiet completely.

You have had her a week?

She hs had some huge changes - leaving her litter mates, going to a new environment with different people, no other pups.

It will take her a few weeks to settle in, just take it slow with her and reward her good behaviour.

ETA As for the biting thing.

I always grabbed Daire over the muzzle and growled at him

It took only a few dys for him to realise that biting was not on.

Edited July 3, 2008 by i haz flava!

[Gayle.]

When she has to go out for a wee, put her lead on her and take her out, stand her on some wet grass and while she wees, say your preferred word over and over. For Benson, or word was "toilet". Now if I need him to go before a ride in the car, I just say "toilet" and he goes.

Dusty's word is "Hurry". It's a good word and she knows what it means and goes when she hears it.....except her first turn in the obedience ring when she was graduating from puppy class, she was lagging a bit behind and my daughter turned around to her and said "C'mon, hurry up" and Dusty promptly squatted down and piddled, much to my daughters horror! LOL!

But a lead, a patch of wet grass and not being able to play will keep her mind on the job of going to the toilet and by saying the same word over and over, within a few days she'll link it to what you want her to do. Oh, and don't forget to make a HUGE fuss of the very clever puppy when she does her wee.

[Amerykus]

can we see a picture please of the offender

[charli73]

A picture would be good! and a word of warning, GSD's are sooks and they cry alot, nobody told us when we got one, just a trait I guess.

We still go out to the toilet with Zoe when she goes at night so she doesnt get disracted and we grabbed her snout and growled when she mouthed us also...

[GSDhandler]

im giving tough love the best go i can, and some days she is an angel.

putting her in puppy preschool to entertain her and getting her some food related chew toys.

this was her on a good day.

she has started to chase her tail, though i have been told dont encourage it. why? how do i stop her, becasue she deos it when shes mad.

she wont have anything to do with her lead at the moment, so am trying to desensitise her to it with food reward but as soon as it goes on she tries to eat that. like she did to the carpet i do love her, its just at the moment she is a handful, so i sould like any new mum strugglng to find that 5 minute break.

i dont mind going out with her during the night, but during the day i want to be able to pop her out, like i said to clean her accidents and things like that. i am getting there. if i close the blinds she quietens down faster becuase she cant see me.

[Kavik]

This is the dog you want to do security with right?

Are you working on prey drive development? For a dog for that line of work you would expect to have sore ankles and holes in your pants with some decent prey drive

For the biting, have you tried getting her to bite a toy instead of you?

Don't encourage the tail chasing, it can become obsessive.

GSDs are certainly sooks! Though Diesel doesn't bark nearly as much as the Kelpies, he can scream the house down if he wants to get to OH when we are out.

With toileting, be sure you choose a word you won't be embarrassed to use in public (having a toilet word is very useful, especially if you are going to do security, but even with a pet or competition dog).

ETA: Also check out http://www.leerburg.com

Edited July 4, 2008 by Kavik

[GSDhandler]

the link is incredibly helpful. we'll see what i manage to accomplish over the weekend.

in all the excitment of me trying to remind her that her leash is her firend hse decided to forget her housetraining.

her toilet term is "be quick", a pretty standard one in the industry, but not one we are liely to use by accident, and innocuous to passers by.

she has brilliant prey drive, and now its up to me not to push it right out of her.

[Amerykus]

the link is incredibly helpful. we'll see what i manage to accomplish over the weekend.

in all the excitment of me trying to remind her that her leash is her firend hse decided to forget her housetraining.

her toilet term is "be quick", a pretty standard one in the industry, but not one we are liely to use by accident, and innocuous to passers by.

she has brilliant prey drive, and now its up to me not to push it right out of her.

I wish you all the best of luck with im and let us know how you go

[KOE]

poor bugger you got yourself a screamer, well join the club cause my Elka is one sounds like a damned pig.

ignoring it doesnt do anything, telling her to stop does nothing and yelling at her makes her louder/ she is worse when she hears car keys. The older she gets the worst she gets.

So I just continue on with what I am doing but she has never been a destroyer.

[KOE]

thanks for posting the link Kavic

[GSDhandler]

het guys. may be a bit premature but got great news. today koda was happy to be let out by herself and only had 1 accident which was my fault becuase i didnt go fast enough to let her out when she asked.

however we discovred she doesnt like house cleaning day. she hates the mop and vacuum. :rolleyes: all in all today she has been well behaved.

she hasnt mouthed terribly. she hasnt cried unless she wanted to goout.

however i am having a prob with the leash. i think (from previous recomendations) the leash should be put on when she eats, to accosiate the leash with good, but my partner said just throw her in the deep end and on her irst walk put it on, which defies the point because then i wont even be able to get her out the house.

what did you do to get your dog comfortable with a leash? im not expecting her to walk on it yet. just be comfortbale with "hey, theres a leash on me. im not going to lie down and sulk straight away" kind a deal i know that she will learn to walk on it in time, with a little help from pupy school, i just need help on the first step.

[Gayle.]

Put the leash on and let her drag it around. Play with her and just do a few fun things that have nothing to do with the leash.....every now and then pick it up, hold it for a few seconds then put it down again. Act like having a leash attached is completely normal. It's just a few short steps from dragging the leash around happily to walking nicely on it.

[BelgianPup]

This is what we did with our BSD puppy at about 9 -11 weeks to get her used to the lead:

If she sat she got a treat so we'd show her the treat, she'd sit, we'd clip the lead on, she got treat, then we'd take the lead off and go again, all very quick and fun minimising lead chew time!

Gradually we built up time with the lead on, leaving it on when she was tired so she got used to it but was less inclined to chew it, of course we watched her all the time to make sure she didn't get herself tangled up.

We also found distracting her with her favourite toys a great way to get her 'leash happy'. Basically she got a treat when the leash went on then we waggled her fav toy (or yummy treat) under her nose which was infinetly more interesting than than the lead (which we tried to hold out of the way so she couldn't chew it.) This was made even easier if OH held the lead so it was at the back of her neck and I waggled the toy in front. Building prey drive and leash manners together... or at least tha was the theory.

We worked on this a little each day and she was noticibly better within a few weeks. Hope this helps :rolleyes:

[GSDhandler]

think i might get the leash work going starting tomorrow, gave her a small bit of time with it today, giving her treats.

she doesnt seem very well tonight. crying a bit. shes swinging between hyperactivity and lethargy, and hasnt really eaten. i think its a bit of a belly ache, but will keep a close eye on her, ready to rush her off to a vet if she doenst get better after shes had a sleep.

[GSDhandler]

*sigh* she likes to let me down.

i know it isnt really her fault but every time i get proud of her, koda likes to let me down. i think yes, she has the hang of needing to go outside and i am sure she does, and then the last few hrs she seems to be ignoring it.

we are telling her off, putting her out, and letting her finihs her business, praiding her for it, but it just is a pain that the whole day, she tells us when she needs to go out, and then as soon as it gets dark she just stops.

she knows she upset me, and was trying to suck up to me for it.

had to give in in the end, but its getting to be a pain

[Gayle.]

Why are you telling her off? She can't help it. She's a little baby, for goodness sake! It could take a few more months of doing what you're doing before she's reliable in the house.

[Kavik]

She's only 9 weeks old, give her a break! She is not likely to be housetrained reliably for months yet - it takes time. Kaos was pretty good as a pup for housetraining but for some reason really liked to go on the inside general use dog bed - so I moved it until he was reliably housetrained so he wouldn't get into a habit.

You have to watch them carefully for their toilet signs, if you miss it, too bad for you, you can't blame a baby puppy.

[Dog Sense]

ok, i know that after only one week thre is still miles for improvment, but am just looking for some advice to stop me doing everything the wrong way.

Firstly I don't ever, ever punish mouthing at all. There are so many things you can do and yes with the yelping thing you DO have to do it over and over and over again as your pup is learning how hard is too hard to mouth and this is going to go and become worse (as in she's going to do it more) when she teethes. This link explains it best: http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/archives/bite.txt

The other thing to remember with mouthing is that she has no hands - mothers go insane stopping their toddlers sticking their fingers in places they shouldn't, puppy owners go insane stopping their pups biting things they shouldn't - it's what they do to find out about their world! They *are* tactile, just with their mouths rather than their hands - they can be incredibly gentle with their mouths and you need to teach them how to be. Punishing them doesn't teach them much except that you can be scary.

Also someone's already posted somewhere the link to Before You Get Your Puppy, but in case you can't find it, look at www.dogstardaily.com and do invest by buying the second book, After You Get Your Puppy which is available through Jenny Ireland Pet Products. Every single question you've asked and some you haven't yet thought of, are answered there.

If your pup is eating carpet, you haven't made her world small enough. When she's unsupervised, she needs a smaller, safer place where she can't destroy things she shouldn't! She doesn't know the difference yet, she's a baby - she's finding out about her world - is this good to eat? When she has access to the house, you have to be vigilant. She also needs lots and lots of Kongs.

[Luke W]

*sigh* she likes to let me down.

i know it isnt really her fault but every time i get proud of her, koda likes to let me down. i think yes, she has the hang of needing to go outside and i am sure she does, and then the last few hrs she seems to be ignoring it.

we are telling her off, putting her out, and letting her finihs her business, praiding her for it, but it just is a pain that the whole day, she tells us when she needs to go out, and then as soon as it gets dark she just stops.

she knows she upset me, and was trying to suck up to me for it.

had to give in in the end, but its getting to be a pain

She hasn't really got the hang of needing to go outside...sometimes she understands, sometimes she doesn't. And she has hardly any bladder control...It'll take months to become reliable. And then the first time you take her to a strange house, it'll all fall apart again.

She might know she upsets you but she probably has no idea why. All she knows is you are angry and upset. Unless you are scolding her WHILE she is toileting in the wrong area (3 seconds later is too late), she has no idea why she is being scolded. Even if you do scold WHILE she's toileting in the wrong spot - it's entirely possible that all you'll manage to teach her is that it's dangerous to toilet while you are around. Don't scold.