First off. No breeder. She was a rescue. The "breeder" is a POS lady who left for two weeks without any food or water for 8 puppies, and wanted to charge and lie by saying that they were full bred GSD puppies when they obviously weren't. All 8 puppies were rescued and are fine.
And really, it's not a punishment. She can still explore and go do what she wants, provided it is within the leash range (and I do let it out to its full range). It's not a matter of having her 100% attention on me. That's not what I'm after. I'm looking for manners on a leash and to have her within my line of sight, because she has been getting into things she shouldn't when she's not within my line of sight.
She has great bite inhibition. I do play with her every single day for at least 20-30 minutes in addition to a walk and going to the park whenever we can. She does get socialization with other humans and places (she had her first elevator ride the other day and did REALLY REALLY well, new things are just so much fun for her, and she adores new people), and with other dogs as well. And I'm not keeping her from my older dog, just making sure that when I call her back, I can call her back. THAT IS ALL.
I actually took her off the leash because she was doing well and stopped whining and she is in the same room as me and in my line of sight (same as I would if she was her in crate, it's not a matter of keeping her within 5 inches of me, but allowing me to know where she is/what she's doing). She's still sitting by my side eagerly looking for more attention/treats. I do clicker training with her and positive reinforcement.
But whatever. I was sharing... guess I shouldn't have. My pup is the furthest thing from abused, but at the same time, I expect consistency. From myself as well as from her. If I'm not consistent in expecting a "come" every time I say it, I'm setting her up to pick and choose whether or not to come. So... I have her on a leash that she can explore and do her own things on, and it's to reinforce the "come" and leash manners more than anything else. She learns quickly, and from what she's doing now, I'm thinking only a day or two more of this and it'll be back to normal.
I HAVE modified my plan with this from when I first posted this. Not because of people thinking or saying "what did your dog do to you that made you punish it this way?", but because of me amending/refining my goal. My goal is to reinforce "come" and to keep her within my line of sight. And she has done GREAT GREAT GREAT so far. She was playing with my older dog just now and I said "come", and she came running immediately. That was just a quick reinforcement (both positive and physical in pulling her with the leash to reinforce a couple times). It clicked, and now we're good on that front. It's just leash manners and not going into a whining frenzy when she's on it and wants off. Just more desensitization and understanding the way things work by ignoring poor behavior and rewarding heavily good behavior.
Sorry I bothered you guys.
ETA: And I'm not zapping the fun out of anything. She is playing, both with me and my older dog. She is having fun. She is wanting to do things for me. She is happy. I'm not expecting her to be a perfect statue. Far from it. BUT... I won't put up with whining and ignoring a simple command that she KNOWS... just because we are in the house. I train once a day, in the evenings. The rest of the time is nap time and play time. And with training time, I switch things up, and teach new things only once she knows an old thing. She learns QUICKLY. Not sure if it's the GSD in her or the Aussie/Border Collie or what. But she loves training time, which isn't even every day, and I don't expect perfection, just the general idea. We can work on perfection when she's older. She gets high value treats and the "tricks" are all fun things that either she displays on her own and I captured or simple things like "sit, come, down, stay".
But I don't have to explain myself to y'all... my pup is happy and joyful and awesome and despite this little "hiccup" (which isn't really a hiccup, just dealing with a small problem, which so far seems to have already sorted itself out in this short of time, we'll see how tomorrow goes), loves everything she does, and is a very happy pup. Loves to explore and try new things and meet new people. I go at HER pace with stuff. Not mine. If she wants to learn all of these things and go to these places, then I do so. I try something, and if she goes with it, then I continue. If she doesn't, I stop, and go back several paces. I never force anything on her. This leash thing has been the only restrictions to learning and exploring she's ever had. And it's because she was ignoring her basics. So, we're reinforcing them, and then the reinforcement goes away.