New GSD owner! Would love some tips please :)

[Julian]

Hi There,
I just got a GSD female puppy 8 weeks old on 23 December.
What ever food you decide to give yours, dont change it too quickly.
Their stomachs are very sensitive. Can get diareea and loose weight.
I'm feeding mine biologcal / organic meat with some dried food - 3 small portions a day

How much exercise are you giving yours ?
I'm not sure how much to give at this young age

( I'm inna wheelchair, struggling a little with the walks on leash.
Soon I'll be getting helpdog training which will be great ! )

Mine is now 9 weeks
I'm starting puppy classes in 2 days

Our dogs are both GSD female puppies same age
my email is juliancrabb2013@gmail.com
incase u like to share experiences ?

I'm over in Amsterdam, The Netherlands

[codmaster]

Originally Posted by torres

Thanks for taking time to reply! Now, this is where im struggling with her at the moment. I've put paper, wee mats, and now a proper artifical grass wee mat which cost a fortune only for her to pee next to it! When i take her out and she does her business i praise her a lot! However, she still thinks its acceptable to do it inside whenever she feels like!

Are there any tips you could help me out with so i can understand her better or guide to actually just go outside?

Thank You

Highly suggest a crate for your pup! A GREAT tool for the puppy to get used to and pretty soon your baby will like the crate as a place to go in and rest even with the doof open! Like a little cave!

Plenty of posts/threads about the best way to crate train a pup - take a search and look forsome.

[llombardo]

Originally Posted by Benny

Hey llombardo-

Quick question, what kind of training exercises did you do with your pup at a younger age to get into agility? My girl is almost 10 months..


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Obedience is a very good start. In two of her obedience classes the teacher brought in equipment...a jump, the tire, and the tunnel. My dog went crazy when it was her turn Other then that, I would say you can start yours in a beginning agility class and they will teach you how to use the equipment. The jumps shouldn't be to high for your dog, they will wait until the dog is older and fully grown before those bars are raised. Its really fun, you'll enjoy it. And you'll probably be in beginning agility for a while. I'm going into my third beginning agility class.

[gsdlover91]

Originally Posted by codmaster

Highly suggest a crate for your pup! A GREAT tool for the puppy to get used to and pretty soon your baby will like the crate as a place to go in and rest even with the doof open! Like a little cave!

Plenty of posts/threads about the best way to crate train a pup - take a search and look forsome.

I agree with this. I crate trained my pup, and he was fully potty trained before he was 3 months old. He has never soiled his crate ever. And make sure you take them out very often! Don't let the accidents happen!

My boy loves his crate so much, he sleeps in there on his own every night, and goes in there on his own when I am ready to walk out the door. It's a wonderful tool if not abused.

[Benny]

Thanks Llombardo! I will look into some classes local to my area! Thanks for the advice, just need to get her obedience when under distraction a bit better. At home without distractions she's great, at the park with no dogs, great, park with several dogs she's ignorant as all ****! Lol.


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[codmaster]

Originally Posted by Benny

Thanks Llombardo! I will look into some classes local to my area! Thanks for the advice, just need to get her obedience when under distraction a bit better. At home without distractions she's great, at the park with no dogs, great, park with several dogs she's ignorant as all ****! Lol.
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Classic complaint of beginning dog trainers - "But he does it at home!".

The trick is to understand the three stages of training a dog - Teach, Generalize, PROOF!

Ie. at home or in a distraction free environment, you "Teach" the dog a behavior/command, i.e. "Sit".

Then next, one tries to "Generalize" the behavior in a new environment, etc. etc. (lots of them!).

Finally you "Proof" the behavior by taking your dog to areas/envronments of extreme distractions and see if he will obey reliabily. I.E. a recall in an environment with many other dogs running around or maybe a recall with pieces of food along his path back to you.

Only when one can do the final stage should a dog considered "trained"! Otherwise they (and the handler!) are "in training"!

Note that in the "TEACH" phase - we typically do not use any corrections - just show the dog how to do what we want him/her to do!

[Benny]

Codmaster, I've just read your reply and you've hit the nail on the head.. Very true statement. Will take that on board too! Luckily for me, as your words say, "beginner trainer". Will work on it over time I guess and see where we end up!


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