Okay, What Have you Done with My GSD?

[Linda1270]

Since Tess, who is 5 months old today, has been in training, she is becoming such a different dog, I swear she's been replaced.

Today, her trainer brought over some of his agility equipment and she did awesome! At first she was a bit skittish and afraid to go over the obstacles, but after 2-3 times, she was jumping the poles like a little champ, I was so proud of her. I think back to about 2 months ago and she was a holy terror, biting me and my husband left and right, we were covered with bite marks and scratches. Oh she still nips and bites, there's no halo there yet, but we are learning how to deal with it when she does and my hands, arms and legs are actually mark free for the first time since she arrived....

Along with agility, her trainer has her doing a bit of schutzhund and she gets such a great workout that she's calm and serene for most of the evenings now. I know this will most likely change as times goes on and Tess goes through her stages of adolescents but as of right now, it's wonderful.

I'm finding the trick to learning all this new obedience work is repetition. I try to work with her as much as possible and the best part about it is, she's willing and she loves it!

I've done so much talking about Tess's bad behavior that it's nice to be able to throw in a mention about the positive behavior too!

[JakodaCD OA]

good for Tess and good for you for sticking it out It feels good when things just click doesn't it?

[llombardo]

That training can go a long way. I can tell the difference between my oldest one which didn't have any training and my two younger ones that had tons of it. Mine never went through the adolescents stage, she remained on the same level and she is now 16 months. Just stick with it and pat yourself on the back next year at this time

[arby665]

You just gave me hope! My Karly is just 11 weeks and I keep telling myself it will get better!

[Linda1270]

Originally Posted by arby665

You just gave me hope! My Karly is just 11 weeks and I keep telling myself it will get better!

Hang in there, it does get better. As far as Tess' behavior went, it was always, one step forward and then 2 steps backward and I would get so discouraged. I was so distraught at times, I would go in to my bedroom, shut the door and cry. I thought that I had purchased the devil herself and kept asking myself, why me... I actually hired a behaviorist to come by and analyze Tess, thinking I had purchased an aggressive puppy. He told me that she was just being a puppy and that GSD aren't the norm when it comes to dogs. They need a lot of training and guidance. I was always comparing her to my chocolate Lab who I had to put down 2 weeks after I brought Tess home, and that wasn't being fair to her.

So now I'm trying to work with Tess as much as possible, tire her out mentally and physically. Hey a tired dog is a much better behaved dog. If they don't have any outlets for all that energy, they'll only find negative ways to use it up.