puppy stage

[DSudd]

Rocky was pretty easy to train. Dh had him housebroken within a few weeks. Crate training was pretty easy also. He did do the brat teenaged phase. Biggest issues we have had with hiim is hi pickiness when he comes to food. Somedays he will eat and some days he wont.

Worst problems we had was his destrocto phase, destroying blinds, chewing up carpet,

[Brightelf]

Some puppies, like my Grimm, truly are easy pups who come housebroken at 9 weeks, never nips, bite, bark, etc. He was a GREAT puppy. Adults are simply easier for me. Puppies in general are tough.

[doggiedad]

i think a lot of the puppy stage is how you fell about it. i got my dog at 9 weeks old. he's now 20 months. i didn't find anything hard about having a puppy. we trained and socialized our dog with no problems. i've never had a problem or found it hard having a puppy.

Originally Posted By: tylerg95how was the puppy stage? easy, moderate, hard , or even worse then hard?

[selzer]

I have some regrets, mostly that I had two pups, then three pups, this time I was set on one puppy, but I had a handful up through four months, and have two now.

When I got Arwen I had just Frodo and he was an adult and lame. I was able to spend a lot of time socializing her.

I spent quite a bit of time with Babs and Jenna, mostly together though. When they were eight months old I got Rushie.

I did a great job with him, but the time I could have spent with the girls I did not spend.

When he was eight months old, my second litter was born. Needless to say, my spare time went way down. Then with three of them, I felt like I was in classes ALL THE TIME. Forget the idea of working on ANYTHING outside of class. I suppose the shocking thing was that I got a Rally title and a CGC on each of them before they reached two.

With Ninja and Milla being my current babies, I am focussing my efforts on them. I still try to get each of the others out some, but the babies have priority right now.

So my only regret is socialization.

The normal puppy stuff, chewing, biting, soiling in the house, these pups have been awesome. In classes, they have been moderately good.

I expect that nine years from now they will be the best dogs on the block, well except for my then 11 1/2, 12, and 12 1/2 year olds.

[BJDimock]

I've had the full spectrum as well.
My broken Frodo was and still is the easiest puppy that I have ever seen. At 7 weeks he was housetrained,(and I mean fully) and other than the demolishing of my barn boots one night, has done nothing wrong. At 8 months, he is crate free and beautifully behaved.
Fenna is close on his heals, but will get into trouble if I'm not home. (Darn working lines)
The worse puppy I have ever had was my second Fidelco foster, Seda. She was a holy terror from the get go.
On that note, she was the best working guide to ever come from my house.

[mmarie]

Bella's puppy days were relatively easy, with a few exceptions. She's a lot smarter than I remember Angel being, from the beginning she was very good at figuring out if she had to sit because people were walking by or because we were practicing--if she saw a reason for the command she did it, if she thought it was practice she usually didn't. That got better with some persistance on my part.

Difficulties included chewing, down-stay, and crate training. We gave up on the crate pretty quick because we just couldn't take it. She potty trained almost immediately and as a puppy would hold her potty all day if thats what it meant to potty in her back yard, so that wasn't a concern. She failed obediance training because the moment you said "stay" she got up and ran. I was training with an experienced GSD owner and trainer and NOTHING she did fixed the problem. It wasn't until about her 3rd birthday 3 months ago that we could finally get her to stay. And chewing, well I still wake up to high heels with chewed heels once every couple months. Chewing was the worst: my most expensive shoes, any pair of socks left on the ground, I even woke up one morning to her having chewed up the corner of the wall that connects to the window down to some metal piece. Pretty much anything she could get her mouth around, and nothing but time to grow out of it stopped her.

[darga19]

Marshall was a pretty good pup. Housebreaking and crate training were easy. Lots of exercise...just walks at a young age...you don't want to over work them...which kept him burning that energy. Although he's still in his puppy phase (energy and playfulness wise) at a year and a half!!

He never really did the chewing thing either. He learned at a very young age that just because something is on the floor, it doesn't automatically belong to him. IMO it's VERY important to teach them that young...not just a GSD but any dog.

[sam the sheperd]

Originally Posted By: tylerg95how was the puppy stage? easy, moderate, hard , or even worse then hard?

I'd go with moderately hard. First dog from a pup, got her at 5 weeks, single, so I had all the responsibility, and to top it of she's a German Shepherd.

TOTAL lifestyle change. Wouldn't trade her for the world.

[lupina]

I have to say raising a puppy can partially depend on the disposition of the parent's!
With my 1st Shepherd, Lupa, it took 5 weeks to housebreak her because I had Zero experience with raising a puppy. I got her the 1st of May in a year we had rain 28 days...She thought getting wet was a way of life. We used a crate and I came home everyday at lunch. I used the word 'business' for pee/poop and she did on command. My avatar photo is of her at 8 weeks. She was remarkable and went everywhere with me.

My 2nd puppy, Bravo, was housebroken in 3 weeks. It helped that my husband's female, Duchess, was 6 and I had done a good job training her so when I called or gave a command he would mimic...that was fun. I wish I'd had a video camera to capture his willingness to please. Bravo had his CGC at 6 months. We did 2 classes a week. I wanted him well socialized and at the time there weren't doggy day care facilities avl. near me. I put a lot of time and energy into him because I knew the payback would be a well mannered adult I could enjoy and travel with.

Once you have a well trained GS I think getting a puppy at that point means you'll accomplish more with much less effort!

I do equate having a puppy to raising a 2-3 yr. old. You get out proportionately what you invest. Some dogs will simply be more stubborn than others.

When I rescued Skye she was 2 1/2 and Terra was 3 1/2. I knew there would be challenges. I was unprepared for the length of time it would take to housebreak them and there were times I wondered what I'd been thinking! These dogs had lived in the country. They'd never heard sirens, seen a garage door go up, looked at themselves in a mirror or heard a TV, they'd never taken walks on a leash. That was probably the most difficult thing for me...walking them 40 minutes, having Skye assume the position...actually start to download and she'd see a rabbit and literally suck it up and go after the wildlife. For the 1st year I had her I called her my ADHD GSD...She's extremely bright...tilts her head and listens to me. I don't have to ask her to do something twice. I think it's because I used the crate during the training process.