puppy stage

[tyler]

how was the puppy stage? easy, moderate, hard , or even worse then hard?

[VALIUM]

It was moderate for me, he was such a perfect puppy

[JerzeyGSD]

Depends on the dog, I would say. For me the potty training and crate training were easy but teaching bite inhibition and what was an appropriate chew toy was moderately hard. I think it's very do-able if you have the time and pick a breed that is right for your life style.

[MelissaHoyer]

Grace was a fantastic puppy. Kira was a holy terror. I thank the heavens that Grace came first lol!

[Elmo's Mom]

It really does depend on the dog. We got lucky. Elmo was a very good puppy. The breeder told us that he didn't chew on things he wasn't supposed to. I still can't believe there is no puppy damage from him around the house. I wish I could say the same about our Jack Russell.

Elmo was potty trained and crate trained very easily.

He went through a teenage phase where he tried to push the limits with me. He would question whether he had to follow a command or not. He has always been eager to please, so once he went through the thick-headed phase, he was back to his mellow self again.

[JKlatsky]

Argos was pretty easy, Anka was harder. She cried more, had more energy, and would pee with excitement as soon as you touched her crate door. It resolved in about 4 weeks. She also bit much harder and more persistantly. I distinctly remember thinking about how much I hate puppies until she was about 4 months old. It was hard. She was really cute sometimes and other times (usually around 4am) I would have been happy to throw her out the window. Sleep deprivation makes me cranky.

Argos was good to go with potty training and crating/sleeping within 2 weeks. Bite inhibition took longer...but he was more easily directed to toys.

[Wolfie]

Yukon was easy. He slept the entire first night in his crate without any problems. House training was complete by 3mths. He aced his puppy class. My trainer had fun with him because as she was going through all the commands, little Yukon would be performing them next to me.

He kept that puppy enthusiasm up until about 10-11mths, then the teenager mind took over.

[WinitheGSD]

In some ways it was so easy with wini(well she is 1 now so she's still a puppy anyway) like the training, her behavior, and housebreaking. I have absolutly NO idea what happen with the housebreaking. We joke about it, it's like wini housebroke herself!! But then wini was extremly difficult with her health and nutriton. But buddy was an extremly easy puppy, exept for housebreaking. She was terrible! One of those dogs that just takes longer to housebreak.

[mjbgsd]

I also agree it depends on the dog.
Cody was very relaxed compared to Isa. Isa tore up so much stuff as a puppy and was always on the go, never wanting to stop. Cody was more lazy and wanting to lay around. As adults, they are very calm in the house and like to sleep unless they are outside or Isa sees on of the cats, lol.

[bethandglen]

Well for us it was rough! Lexi did real good with crate training (until the cat scared her at night and then she wouldn't go in it anymore!) okay with potty training I guess. But she went through a bad phase with biting and nipping and took a long time to learn to control the strength of her bite and to not jump up and nip at our faces. All three of us, my husband, me and my daughter got nipped in the nose when she jumped up while playing and she drew blood all three times. My husband got so upset about it he considered taking her back to the breeder. But we stuck with her and with lots of love and training she is now the cuddly puppy we always wanted. She also went through a phase where she was very standoffish with us, it was very upsetting because it was like she wanted nothing or very little to do with us. I think now it had something to do with the fact that even though she was around humans at the breeders - as in playing during the day and feeding etc, she was in a separate building from the breeder's house, not raised in the house with an actual family. I could be wrong about that, but that's one thing I thought anyway. Plus she was definitely the dominant female of the litter, the first time we saw her she just strutted around with her ears up exploring all around, would only come to us for a tiny cuddle then was off again.

But we all love her to pieces and she is now a big cuddly puppy of almost 6 months. Now, my husband grew up with Shepherds and he said their dogs tended to go through the worst stages starting at 6 months!!! One dog even tore out an entire wall!!!!! So I'm a little nervous to see how Lexi does now!

Beth