It's me or the dog??

[1sttimeforgsd]

Originally Posted by GSDAlphaMom

All the above with one exception. I would not tell a puupy no that was in the middle of a potty accident. You don't want him to think pottying is bad. I would say outside and carry him out. Any time he goes outside lots and lots of wonderful praise like it's the greatest thing in the world.

Not to confuse the OP but the only time that you scold a pup for doing potty inside is if you do catch him or her in the act. That is how they learn, and if when you are outside and they go potty then you throw a celebration and act all kinds of crazy giving praise.

[Jeven's Tyde]

Oh Yes... Everyone knows not to scold him for doing something they're not catching him doing. And as I think I said... his accidents in the house, have all been NOT his fault... I don't blame him for going potty in the house if he wasn't let out. Lol. If someone kept me from going potty... I might have a few accidents myself! Haha.


Thanks again for all the responses!

Pictures... I have one! My daughter posted it last night, so I stole it this morning.

[GSDGunner]

Awww, he is so adorable!!!

[Jeven's Tyde]

Thanks!!

I love him.

Do his ears look small? LOL. I was looking at puppy pictures and I've seen some with really large ears, but Tyde's look a little small. Seems to be a wide variation in the breed...

It doesn't really matter to me though... I was just curious.



...

Yeah... I guess you can't really tell from the picture what his ears look like... LOL. I'll try uploading the one's off my phone and posting.

[LaRen616]

Originally Posted by Jeven's Tyde

Thanks!!

I love him.

Do his ears look small? LOL. I was looking at puppy pictures and I've seen some with really large ears, but Tyde's look a little small. Seems to be a wide variation in the breed...

It doesn't really matter to me though... I was just curious.

I dont think they look small, they are just folded right now, as he grows they will get bigger and they will stand on their own.

He is adorable!

[Jeven's Tyde]

More pictures:

[sddeadeye]

Oh my gosh, he is too cute! His pictures are not helping my puppy fever at all.

You have gotten some great advice. Good luck with your pup! I hope you stick around and share more pictures of him as he grows up.

[doggiedad]

you're pup is 7 weeks old so don't expect
anything. there's no need to roll your pup on it's back
and stare at him. i doubt seriously you're experiencing
any dominance issues. dominance, alpha, and pack order
are overrated. for now spend a lot of time with your pup
and work on house training. take your pup out often.
when my pup first came home he was out every 15 minutes.
over night my pup was out every 2 hours. i use to carry my pup
out untill i started step training him. throughout the day
i would crate my pup 5 to 10 minutes at a time.
i did this a lot. i slowly increased his time in the crate.
everytime i crated him i would say "go to your crate".
when i was walking towards him to pick him and carry
him to his crate i would say "go to your crate" several times.
once we reached the crate i would sit him down in front
of the crate and while i was ushering him in the crate
i would say it again "go to your crate". one day when he was older
i said "go to your crate" and he got up and went to his crate.
once he got the idea i started saying "go to your crate" from
different parts of the house.

did you take your pup to the Vet? have found a puppy class?

[Cassidy's Mom]

Originally Posted by Jeven's Tyde

Tyde was always outside at his former home, so I thought for a moment it would be relatively easy to potty train, since he's use to going outside in the first place. Which... I guess, for the most part he is doing ok. Few accidents inside, but I think that's more our fault and not his... since we're the one's that have to let him out.

Actually the accidents are completely your fault, not more your fault than his. I'm not saying that to beat up on you, but you have to realize that until you teach him that he must always do his business outdoors and never indoors, he's relying on you to take him out often enough that he doesn't have to potty in the house. A 7 week old puppy has very little bowel and bladder control, and not much advance warning that he has to go - when he needs to go, he needs to go NOW, just like a baby in diapers.

Also, you're applying human logic to a puppy. Human version: He's used to pottying outdoors because that's where he's spent all his time previously, so even though he lives indoors now he'll still want to potty outdoors.

Puppy version: I've always peed and pooped whenever I needed to, wherever I happened to be at the time, so it must be okay to keep doing that.

See the difference? He's doing exactly what he's always done, but now he's not outside all the time, so sometimes he's going to have an accident in the house. Being kept outdoors is not a shortcut for housebreaking. Be sure to always reinforce him for pottying outside, with happy praise and a small treat.

In the middle of the night, I've been carrying him out to pee, mainly because I'm afraid he'll go before we get outside, so now I'm thinking... is this wrong? Should I make him WALK outside to go potty, to reinforce he's supposed to "walk outside and go" or "stand by the door to let me know" etc.

Whatever you need to do to get him outside quickly. When my puppies wake me at night needing to go out, there's not a lot of time, so I'll either quickly snap the leash on (which I leave on top of the crate at night) and run them outside, or I pick them up and carry them. Even with the leash on, I've had pups start to pee when I slowed down long enough to open the door before going out. If you make him walk on his own you run the risk of him stopping and squatting before you ever get him outside, so do what you need to do to prevent that. And until he knows that the only place for potties is outside you can't expect him to let you know that he needs to go out.

I think I'm also having a few issue with dominance... but at the same time... I kind of think that maybe he's just really young and I shouldn't expect much... and I do want to take full advantage of his age to socialize/train/etc before bad habits really form.

I can almost 100% guarantee that you are not having dominance issues. Very, very little of what dogs do have anything whatsoever to do with dominance, so it's best if you get that idea out of your head right now and think of other reasons why he may be doing what he's doing. At his age, first on the list of possibilities should be that he doesn't know any better because he hasn't been trained yet. Puppies are born knowing how to bite, to chew, to dig, and to bark. It's up to you to teach him what's appropriate and what isn't. He's not being dominant, he's not trying to control you or be the alpha, he just doesn't understand what's expected of him.

The thing is... he's not much of a responder to anything. (Is it me or the dog?). I've read firmly but not roughly or harshly taking him by the back of the neck (like mama dog would do) and saying no bite, might work. But it doesn't. He just turns around and tries to bite my hand... not in an aggressive way (so I think) but in a playful way. We always remove our hand/ankles/shirts/pants from his mouth and give him his toy, but while that stops him for a few moments (seconds), he's always pouncing back towards what we don't want him biting.

Be patient!!! You've had him a week - he's not responding because he doesn't understand what "no bite" means. Redirecting to a toy is a good idea, but it's not going to work overnight. Teaching bite inhibition is a process that can take weeks or months, it's not something you're going to cure overnight. Puppies play with their littermates by biting at them, how does he know he's not supposed to do that with you and your family too? How does he know you're not playing with him too? Be patient, be persistent.

I don't see any reason to stare down a puppy. I much prefer to teach my dogs that eye contact is good, not something to be avoided, so I reward them for offering it up from the time they're young puppies. I also teach them to "watch" me on cue, but I don't want them only looking at me when I tell them to, I also want them to pay attention to me in general. Remember - you can only teach your dog something if you have his attention, so reinforcing eye contact will build a foundation of default attention. If I walk towards the back door and stand there and wait, my dogs know they can "make" me open the door for them by sitting and looking at me. I don't have to tell them "sit" and "watch" every time, they just do it automatically because it's part of the house rules and they are responsible for knowing what those rules are and complying with them.

Dogs do what works, so reinforce the behavior you want.