It's me or the dog??

[Jeven's Tyde]

Greetings All!

So... last Sunday I brought home a GS pup born on 12/15/11, so he's 7 weeks today.

And I'm curious about a few things. 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.

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.

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.

He's a good pup... he's a biter, which is normal and how he should be I think. Training him to NOT bite our ankles, hands, and most importantly, my 1.5 yr old is important though. Lol. Obviously. 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. At his vet appt yesterday, the Dr said (which I had read too just haven't tried yet) holding his bottom jaw and maybe his tongue too would help, she demonstrated, and he just sat there happily while she held him in the manner that he should not like...

I've tried the "lay the puppy on his back, stretch him out a little, touch his belly, look into his eyes and NOT break gaze first"... all of which he's happily to comply to. And we stared at each other for so long, he eventually fell asleep.

He's giving me mixed signals. Lol. When I feed him, I can touch the food, mess with his face, handle his paws, do pretty much anything I want, and he doesn't care.

At times, he will follow me around everywhere and lay at my feet, and then the next hour, he quietly walks away to a different room to lay down and go to sleep.

He will whine for me, and when I don't give in (same problem I'm having with my 1.5 yr old...) he'll lower his whine to a sound more from his belly, lay his head down and be content... but in a crate.. he's insanely miserable. He will whine, bark, howl forever until he falls asleep.

When outside (on/off lead), he will walk next to me, and when I stop, he will stop and sit at my feet. Sometimes, when I want to go somewhere he will resist and sit and look at me like I'm crazy, but will eventually come with a few easy tugs.

Is all this normal? Or somewhat normal? And is it me or the dog? I want to make sure there is an absolute pack order in my house. He knows to sit 75% of the time. And some of the time I can get him to wait to go outside until after I do, other times, he totally ignores the fact that I'm around... Lol.


Any suggestions, advice, criticisms welcome!



*sorry for grammatical errors, rushing... at work and should be working... Lol.

[Wolfiesmom]

This whole post made me smile. I had to laugh when you stared into each others eyes so long that the puppy fell asleep. LOL! I remember those days, quite well. Sounds normal to me! I used to carry my puppy outside to go pee until he was big enough to get out there quick enough on his own.

[LaRen616]

Relax. You have a tiny little puppy, let him be a puppy and dont expect too much out of him.

He's not trying to be dominant. It is normal for them to be biters, they are called Landsharks.

I wouldn't worry too much on actual training right now, potty training, playing, bonding and socializing him to some friends and family is what's important right now.

[PaddyD]

What SHE ^^^ said.
Normally, you would let him walk out on his own unless you caught him in the act. Then, you would say NO, pick him up and carry him out then praise when the deed is done. Of course, you will praise him when he goes outside no matter whether you took him out or not.

[Jeven's Tyde]

Two responses and I feel amazingly better!! LOL.

Thank you!

I have been telling myself that over and over again... (let the Tyde socialize, get use to his new family, bond, join the pack)...

Thanks!!

I was just getting a little worried I guess.

[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.

[kbella999]

oh yes, he is just a puppy. I remember when my boy was so mouthy. He had those razor sharp needle teeth and loved to bite my ears.

[Jack's Dad]

Seriously i don't even no where to begin. Have you ever raise a puppy before?
For a starter they have to pee every couple of hours at 7weeks. If they are inside then you need to get them outside every couple of hours even during the night. If you don't you will have accidents and once they start to do that it's a lot harder to correct.
You need a puppy class as soon as safe for yor pup.
In the mean time I hope someone will reccommend a good book so you understand what to expect. Right now is a very important time for your relationship with you and your pup. The pup is too young to know what no or don't bite mean.
Please read some of the threads in the puppy section on raising puppies in general and GSD's in particular. Certainly forget about dominance crap for now. I'll bet LaRen can find some good threads for you. Or the moderators. Good luck.

[GSDGunner]

Umm, I think everyone is forgetting THE most important thing.......pictures!

Come on, don't leave us hanging.

[LaRen616]

I got both of my dogs when they were 11 week old puppies. My male was very easy to potty train, only 2 accidents and they were both my fault. He was completely potty trained by the time he was 13 weeks old. I made sure to take him out every hour to 2 hours depending on how much water he drank. At night I set an alarm for every 2 hours so I could take him out to potty. That only lasted a couple of weeks though because he was able to sleep through the night without having to go potty. My female was almost 18 weeks old before she was potty trained, we had about a thousand potty accidents because she had to potty about every 30 minutes. I didn't set an alarm for her at night because she would cry when she wanted to go out, after a couple of weeks she was able to sleep through the night without having to go potty.