Not easy raising a puppy! - Page 4

Thanks Blitzen! I always enjoy reading your posts. My husband and I took him out to the coffee shop and some other places today and he did much better than we thought he would! There was an 11 1/2 week old lab we played with and our 7 1/2 week old GSD is bigger! That was a shock. At 7 weeks, our boy weighed 18 pounds.. that seems big to me. Anyway, he is just such a love bug and we are going to keep doing everything we can for him. Thanks so much for all your support! Melissa

That's a big puppy all right LOL. Actually he sounds to me like a good dog for his breed and age. You know that testicle might still come down, the hernia can be repaired if need be and the meds will take care of the parasites. Neither of my GSD's have been perfect, but they have both been wonderful dogs anyway.

Good point Blitzen. If the testicle does not come down the vet will likley want to remove it.. One day my wife told me I needed to quit worrying about little things that made my dogs not perfect and to enjoy them, it's made me appreciate their good points! Keep in mind that most males mature very slowly and he can still change alot.

You have a wise wife, Ranger. My first GSD taught me that lesson. He was a sick dog for most of his short life, died from lymphosarcoma, but I could never have asked for a more special dog. He loved all people, never met a stranger, but still rose to the occasion when a stranger carrying a knife walked into our campsight late one night. He'd have taken that man down had he not stopped in his tracks and went in another direction. He was perfect in my eyes.

Well, today we took our puppy to the park at the lake we live near and he displayed a range of behaviors. He is still very shy around new people but will let them pet and pick him up. He is overly confident around other dogs to the point of embarassment. I swear we had to pull him away from an 80 pound Boxer.. he was all over that dog. We met a group of girls sunbathing and they just loved to pet him (my husband must have planned that one *grin*). So, he's a very sweet dog, he's still just very shy. He barked furociously at our 7 yr old neighbor who came into our yard... but didn't go after him or anything and let himself get petted. Tomorrow we have our "puppy play group" at the GSD Club of Minneapolis.. IF they let us stay.. he's very aggressive with other dogs, I'm sure it's only play though. I just want him to be a good dog with the public because my husband and I LOVE camping and want to take him with us. Nevertheless, I just love the little guy so much. Thanks again and have a great night :)

You're doing all the right things, Melissa. He will be fine I think. We take Blitz camping with us. He's not a super friendly dog with strangers, but we always make sure we are with him at all times so there are no incidents. We trailer a Harley and when we want to do some sight seeing, he stays in a crate that fits above the driver's compartment (we have a Class C RV). He wears a citronella bark collar so he doesn't disturb the neighbors when we aren't there. Works for us.

That's so cool, we want to take ours camping as well. Thanks for all your input, you're very knowledgable and I really appreciate it!