What did she do to the puppy? - Page 3

You have not established yourself as a good pack leader, that dog should never...never blow by you at the door or any other time. How do you live with this dog?? Is she on the furniture?? On your bed?? Does she have a crate?

Just goes to show the GSD is not a dog for everyone. Most are smarter than the owners and will take advantage of every opportunity given them.

Amen to that Blitzen. They might want to consider a dachshund

definitely not a dachshund..... what kind of attitude do you think you need if your job is to go into little holes after a badger??? LOL! Really for a lot of people a new baby and a dog are just too much.....

There are no alpha pups, only alpha dogs, or alpha dogs in the making, but not at 8 or 9 months. A dog this young is way too young and way too insecure to take on any leadership role. She may put herself in a bossy position but she is not fit to do that yet so she is going overboard because it stresses her out and actually creates fear. Does not mean she is a fearful dog, just overburdened. She needs clear boundries now which give her security and reduce stress levels. At this age we are dealing with onset of puberty as well, so expect odd behaviour. Which does not mean she is allowed to get away with it. Working line background. Means she needs more stuff to do. A few suggestions for quick help to see if it makes a difference: Free feed this pup. No more food from the bowl. If they have a securely fenced yard, they should sprinkle the kibble on the grass like feeding chickens and let the pup search for it. Gives her something to do. Half an hour of additional work twice a day, more depending on how much space is available and how sparsly you spread it. Can be done at any age, and can be continued forever basically. Gread exercise. Engages all senses. Has the pup walking about. And it will male the pup more content after. That does NOT replace daily walks. This is in addition to the daily exercise regimen. Next is more control. They need to put a flat collar on this pup that is tight enough that she cannot slip it and has a long nylon leash with the handle cut off attached to it. She will be wearing this for a while. Put a knot at the end of the leash. If you step on the leash, the knot will stop the leash should it slide under the foot. Can be varying length, but at this time I would recommend 2 meters. They can basically get some flat stiff nylon tape/band and secure it to a clip, put the knot in the end. No handle will make sure that the leash cannot get tangled up so easily. With the leash attached always they have a quicker means of getting a handle on the pup if its up to something. She will be wearing this until they have more control with voice commands. Next, teach a secure down. The down is a dogs off switch. The moment pup shows unwanted behaviour she is put in the submissive down position and kept there. Secure down position by stepping on the leash right by the collar. Being calm is important in such instances. But persistent and consequent. The pup is allowed from that down position when it shows that she is calm and in more control of herself. Just takes some patience to wait for that. cont...

The going crazy when people are coming and probably more so when going is the dogs sense of terretory kicking in. She probably raises a big fuss when people walk past the property which is confirmed the moment the person passing by the property is gaining distance. The moment they are gaining distance she has just chased that person away in her mind! A self-affirming/self-rewarding action (I barked, they left), which needs to be nipped in the butt asap. Right now she may try that with people coming onto or near the property as well now. The step described, chasing after that boy is very typical. So the owner knows the pup is doing it, keep an eye on it. The moment the pup is going for it (easy training situation to set up), it needs to be kept back by the leash and put into the down. Then shown that interaction with people coming onto the property is ok. If they want a watchdog, they can teach to alert on command later. And to stop barking when its enough. Boundries first, then stretch boundries later. Very simple really. For the lunging and jumping in public, put a prong on when going out, for more control. If she is not responding to the down, step on the leash and pull her down by letting the leash slide under the sole of the foot. Pull hard to get the desired result quickly, then when the body is down step on the leash to keep position. She needs to learn that her unwanted action will result in an unpleasant reaction. Screaming and yelling is the wrong approach. One command! Said like you mean it. If disobeyed she is forced into that down position and held there. Then diffuse situation by being calm. Resolve the situation by letting her do something she can do easily and that focuses on the handler like come to handler and sit in front on command, then reward with a treat. Good Gril. Allow her the distance of the leash, the moment she is back at lunging all this is repeated until she learns to be calm in these situations. Next step to that is learning focus on the handler for better control and the owner learning to anticpate what situations create potential problems. Get the dogs attention and get her in control before you have a situation. At home, they can try a very simple boundry and dominance exercise that is best to do now while she is young still and not older where she may try to assert dominace over the owner when they do this. Very simple exercise but persistence is important. First up, when they do this they have to have to the time to finish what they started. May take a few hours! Here it goes: she is at home, no strangers are there or expected, and she has picked a spot to lay down. Go over to the spot and make her move from it. Gently push her away, tap or step on toes to make her get up. Then occupy that space yourself. Wait til she picks another spot to lay down. Immideately go over there, make her move, then occupy that space. This has to go on until she stands and will not dare to take up any space. Then she is told where to lay down and left alone. The crate will come in handy for this. If they have a crate they use in the house it needs to be closed before the exercise is started so that she cannot retreat into it. She is assigned HER space after she has accepted that space is not hers to dictate. The important rules here are that the dog is not spoken to. The dog is not lifted or handled. The person has to use their body to make the dog move. No eye contact other than a casual glance at what she is doing and where she is at. Owner needs to be very calm, appear desinterested and only one person is doing this. The other person is absolutely neutral. And stays at the space they were at when they started. cont...

Potential problems: dog reacts with aggression, might bite the foot that tries to move it. If in doubt use muzzle, one confrontation at a time for newbies. At her age that should not be a problem though, but if she does bite, they know that more problems are looming. This is a great way to test a dogs boundries and see how much it really respects you. Another problem is that the dog retreats to spaces that are hard to access. Ie goes on the sofa. The owner needs to step on the sofa and make her get off. Preferrabley do not use hands. Before you start this see if there are any spaces she could get to that she will be hard to get out of. I had a very stubborn dog a few years ago that really needed this exercise, I used a broomhandle to get her out from a tight wedge she got herself into, then stood in front of it to occupy that space. She tried going back to it a few times until she realized that being there would not protect her. The key is persistence. Under a table is also a spot that she may be hard to get moved from. You can either risk an additional challenge or put something in front of such places to make them unaccessible before starting this. The exercise stops when the dog has given up looking for a place to lay down. They usually look very confused and uneasy. The principle behind this exercise is that the top ranks have claim to any space they wish. Not the lower ranking dogs. So by claiming all the available space for yourself, the dog that is made to move just got taken down a few notches. After that you leave her alone for a few days. The moment she acts up, it is repeated. This exercise is major stress. Use only when needed. At the same time, new rules of the house: A) dog will not occupy any space other than assiged floorspace and crate. No bed, sofa and the like, nothing up high, no people places. No lying in traffic areas that might mean someone has to step over her. There will be no stepping over the dog. When she is in the way she is made to move. After above exercise a slight tap with the foot should be all that is needed. Make her move. B) The dog will move through tight spaces after the owner, never first. Ie, the door. If she rushes out the door ahead of the owner, this can be remedied very quickly with another simple exercise. Open door about 4 inches. Dogs nose will push into space, gently close door to remove the nosey nose. Open door a few inches again, never wide enough for the dog to pass through behind the owner. Every time she pushes forward close the door again. She will keep trying to get by even in years to come. Be alert to this, and the moment she tries again the door closes. This always continues until she actively steps back. That moment the owner goes through door first and dog can follow. Another B scenario) Going up/down stairs or hallways: Go wide legged from one side to the other, place your body between the dog, do not allow dog to pass. If necessary if she tries to dart by on one side squeeze dog inbetween wall and your leg and push to make her back up. In the beginning a leash might help to make sure she cannot pass. Should be easy enough to do it without a leash. If they cannot that is just an hint at how little control they have and they need to learn it. Some of these rules should put more order in her life and make her more managable. Its not how tough they are with her, but how consequent they will be from here on in.

I'm not sure how smart it is to sell a dog to a home where there are real young kids, let's say under 3, or a new baby on the way. If they are experienced dog people, I might make an exception, but for the average pet buyer it might all be a bit too overwhelming. Sometimes youngsters can be very sadistic with animals; it's not always so much the puppy hurting the kid as it is the kid hurting the puppy.

Blitzen at the time they were not having a child but things change. After a lot of experiences with children and dogs I no longer sell to people that have small toddlers. They are over whelmed with the kids alone and to add a puppy is CRAZY!!!! Some how they think getting the kids a puppy will keep them busy AH AH that is a laugh. adds to the problem just like a bad marrage adding kids just compounds the problem more. And it is the childs and puppy that suffers. and kids falling on, jumping on, dropping, and rough housing with a 8 week old puppy is not in the best of interest of the puppy or the breeder specially if there is a hip warranty DH THANK YOU!!!! I copied it and sent it to her I hope that helps Yukon I sent her an e-mail this morning asking all those questions but have not heard back from her yet.

I guess it wouldn't be too cool to ask a young couple to sign an agreement that they won't have a baby for at least 3 years afer buying a dog, would it? I think that might be considerd UnAmerican? LOL...