We have a 3.5 month old pup and are having a couple problems. He refuses to eat. Secondly and always spills his water in his crates rolls in it. Suggestions?

Hello !

We live in Finland, in an apartment and we bought a GSD male puppy which is now 3.5 months old, we got him when he was 10 weeks old. This puppy is wonderful, he is very alert has high prey and food drive, he already knows to sit, lay down, come and sit infront of us with an order and stay sitting in his crate until we allow him to come out (when we open the crate), he is a very smart puppy. We use marking training and he obeys the orders very fastly and alertly and I always teach him in a fun playful way so he enjoys that. Outside, he comes to people and children but sometimes tucks his tail under him, with some people he just roams towards them and licks them and plays with them. He never bites other people and is very gentle with them and with children. Usually he is being shy when people are infront of him and when they go he wants to go after them, but when we were in a petshop and at a vet he played so openly with the adults and children there and also with dogs. Outside when he sees dogs his back hair stands up and he tucks his tail or he just sits and watches them. We crate train him and he has only water bowl and a kong in his crate as he does all the outings only outside. He also doesn't whine when we go out of the house only when he sees us at the door and at night he sleeps quietly.

We had two big problems with him:

1. When we first brought him he didn't want to eat his food, we waited a few days and still nothing. His breeders gave us stomach antibiotics and with giving them to him he ate. When the pills ended he stopped eating again. We tried canned food, minced meat but he didn't want any, he wanted only his treats. We went to the vet with him, he checked him but said he is healthy, and that he might be picky. But no other food helped so the breeders told us they had same problem with some of their dogs which was heart burn they told us to give him antepsin before we give him food and it helped, but still he wont eat all.

2. The water bowl he has had this rubber circle at the bottom. Why do i say "had" because he ate it and then he puked it all in 2 days, in the last 2 weeks he developed a big problematic behavior which is our main question to you. He puts his paw in the water bowl inside the water then he throws the water with his paw everywhere in the crate, after he finishes he just lies there in the water and sometimes roll in it! We tried to give him more excersize and more obedience training such as calling him to come to me and my husband back and forth till he gets tired. It helps for some few hours but then he repeats that and its especially problematic when we are out of the house and can't watch his actions in the crate.

I was a dog handler in the army and I saw such things happening with dogs that flip their bowls so I suggested to do a thing we did there: we bought a tin bucket and filled it with water in hope it will be heavy and tall enough so he won't budge it or put his paws in, and boy I was wrong when I entered today the apartment and saw the pool he made in his cage which dripped all over the living room floor, he was soaking wet and had no water in the bucket. The bucket moved all the way from one corner of the crate to the other.

We are out of ideas what to do with him, as no matter what kind of water bowl we put inside the crate he will drain it out. We were thinking it might be from boredom or he is feeling hot. We keep opening the porch door so air comes in but it doesnt help. The breeders didnt manage to solve it with their dogs either so I come to you as you have such great knowledge of dog behavior. We don't want to give up on him we really love him and want to keep him with us, we got such a good connection with him and his nature is very sweet and also hes very enjoyable to work with even though I thought it would be challanging as he was the most dominant puppy in the litter. But my husband works 8 hours a day and I am a student now, in two or more years I might be long hours away aswell and I am afraid the puppy might dehydrate or get sick from being soaking wet, he is also not very interested in his food though he eats something about 150 grams or 300 grams a day when he should eat more as hes growing, I cant keep water bowls inside his crate but its very illogical to start give him water by schadual what can we do??

I appreciate any answer youll have,

Sincerely,
Karine and Janne