I have an all black beautiful gsd and it is my first gsd pup. I have a fully trained female but she was old when I purchased her. I had to put her down for health reasons. So I have no expeirience with gsd puppies. He is a handful. I have the 8wk to 8mo dvd. He picked up the sit in one day and the down in around two days. He does not come immediately sometime like when he is off the leash (15ft). He has began to heel somewhat but I am not
pushing it. He eats everything and I have corrected him on certain occasions like when he began to eat poop, a food item in my yard that was not mine, and once when I lost my temper because he had pooped in the kennel after I had taken him out already and he did not poop. I was going to grab him from the nape when he was about to eat something from the neighbors yard and he became very frightened and yelped and got on his back and bit me hard enough to draw blood. I was very upset and corrected him harshly with the end of the 15ft leash. I have seen him getting scared and thinking that I was going to correct him and he once ran away from me in the back yard. He is very testy and sometimes when I get him to sit and then tell him down, he begins to bark at me as if he is angry with my commanding him. He does it reluctantly while barking at me a few times (this is when entering the home after letting him out to poop, pee, and play). He shows no signs of fear during any other times and always has his ears perked up high and confident. I do not let him have the run of the house and he is always on a leash, so when I take it off of him he goes bananas. He once got outside of the leash and he was trying to keep away from me in a playful manner no matter how much I yelled at him. What does it mean to have a hard dog? Could he be a fear biter? Is he a dominant dog? I do know I am a dominant handler. He could not care less about me putting my hands in his food. He hates being on his back. He make plenty of eye contact with me. How do I get him accustomed to being outside? He hates being bathed but is this because of my direct approach to bathing (water hose and dog shampoo)?

You shouldn't correct him, give him lots of love, after all hes just a baby! Praise, praise, praise for anything he even slightly does right.

I don't let my Golden off the leash either, not because I don't trust him, I know he won't run off...its to set boundries and rules for him, to make him know I am the packleader.

I suggest making him sit at the door for about 15 seconds to one minute before letting him out or in. Also do this when feeding him. Don't put your hand in his food either. He will see you as a bully if you do.

EDIT: Oh and if he cries at night in the crate, put him next to a TV and turn it on. It did wonders for me.

Why are you correcting a 10 week old puppy so much?

Why do you yell at him?

Why do you lose your temper when he poops in the kennel?

Why do you give him the opportunity to play "keep away"?

Why do you call him when you cannot be sure he will come?

Why are you expecting so much obedience from a 10 week old puppy?

He is 10 weeks old, biting you when you are unfair to him is a sign of good character. Barking at you when you tell him to down either means he doesn't like the way you taught it to him, i.e. if you were heavy handed in teaching him the down. I would do this with food and lure him into position and guide him. Or if he does not understand what the down command means properly. At 10 weeks old, it is probably the latter. Just because a puppy sits and downs does not mean they fully comprehend the command!

I have 2 pups that are almost 5 months old and I just started their sits/downs yesterday. Even at 5 months old, I guarantee you that when I go outside later and work on their sit and down again, they will have forgotten most of what I taught them yesterday. I will need to do it over and over and over for a week before it even really clicks in their head what they are supposed to do, and I do not expect a dog to really truly be reliable till at the very least 1 year old. Alot of competition people won't even show a dog till 3 years old because they are not reliable enough mentally.

Don't rush it, don't get angry with your pup, all it does is break the bond with your dog, and if there is no strong bond then you might as well not have a dog Just take it easy, let him be a puppy, control him with a leash, a crate and simply don't allow him to make mistakes, then you won't have to correct him.

If he poops when you crate him, just pick his lil butt up in a firm but not angry non-correcting non-yelling way and stick him in the grass. Odds are he won't do anything but at least it builds the association between potty and outside. Clean his crate and put him back in there.

Puppies are mindless lil balls of fluff at 10 weeks old, all they want to do is bite, run around, drive you crazy and ignore commands because they don't know any. Never call a dog to you to correct them and don't correct a puppy for things they do not understand. And at 10 weeks, they don't understand a thing. They understand eat sleep and poop. Expect dirty crates for a while, some pups are naturally cleaner than others, let him out often. Once you figure out his poop-schedule you should be able to time it so you let him out and he will poop. Some pups just don't like to poop on-leash so they need to get used to it. Sometimes if you walk with a pup they don't poop, so simply stand still and let them do the walking, once they figure out they're not going anywhere and it's pretty boring standing in the same spot then they will poop.

As for bathing, I never beat around he bush with it, in my old house I had a nice big walk in shower so I could confine them that way and use warm water. Here I have a hose. I am constantly battling one of my pups because he is obsessive about biting the hose, and he will bite me if I restrain him from biting the hose, makes for some interesting times. Don't over-bathe your pup though, only if they have been rolling in their poop or something. It is not good for a GSD's skin to shampoo them alot since the coat's natural oils are what protects their skin. My adults are bathed a couple times a year. They are house dogs, a good diet and regular brushing keeps them smelling fresh. Kennel dogs tend to need to be bathed more often because kennels smell.

As for dominance/hard/soft... not something you need to worry about in a 10 week old puppy. Too young to really display his dominance if there is any, and puppies should all be considered "soft" (i.e. sensitive to the owner and sensitive to corrections), if he becomes a hard dog later then fine, but as puppies they should be treated as soft regardless, they do not need the hand of god to come down on them for peeing in the crate.

 Quote: nathan tierney

I suggest making him sit at the door for about 15 seconds to one minute before letting him out or in. Also do this when feeding him. Don't put your hand in his food either. He will see you as a bully if you do.

15-60 seconds is a LONG time for a 10 week old puppy to stay sitting. Not even 2 seconds is all you need if you are going to do this at 10 weeks. As soon as the butt hits the floor you release them from their sit and open the door almost simultaneously. The opening of the door and being allowed out becomes the reward for their butt touching the ground. They will pick it up alot faster this way, once they get it you can extend the time, but 15-60 seconds is far too long, I don't even have the patience to stand there for 30 seconds waiting to open the door LOL.

 Quote: nathan tierney

I don't know dominant dogs but he sounds like he is one if he doesn't want to lay on his back. Pick him up and stare him down right in the eye until he looks away (You might want to wait for a more experienced member to reply though).

I wouldn't do anything, I hate these "rituals" people have for their puppies "because they are going to be dominant". It is un-neccesary and I do not trust someone who doesn't understand puppies to make the judgement as to whether their puppy is even dominant or not.

 Quote: nathan tierney

EDIT: Oh and if he cries at night in the crate, put him next to a TV and turn it on. It did wonders for me.

I throw a black sheet over the crate and turn the lights out from day 1, pups seem to understand that its time to sleep. TV works too, but with a sheet over the crate the pup won't be so reactive to your movements. In the case of a pup that sleeps in the bedroom, some pups like to get up and think its time to go out when you roll over in your sleep or sit up to grab a glass of water.

When my pup was 10wks old I concentrated only on COME (made myself exiting and had lots of nummy treats), getting her to learn her name and enjoy her crate, and potty training. At that age they are babies, have poor bladder/bowel control and are adjusting to a new pack (you) and the rules and way of life that comes with it. BONDING TIME Everyone's right, it's ok to slow down, you have lots of time to raise a beautifully trained dog! If you want to focus on early training you may enjoy a puppy kindergarten class? We loved ours...
If you worry about dominance issues, make yourself more important. My trainer suggested I eliminate the food bowl and it did wonders! Dole out the amount of food the pup eats for the day and hand-feed it throughout the day - get one of those treat bags the clicker people use. Have it respond to commands it knows in exchange for it's meals and you will be MUCH more important and worthy of attention. This is a good way to teach the dog to heel and follow you as well because where YOU go, his DINNER goes too.

 Quote: mike j schoonbrood

Why are you correcting a 10 week old puppy so much?

Why do you yell at him?

Why do you lose your temper when he poops in the kennel?

Why do you give him the opportunity to play "keep away"?

Why do you call him when you cannot be sure he will come?

Why are you expecting so much obedience from a 10 week old puppy?

Ditto ditto ditto ditto.

You have a baby there. And he pees or poops in the crate because he had to go. http://www.leerburg.com/housebrk.htm

http://www.leerburg.com/puppytraining.htm

Ya Connie - that's what I wanted to do(quote Mike) and say ditto ditto!

Our GSD puppy crapped in her crate all the time when she was a little baby. She's 16 mos. now and I swear the dog would bust into bits before she'd EVER crap in her crate.

David, dude. You got a little baby there. Have fun with him and chillax!

Will do, will do...

I understand now that he is a baby. I have heeded all advice. Here is an update. Now he usually only pees in the crate regularly. I do take him out. I am limiting his water intake but I am not sure this is right because he seems to drinks till he looks like a cow....lol. I usually pour about 20-30 ounces of water a day. Is this enough? Should I just let him drink til he is satiated? I just figured he would pee all over the place if he had free reign on water buffet.

He has picked up sit, down better than come. I watched the dvd again and have not been rewarding him enough on that command. He has kind of learned not to pull on the leash. If I had not tried to show him that pulling on the leash (all out) is bad he would be out of control when he comes into the house and out of the house and seems to get very willy nilly and out of control, biting and jumping, etc. He now knows I don't like him pulling hard on the leash.

Thank you for all of your input everybody. I will double my love to little Maxy.

I, personally, don't believe in limiting water to my puppy and have water available, expect when crated. Some people like to take up the water dish a couple of hours before bed time, but that's it.

Housetraining pups is, IMO, best done with a drag leash on the pup whenever he's free (Having a drag leash is a great idea for many other reasons as well). Have you considered or tried tethering the dog to you? You'll be amazed at how well that helps clear up MANY issues. It'll even help with the bonding.

The best way to communicate to a dog that they're supposed pee/poop is to catch them in the act, and if the dog is tethered to you, you'll likely know the dog has to go before anything hits the floor becauses dogs, even puppies, would rather not pee or poop near anyone else...he'll give you some sort of sign.

If the dog is peeing regularly in the crate, then your best bet would be that you clean the crate EVERY time he pees, with something like Nature's Miracle. If the dog smells urine AT ALL he will continue to pee there(and as you probably know, just because you can't smell it, doesn't mean the dog can't).

I highly recommend Nature's Miracle. Wipe out all the urine, heavily spray with Nature's Miracle (don't forget the sides of the crate), wipe it out, then spray a light layer of NM and let it air dry.

I personally never limited my dogs' access to water. They don't get any after the last pee break of the night because then they were crated for bed time. But during the day, I let them have what they need. But then again, I didn't have a big time "bed wetter" so it wasn't an issue. Although I'm sure I would have if I didn't get up in the middle of the night for bathroom breaks for awhile.

Just remember that very young pups often cannot contain their bladder through the entire night, so you might want to consider getting up mid-way through the night and letting him out. It may be a pain for you for a few weeks, but believe me, the more often he pees in the crate, the longer you're going to have to be dealing with this.

That's the little nasty secret that nobody tells you about the little adorable balls of fluff: They can be a big pain in the butt! But that's the price you pay for all of the benefits of having a pup as well, and you'll look back on it and think it's all worth it someday! I did, anyway!

Good luck.