Hello everyone, this is my first post to the forums, although I've been reading articles and the forums on the leerburg site for a couple of months now.

My husband and I became the proud owners of our first GSD puppy back in Feb. and she is now 13 weeks old. We've both owned several dogs before, but this is our first GSD. Both her parents have Schutzhund titles and her sire placed 10th in the Sieger show last year in the Working Class males category. So far she is doing great!

We got the Leerburg Puppies 8 wks to 8 months video and the information in the video was very helpful. I've been doing 5-6 minute marker training sessions with her at least 2-3 times a day. So far she knows sit, down, here, touch, stand and yuck. I've started adding in distractions this last week with strangers and with my cat walking in front of her and she is very good with obeying about 90% of the time. She has an extremely high food drive and a high play drive. I've never seen a dog so focused during her training sessions...this is what I'm loving about owning a GSD! She is very intelligent and as soon as I grab the clicker or start chopping up bits of her training treats, she is at attention and focused on me. :-)

She had a few minor problems in the first few weeks we had her. She had extreme itchiness on her thighs, rump and behind her elbows, where she would scratch and nip constantly. No fleas that we or the vet could find. The vet thought there was a small possibility of sarcoptic mange, while the breeder said it was new fur coming in that was causing it. We ended up putting Revolution flea/tick/mite drops on her and the itchiness went away after 2 1/2 weeks.

Since the first week we've had her, she's been very, very mouthy and she loves to bite our hands & feet to the point where it would make it hard to even touch her. We distract her with toys as much as possible, but she would often get bratty and growl at us. The only thing that worked was grabbing her by the cheeks and bringing her in close and scolding her in a low, deep voice. We have taken pack leadership very seriously I don't feel it's pack issue, she just likes to chew us! Even with as much distracting as possible, she still loves to bite our hands (she occasionally draws blood on my husband), so I've had to start correcting her with "nein" as soon as her mouth even gets close to my hands. Although this has helped a lot, sometimes I worry that I sound like one of those seagulls from Finding Nemo (the ones that kept saying, "Mine, mine, mine, mine....").

Even thought the verbal corrections are working and making a huge difference (and making us happier owners), I worry if she is still too young for these types of corrections. So my first question is, if it's working, should we continue, or should we back off and not try to pet her as much since this is when she gets the most mouthy with us?

Also, we have been walking our pup since the first week we had her. Usually it's just a light 10 minute walk up and down our street. We're also starting to walk her to a park around the corner from us, probably two-thirds of a mile round trip in distance. Since the get-go, she didn't seem to be a big fan of walks. She just seemed content to sit in our front yard and watch the kids playing in the street and watch cars go by. If we can get her past the first four houses on our block, usually by tug and bribery with treats, then she is usually good to go, the hard part is just getting her away from our house. She will lay down in our yard and our neighbors yard as we're trying to get her down the street, but I can't imagine she is tired since she'll do this first thing in the morning as soon as we wake up.

My second question is, is this normal for a GSD puppy? Once we get her to the park, she is loving it and wants to investigate everything. It's just getting there is the problem. On very rare occasions, she will even seem nervous and whine.

Thanks everyone,
-Sharon

Let's break this up and get you some answers (and I might suggest that I would probably make a couple of posts in the future, because some folks will answer one question and some another).

So the itchiness is gone?

The marker sessions at 13 week -- might be one minute or two minutes each, and no real distractions yet. But puppy folks will answer better.

The mouthiness/biteyness/bleeding hands is a problem, and you want to know whether "NO" and physical corrections are too much correction at this age? Have you tried replacing hands with better chewies each time?

Last part: How is she in your front yard? Back yard? Peppy and wanting-to-play?

Now some puppy experts will answer, I feel sure. And WELCOME!

And congratulations on your pup!

With a pup that age I keep marker training sessions really short and do several throughout the day. I would say a minute or two is perfect.

Yote was super mouthy, I tried the grabbing the cheeks thing but all it did was escalate the mouthiness. I would redirect as much as possible and when that didn't work I would stand up turn around and totally ignore him that seemed to do the trick and after a few days of consistency he figure out that when he was mouthy I didn't engage him.

When he was too amped up for even that to work I would put him in his crate with a kong and let us both take a break!

Bribery with treats is a good way to get her to walk with you. You can make them very small so that you don't have to worry about over doing the calories and can give her one every few steps if need be to keep her going.

It has been a long time since I've had a puppy but bleeding hands brings back many....uh... fond memories. Rather than the physical corrections I'd keep a leash on her and when she does it, one "nein" and then tether her away from you (hook her to a door knob or table leg etc) and walk away and go about your business. After a few minutes if she is calm tether her back to you and take her to her crate with a nice chewie and let her chill for a bit. I found the mouthiness was much more pronounced when my boy was getting over stimulated.

As far as walking she might not be familiar going from grass and dirt to a pavement surface. This can be off putting or even uncomfortable if she has tender pads. You might distract by knotting a rope and dragging it on the ground in front of her; it is also good to keep her from ripping your pants to shreds and getting her use to walking by your side.

By the way WELCOME! And she is precious, I'd sacrifice my hands to play with her

 Quote: Jennifer Lee

... You can make them very small so that you don't have to worry about over doing the calories ....

They can be real food, too (but teeny) --- like cooked bits of chicken or meat (cooked for ease of handling and for aroma), and thus part of the day's food.

I use tempting but nutritious real-food marker treats, so I never have to worry about the quantity. By tiny, I mean M&M size. Tiny.

Leerburg sells many marker treats, too, and I mix three of four of theirs (Simon & Huey's, Zuke's, Grizzly Nu, etc.) with bits of cooked meat. Mixed rewards are very exciting and interesting to the dog, too.

 Quote: Sheila Buckley

....You might distract by knotting a rope and dragging it on the ground in front of her; it is also good to keep her from ripping your pants to shreds and getting her use to walking by your side.

What a great idea!

Hello! Thanks for the quick reply.

Yes, the itchiness is gone thankfully. We felt pretty bad with what she had to go through, it was saddening to watch her scratch and bite herself so much.

Yes, I want to know if the constant verbal no is too much for her at 13 weeks. I tried distraction with toys and we rotate different toys she can play with each week so they stay new and exciting. I've already learned that there are dog toys and there are "working dog" toys, lol, since she's destroyed about 3 faux animal squeaky toys already. The verbal no is working, but I just don't want to dampen her spirit with the constant corrections when we are together. I'll continue to distract her, but my husband and I are expecting our first baby this fall and she definitely cannot continue to be mouthy like this once we have a baby crawling around the house.

She's playful in both the front yard and the back yard, there's not really any difference. The funny thing, though, is when we're in our front yard, she doesn't ever leave our lawn and our neighbor's adjoining lawn. My husband will play soccer in the front lawn and she'll run all over the place, but she won't leave the grass.

 Quote: Jennifer Lee

Yote was super mouthy, I tried the grabbing the cheeks thing but all it did was escalate the mouthiness. I would redirect as much as possible and when that didn't work I would stand up turn around and totally ignore him that seemed to do the trick and after a few days of consistency he figure out that when he was mouthy I didn't engage him.

Yeah, with her, any correction (scruff grab or pushing her away) just escalated her biting. I thought I would go nuts until we discovered the cheek grab...and being dramatic when we did it.

 Quote: Sheila Buckley

You might distract by knotting a rope and dragging it on the ground in front of her; it is also good to keep her from ripping your pants to shreds and getting her use to walking by your side.

Thanks for the suggestions! I guess I thought all dogs loved going for walks (my old lab sure couldn't get enough of them), but I will try the rope trick!

 Quote: Sharon Eliot

She's playful in both the front yard and the back yard, there's not really any difference. The funny thing, though, is when we're in our front yard, she doesn't ever leave our lawn and our neighbor's adjoining lawn. My husband will play soccer in the front lawn and she'll run all over the place, but she won't leave the grass.

This won't last so be very careful to not get comfortable thinking she won't ever wander. Right now she is young and feels more confident with you guys on familiar turf. Once she gets a bit older she will most likely become all TOO happy to go exploring, so I just want to caution you to not let her go out front by herself thinking that she will always stick around.