Ok.. I am new to this site.. So far I love it!! Spent most of the day reading other posts...

Yesterday a friend of mine gave me her dog.

Her name ( the dog ) is Akya. She is GSD. No papers not that it matters to me... She is 4 1/2 months old. She has a very good temperment and so far responds to Sit. ( this was exciting )

Akya ( I have just learned ) has been tied up outside sence she was about 10 weeks old. She is very friendly and not to hyper ( just typical puppy energy ) ...

I have 2 young children ( I honestly believe the kids and the dog are fine together. ) But it does limit my time... I am a stay home mom ... So leaving Akya home alone is not an issue ...

My question ... well ...

WHERE do I start.... She has ( my fault ) one time pee and one poop in my home but has done both out side sence then... She is wonderful and I am going to raise her as one of my own ... But I have no clue of what to start with first...

Please any help will be greatly appreciated....

Please bear with me ... I am willing to learn and teach but finances are low..

( she has been to the vet and is up to date with shots and is in great health.)

Originally posted by Akya:
Ok.. I am new to this site.. So far I love it!! Spent most of the day reading other posts...

Yesterday a friend of mine gave me her dog.

Her name ( the dog ) is Akya. She is GSD. No papers not that it matters to me... She is 4 1/2 months old. She has a very good temperment and so far responds to Sit. ( this was exciting )

Akya ( I have just learned ) has been tied up outside sence she was about 10 weeks old. She is very friendly and not to hyper ( just typical puppy energy ) ...

I have 2 young children ( I honestly believe the kids and the dog are fine together. ) But it does limit my time... I am a stay home mom ... So leaving Akya home alone is not an issue ...

My question ... well ...

WHERE do I start.... She has ( my fault ) one time pee and one poop in my home but has done both out side sence then... She is wonderful and I am going to raise her as one of my own ... But I have no clue of what to start with first...

Please any help will be greatly appreciated....

Please bear with me ... I am willing to learn and teach but finances are low..

( she has been to the vet and is up to date with shots and is in great health.) I wanted to add... She is ajusting very well to being in my home and is now sleeping soundly at my feet...

Well, you found a great place to start...

Ed has a very inexpensive video that will would answer a lot of questions for you. Your puppy 8 weeks to 8 months http://www.leerburg.com/120.htm
It is a solid hour and a half and covers a lot of ground for $30.

If that isn't really an option for you he has LOTS of FREE training articles and Q&A's on this site http://www.leerburg.com/articles.htm

Akya,
Please check your priv messages (under my profile link) <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I don't like to force a lot on the pup while its still adjusting to the new environment and new people. With my German Shepherd, we basically got her use to her new name and to her new crate. From the beginning we associated the crate with the word "kennel" which has stuck with her all these years. If company comes over, we tell her to go to her kennel and she goes just fine. Its a good command to have...is something breaks in the kitchen that is glass, we tell her to go to her kennel so she gets out of the way.

The first real commands I taught her, after her adjustment period, was Sit and Come. Mostly informal ... Sit before she gets a treat, sit before she gets petted when we come home, etc. For the first month we had her, she'd get so excited when we came home she'd pee so we had her sit before we'd greet her to keep her a bit more controled. The Come command is good for obvious reasons. Dogs should come when their called. We used it to call her when it was dinner time so she got the meaning of it pretty quickly in an informal matter.

Sit is also a bridge to other commands, once she gets the idea of "I do this, I get rewarded". So you can progress onto a down command fairly easily.

The "stay" command can be put after you get the dog into a sit or down. Its good for when your going to leave through a door or gate, tell the dog to stay so you can get out the gate or door without the dog rushing out as well.

You also might want to get the dog well socialized and use to different sights and sounds. Books dropping, kids riding bikes or skate boards, a baseball game, etc. The more she is exposed to while she's young, the less scarey it will be for her when she's older.

I take the opposite approach. I start day one when the pup comes home. I start on sit and come (come over to me, not a formal come w/ sit) and go from there. I teach sit, down, stay and heel from the begining. Lots of praise/treats/play no corrections. The idea is to get control as soon as possible and to teach the pup that it gets good things for doing what I want. I usually have them sitting, downing, and heeling by the time they are 4 months. The big thing is that it has to be fun. Very short lessons 10-15 minutes several times a day (3-5 depending on available time). Throw in some occasional commands in between.

Another good resource is the book Purely Positive. Ed sells it. Here is a link to the book.

Purely Positive

I'll second the recommendation for Purely Positive Training. the first things I started with my pup was rewarding her for looking in my eyes, and then the basic obedience (sit,down,come,etc).

I found it very valuable to teach the pup to focus on me, it made further training much easier.

I'm with Deanna, not that the others are wrong. I'd go videos, videos and when your sick of them, more videos. Plus read the articles as well as the board. You'll learn alot just from the 8week to 8month video.