Hello all,

I have been reading Leerburg's site for weeks now. It feels like the info never ends here lol. I am going to be getting my little male GSD in about two weeks or so. He will be about 10-12 weeks old when we bring him home.

So far I have a wire crate ready for him, but that is it. I don't even know what I need to do the first day I bring him home. This is our first puppy we have ever had. I am kind of nervous.

somebody else i'm sure will give you a better answer but you need;

-Light weight puppy drag leash
-20 foot light weight line
-appropriate flat collar (nylon is good he will out grow it fast)
-Water dish
-Food dish
-Food/treats
-bitter apple (to stop problem chewing)
-Crate appropriate toy (kong or something similarly hard to chew up)
-Lots and lots of patience

if your inexperienced with dogs especially pups, get a few DVDs from this website. i recommend Your Puppy 8 weeks to 8 months and Micheal Ellis the power of training dogs with food.

one last bit, puppies make bad choices when left to their own devices... when he can't be watched he should be crated, and all puppies especially ones born with lots of prey drive chase and tug everything in sight, carry a toy with you and redirect him to the toy by making it look more interesting then you or other things you don't want him to bite. if you tug with him don't tug hard or for too long it is easy to overwhelm the little guy and make him not like tugging with you. also no tugging during teething (12-16weeks.)

good luck with your pup

Rob

Hi there and welcome to the forum! Your life is about to change big time, in a great way, so being prepared is great way to start. As important as all the "items" are, and they are important, I think being prepared mentally with a PLAN you are going to follow and stick to will make this transition far more successful.

Read the puppy info over and over again. Concentrate on house breaking, how to make successful use of the crate, how to begin to establish yourself as pack leader, etc... Read on how to introduce the pup to the home and family members and follow those steps. If he isn't already crate trained, be mentally prepared for a few nights of not a lot of sleep, but this won't last forever. Again, if you know how you are going to go about it, you won't be caught off guard if he starts the night off by screaming in his crate! It is sooo much easier to do it correctly from the beginning than it is to try and go back and undo things. As with anything, the foundation will be the key to getting things off ground in a positive way.

Puppies are so much fun and so much work. Don't get hung up on "training" immediately - you first want to just have fun, establish yourself as the pack leader, and bond with that new family member. There will be plenty of time for "sit", "come" etc... after the little guy is comfortable in his new surroundings. Absolutely have a toy on you at all times so you can redirect those puppy bites so you don't get caught trying to correct him for doing what he is naturally going to do. Did I say have fun with this new little guy??

The only other thing I can offer is an inexpensive way to get a long line for outside and a drag line for inside is to use the marine type of rope found at lowes or home depot. It comes in 50 or 100' lenghts with a tool which allows you to weave it back into itself. We bought a few clasps which would hook onto his collar and made our own lines. They are light weight, don't absorb water like nylon will and they dry very quickly!

Have fun and good luck with your pup?

Congratulations on your new pup---and for finding the very best resource on the web for information about dogs and puppies. The people here know what they are talking about and WANT to help you succeed.

If your experience with a GSD puppy is anything like mine was, it will be life-changing. In some ways, they are "easy" puppies because the are so intelligent and wired to want to please you. They pick up things quickly. That said, all that intelligence also makes you have to work MUCH harder to stay a step ahead. So just be prepared that for at least the next year raising this puppy will require your nearly-constant attentiveness.

They don't raise themselves. Not if you expect to end up with the poised, well-mannered, confident, athletic GSD that you have in your mind's eye.

Make the first day low-key. No big orchestrated events. Just let him chill and ease into being in a new place. This is all new for him too.

Find a puppy class in your area. If nothing else, it will give you and the pup a weekly opportunity to interact with other people and puppies, and it may give you some pointers on how to start simple training.

Make a plan for socializing. That means every day find new experiences for the puppy to see, hear, do. For the next few weeks, his brain is absorbing the world and he is creating associations--good and bad--that may be with him for life. He needs to be exposed in a positive way to the biggest, most diverse world you can muster. I cannot stress enough how important I think this is.

Related to this is getting him into the habit of having every part of his body touched. Start a grooming routine EARLY and OFTEN that includes you putting your fingers in his mouth, his ears, touching his toes, etc.

Final bit of advice: set him up to succeed. Raising a puppy isn't about offering a lot of corrections and telling him NO all the time. If you constantly remind yourself that what he wants more than anything else is to please you---all you have to do is make it clear to him what you want. Show him. Praise him effusively. If he messes up--and he will, often--it's YOUR fault, not his.

Oh, and feed him the best food you can find and afford. It makes a difference. What you'll save by buying cheap food will be more than made up for in vet bills.

My dog is my first German Shepherd. They are absolutely wonderful, rewarding companions. But they are LOTS of work when they are young. Luckily, they learn super quick!

I wasn't at all prepared for just how much work my dog would be when she was 8 weeks to 5 months old. I expected to have at least a few weeks of sleepy little puppy while we got to know each other. Boy, was I wrong! The only dogs I had ever known as little puppies were of much more sedate breeds. She wore me out to the point that I would literally fall asleep siting up in the break room at work!

The other thing I was not prepared for was the play biting and feet chasing. It was like having a little wild animal in the house. I couldn't walk around barefoot unless she was in the crate for at least two months. Follow the advice on his website about puppies play biting, a lot of the advice people will give you about this issue does not work with a shepherd.

Get lots of toys, but don't spend too much money on them. Because they are so smart they get bored with their toys pretty quickly, and they are also strong enough when they are little to destroy them if you take your eyes off of them for a second. Rotate 2 or 3 toys every few days.

Good luck with your dog. You will have so much fun!

One more thing, one thing I did when socializing my puppy was bring her frequently to places where we could sit quietly and just watch people. We watched kids playing, softball games, joggers and people riding bikes. This was one thing I did right.

I also let too many people play with her and pet her. This is one thing I did wrong. It resulted in her thinking everybody she meets is a new friend to play with. It also encouraged many bad behaviors like jumping up.

People, especially strangers, will encourage bad behavior in ways you would never imagine. You might feel badly about telling them to leave you alone, but remember that you have to live with this dog.

If I had a dollar for every person that stuck their fist out for her to bite them or encouraged her to jump on them I would be rich. Don't allow it!

Read Ed's advice on this matter. If I could do it all over again would do it his way.

I would definitely 2nd Lauren's response. With my pup i hardly let anybody pet him and i wouldn't let them dote over him (even though he was extremely adorable.)He is very responsive in front of new people and places because it usually means good things from me which keeps his focus on me.on the other hand. with my Rottie whom i got rescued at two years old already sought out attention from everyone and considered every human to be a potential source of food and good feelings and she can have focus issues in the face of new places and people (though she is getting better.)

I try to make my affection and food like a form of currency if dog gets it for free from others and has to work for it from you it devalues these rewards. So in the face of other people the dog will loose focus and be looking around for the free stuff. If the dog is fearful of people it's a different story then they can give treats till he is not fearful than it stops. I think this is all covered in better detail and explained very well by Ed Frawley in the "your puppy 8 weeks to 8 months" dvd i mentioned earlier.

Take care and have fun wit the pup,

Rob

Wow, thank you everyone for the replies and warm welcomes

I look very forward in having a new GSD. I originally wanted to rescue a dog, but was leery about getting one because of my inexperience with dogs. I figured if the dog has prior issues, I would have alot of trouble with my inexperience.

My wife wants a puppy GSD so thats what were getting. My goal is to have this lovable dog for, companionship, protecting, more motivation to help me exercise, keep my wife and myself occupied and much more. I want to really get into the tracking thing too.

I don't want my gsd to think everyone is their friend, but i also don't want him to growl at every stranger he approaches. This will be interesting

 Quote: Frank Crivello

I don't want my gsd to think everyone is their friend, but i also don't want him to growl at every stranger he approaches.

Preventing him from meeting too many new people in his first months will not make him growl at every stranger, but it will help with him being aloof and un-interested in other people outside of his pack.
He just won't pay them much attention, which is (IMO) a good thing. I find that strangers have a tendency to promote bad behaviour (dog jumps up you correct they say, no no, that's ok I don't mind, or something along those lines)because it's rare they have the same training philosophy as you do.

anyway, be prepared and have fun!
oh, and i can't say enough about tethering the puppy to you when he is outside his crate. It's a great tool for keeping track of him and creating a strong bond with your new guy.

I'm of the opinion that they don't need to meet every dog they pass on the street either. (So many people with dogs I encounter seem to want to make "doggie friends" between mine and theirs.) Why?

My dogs don't need any more friends. The behavior I prefer is that they ignore all other dogs--especially the foolish ones that bark or lunge. We keep right on marching and don't even acknowledge that they are there.

There's no way I could handle four dogs (or even one) if we had to stop and sniff every dog or meet every person in the world. If I want to stop and meet somebody or introduce the dogs to them, that's a different matter. But they don't get to decide.

But I think this is different from the kind of supervised play/interaction that they get in a puppy class. I support that kind of interaction for young pups.