Oh I noticed nobody commented on the "people" food thing. Anyone have an oppinion? Right now I use peices of his dogfood, and even when he is interested I have to wait for him to chew it and sometimes hell drop it and lick it and then decide to eat it. :rolleyes:

First time I owned a dog that passed up hotdogs!

My doberman I had one time got into some hotdogs and ate one...well when when came back from a ride in the car he was busted! No denying it! He threw up the hotdog and let me tell you it was still whole!!

I believe Ed says either in a tape or in one of his articles to pick up the water after 8pm so that you don't have to jump up in the middle of the night to let your puppy out. At his age, he should be sleeping through the night. As for the food thing, I'm wondering if the dog is feeling okay, and has he been checked out by the vet?

He has been vet checked and checked out fine. He did better today with eating. A friend of mine has a picky GSD and told me to try just a little bit of wet food enough to just add some taste. I think I might try to change the brand of food first. I wasnt picking it up and he wasnt waking up through the night other than to chew on his toy he sleeps with, but he didnt bother us. Last night was the first night I picked up his water and he seem like he woke up eiterh because he was hot or becasue he was thirsty.
I know Ed doesnt agree with the dog being in the bed room but it has worked for us fine and out other dog we had. I know I'll kick myself later for it if Kane proves me wrong, but right now it seems to keep everyone happy. SO maybe laying on the carpet made him hot.

from what it sounds like, he's being restless from teething <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> ... if he's waking up and chewing, not eating much, disinterest in playing, needing to pee more often that can all be from teething. Some breeds and lines teeth at different times. He's probably eating the bulk of his food in the morning when he's starving and then picks through the day just to keep him going. Have a good look at his teeth, the gums should be pink and the teeth white <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> . If theres any angry red patched around the base of the teeth it could be teething or if theres a lump as well an infection. Also, because the pain is not directly associated with one type of food he's not going to want to vary his diet much. Put him on a raw diet which is soft (forget soaking kibble, it turns out gross and most of the important stuff is destroyed), and give him partially frozen chicken/turkey necks. The coldness will help numb his gums and he'll get meat and calcium while he munches. Watch his drinking habits as well, he may not be drinking as much as he should because of the pain and then be waking up dehydrated.
Make sure he is getting enough calcium at this point in time (which is why raw diet is easier when teething) especially being so big. DO NOT go mad with the stuff though because an *insane* excess can make the bones harden too fast.
Try and either contact the breeder again or if you hit brick walls with that, have a look round your area for a vet that has experience with this breed <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Well the teething crossed my mind. I looked at his gums but theyre black so its kind of hard to sse if they look irritated.

Again he woke up around 2:00 wanting out of our room. So not wanting to wake up to a mess I let him out. He went straight to his water bowl but of course there was no water since I empty it around 8:00. So I let him out and again nothing. I took him back to bed and he whinned and cried a bit, paced and then finally laid down. He woke me up again at 4:00 when he heard my son fuss on the baby monitor. He was barking and the monitor.

Im wondering if I should just leave the water down so he wont whine all night for water or if I should just deal with it. It seems like he has his days and nights mixed up, although yesterday we played alot in the early evening and tired him out... should I limit any of his sleep during the day? How much sleep should he have during the day?

Last night he broke through our screen door after the cat. Thats a whole other story. I have crated him with the cat in the house and sprayed him with lemon water like Ed suggests but he just barks more.

Thanks Julie for all the great advice!

I forgot to mention that this morning when he woke up with me when my son was crying he follows me everywhere and when we went into the living room he trew up. It was like a watery yellow liquid. But hes seems to be doing fine, not feeling sick. What is it that he threw up and whay? Anyone have an idea?

Also today I decided to mix his kibble with gravy which he didnt touch at first, then today I decided to leave the food down all day instead of picking it up. He ate the whole bowl. It took hi a few hours of nibbling but he did finish it. Should I continue this or keep him on a scheduled feeding? Thanks

I went round and round with my wife about keeping the dog in the bedroom at night. Funny thing is, I was the one insisting he should be allowed to sleep there. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> But in the end, she won out and the dog was moved to our laundry room in his crate during the night and I have to say it was the best move ever! As far as the vomit, there have been other threads on this site dealing with that specifically which you can search on and read if you like. The fact is dogs throw up, and sometimes often. The yellowish runny vomit is usually just bile, and it occurs for a variety of reasons. I've heard some say they do it from stress, or too much protein in their diet. I'm not an expert on feeding but I have experienced the same problems with it.

IMO, dogs vomit bile when there is too much acid in their stomach. This could be from not eating for a while (and also why he wants water). You can try giving a cookies or something right before bed, but long term a good idea would be to increase the digestability of his food so that his stomach produces less acid. Auster used to do this all of the time, but now that she is on a higher quality food (Cal. Natural) and gets cottage cheese with her meals (decreases grain content) she doesn't do it anymore. Raw would be best, but why I don't feed her raw is a long and complicated story that centers around the misinformation and unwillingness to listen of certain members of the household.

Yeah its probably because of not eating too much... he has been a little picky. The breeder said it should pick up soon, that puppies sometimes do that when taken from theyre mother. Also any ideas on the waking up at 2:00? Maybe upset stomach? Although last night was the only night. The only place I would be able to crate him is in our garage and I was told that puppies cray all night if they dont hear you breath or feel your presence. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> He really does very well in the house all day and even at night he goes to bed with no problem. If it were just me I would just ignore him but since I have a whole family that will be woken up if I dont keep him quiet I have to get up with him. So any ideas would help. Thanks again for so many responses.

don't don't don't keep leaving the food down for hours. Give him 10 minutes to eat, and then take it back up again. First of all, this makes it more difficult to housetrain, because he's not on a real schedule. And second, it will just make him more picky.

Personally, I would crate him in the garage, IMHO dogs need to learn to be away from us and be OK with it. He probably will cry. A lot. At first. But after a few nights the crying will stop. Actually, since he's been spoiled rotten <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> he'll probably cry for longer. And he might cry for a bit when you first put him in the crate, once he stops crying for long periods of time.

Whatever you do, if he's crying, don't go to him. That'll just make him think "Hey, if I cry, she comes in!" And he'll cry even more. If you ignore it, after a few days (or possibly more) the crying will diminish.

As for waking up at 2 AM...sometimes Djenga will STILL do this. We'll be asleep and hear her crying from her crate for a few minutes. Once or twice I took her outside because I thought she might have to go. Sure, she peed, but not a lot, it wasn't an emergency. So now she gets ignored and will stop quickly. There was one time where she didn't stop, and the crying was different...not so much crying to hear her own voice, it was a lot stronger. so I got up and took her out, and she let out a big pile of pudding poop! So that was an emergency, she probably couldn't have held it for too long.

Djenga also loves her crate. During the day, she'll go in there to sleep or chew on a bone, all by herself. Crates are great, it just takes a little while to convince the dog!