Thanks for the poem, pretty cool.

Tessa's flight lands in 1.5 hours and I've decided to go ahead and pick her up today, instead of waiting for tomorrow. Better to go ahead get her in her new environment rather than waiting A couple of more hours to go!

Why would you wait for tomorrow? I'm confused. It's PUPPY DAY!

Oh, I couldn't wait. She will be tired, scared and probably glad to be going home right away. Enjoy and give her a hug for me.

 Quote: Jenni Williams

Why would you wait for tomorrow? I'm confused. It's PUPPY DAY!

I was going to let her rest at the Breeders so she could recoup from the flight but I don't want to wait! I started this process in January so it's been almost a full 12 months to get to this day!

Forgot to post the pedigrees of the sire and dam.

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/pedigree/549758.html

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/pedigree/455262.html

Both parents are SCHH3.

Thought I'd update the thread with pics and progress

Here she is at 9 weeks in her day crate.






At 12 weeks last week.








She was fully house broken about a week ago. The only time she pooped anywhere but outside, was in her crate the first night.
Teaching her that the house wasn't the place to pee took a few weeks. I actually caught her every time she would try to do it. She'd usually be about 1/4 of the way done when she'd get caught, always on leash. I can get her to poop on command now as I know the times when she is due. Last night it was cold for where I live, and high wind. She walked out the front door, onto my sidewalk, then made it exactly one foot on the grass and decided that was far enough because she wants her treat. I did have to get really firm with her a couple of times over the last month and she has learned my voice to the point where she knows enough is enough. Being kind with affection isn't always the answer, at least in my experience. She is given lots of love and affection but it took her and I finding the limit and she knows it now. Thank God for that too because if she ever gets loose or into trouble I know where to take my voice to get her to pay attention and get next to me regardless of what is going on around her. On walks she is finally ignoring cars and stops at every street crossing provided I stop.

She knows to sit before any door entrance/exit and wait for an "okay" before she may travel through. Sitz is ingrained in her I've done it so many times and continue to do so every day. Learning to heel has been tough but she is only a week into that. She really wants to pull and get out in front of me.
That is going to take some time. I'm just happy that I don't have to get up in the middle of the night to let her out anymore. She also seems to know when I've got stuff to do around the house where she can't be tethered. I'll take her out to potty and a few times she comes back in, wants off the leash so she can enter her day crate and she sits in there looking at me with "Where is my damn treat" on her face. She is totally and completely food driven. I think, with food, I can train her to do most anything, believe me, she wants her damn treat. She licks her lips during training every time, it makes me laugh. I'll hold the treat a half inch from her snout and she won't take it until she hears okay. The treat moves left, her head moves left, treat goes up, her head goes up, etc.

I was doing my best to let her be a puppy and just futz around for a while but she is starting to get bored and is asking to be trained. I guess 3 months is old enough.

She looks very cute.

I'm all for training something every day...but she's only 12 weeks old. Don't get too serious.

Train then play, 5 minute durations then off to play with the tug, some kind of reward, chill out time, etc. I think of it as recess. She minds and does what I tell her to she gets to go play on the 20 foot lead at my neighborhood park. Even then, she is fetching her favorite toy, a yellow tennis ball, and getting a treat every time she brings it back. Not forcing her to do anything, she likes it.