Melissa Thom Webboard User Reg: 12-04-2007
Posts: 2781
Loc: Upper Left hand corner, USA
Offline
What a cute little devil. You're asking alot of a young guy. I don't think that it's a bad thing so long as you understand it may not look like a finished product yet. It takes time.
I like to spend the first six months of a dogs life minimum with no corrections related to training. During that time it's all about bonding and being a puppy along with learning a few basic tricks like sit, recall, loose leash walking, etc... Most of the rest of our interactions is play time and exposure to things I want them to be used to like boats, cars, strangers, and the field. I want my puppy to be excited to see me, I want them to crave my attention and affection more than anything else they have in their world. If your puppy isn't wanting to engage you or worse is trying to avoid you it's time to lay off the training and spend more time playing.
What are your goals with this pup. Is he a working line pup that you plan on training in SchH or some other sport or what? If it is I wouldn't be so quick to extinguish his drive to bite. You will be setting yourself up for a whole lot of problems for later on. I would not be using his crate as a form of punishment, which it seems like you are doing from your post. It is one thing to put them in there occasionally to give them a time out ( & toss in a treat for him when you do to make it a fun place to go to) when they are really getting nuts, but that would not be very often. You would be better off redirecting him to a tug or some other toy that it is ok for him to bite & play with. Or redirect him with treats & marker training. Or use a tug or rag on a pole line to chase(prey drie) & bite. This will give him something that it is OK for him to bite without getting into trouble with you. It will also increase his desire to play with a toy. He is still a baby & needs to be treated like one. You need patience & need to enjoy his baby behavior...don't expect so much obedience so early. Let him be a pup. They are only pups for such a short time...enjoy him. I don't understand why people are in such a rush to get pups to behave like grown trained dogs. If you all don't want pups & to deal with pup behaviors, buy adult trained dog.
Good point as well. I will try the rag on a stick bit tomorrow. I am not planing on doing schutzhund with the him but would like to do something that will give him some fulfillment work-wise. He will mostly be a companion dog.
I wasn't trying to use the crate as a punishment as much as I was just a way to get him to simmer down, but he may not see it that way though.
This is my first Puppy and my first GSD. The last dog I trained was 10 years ago and was definitely "yank and crank". After spending some time and watching some of the videos here I feel pretty bad about how scared my dog was of me. She was a "one" correction dog and I constantly corrected at "seven-Nine" as I was taught. Before I got the pup I started reading about training and their is a ton of different training styles out there all professing to be the "right" way. If the dog I choose wasn't a GSD I probably would have never found Leerburg. One of the reasons I am engaging a private trainer who is on the same sheet of music as Ed is so I can think clear and do what is best for Peterbilt
What do you do for fun? It seems to me that every time he is starting to engage you with interest he gets shut down instead of trying to sculpt the outgoing behavior into something useful.
What a good thing to think about.
Sean, do you have fun times? Play times? You sure don't want to miss out on any of that.
Probably not enough. Exercise - yes, Training - yes, Play -no. Seems to be the consensus from the other replies as well. I played with him again tonight and he is really digging it as am I. I got a little nervous when I started reading a couple of months back that playing tug could bring about aggression. This is how I played with my first dog and she did have resource gaurding issues, which I solved with force (feel bad about that lately after learning more, she was a very sweet dog).
I will heed the advice offered here though and lighted up a bit on the the training and double/triple up on the playing. I will post back in a few weeks to this thread on the status of things.
Thanks so much to everyone, what a fantastic community you (we) have here. I do 90% of my work online and have never seen a forum like this.
Anne Jones Webboard User Reg: 04-29-2004
Posts: 3825
Loc: Northeast
Offline
Sean... yes, spend time enjoying your pup. He is only a pup for a very shot time. Let him have fun...you have plenty of YEARS to train your dog. He doesn't have to know everything by 6 months or even a year. Go slow. Have FUN training.
BTW....playing tug does not in & of itself make a dog dominant or aggressive or possessive. (I would not be outing a young pup...just trade him for a nice treat or another toy.) Nor does sitting on furniture or the bed. Most dogs have no issues with these things...if a dog has dominance tendencies you will see it early on. My dogs each have a ball in the yard that they play with, ( a BIG NO NO in most cases, but I 'run the show' here & they know that) but for them the real fun doesn't happen until I walk out in the yard. Then the fun really begins. They want to play with me...that is the most important thing to them. That is the kind of engagement that you are lookinhg for from your dog. I wouln't worry about resource guarding etc. unless you see a definate sign of it. Then you deal with it. Be a good leader,set limits & boundries & you will be fine. Most important of all: have FUN playing with your pup.
Yea Sean,
I know it's hard sometimes to remember but puppies are learning all the time. Every time you interact, every time they wake up for that matter, but especially with you interact with them. Remember that the next time you give him a heavy correction.
Kind of reminds me of an exchange I had with another dog owner a couple of years ago now. My dog was searching hard in a field for a hidden toy (she was just about a year old), the owner and dog came up abreast of me and said something like 'oh, training huh?' Trying not to not take my eyes off my dog I said as cooly as I could, 'everything at this age is training.' The other dog owner looked at me like I was from outerspace and slowly inched away, saying 'of course'.
The point of that bit of sharing is that a puppy is always learning. They WANT to learn.....It's up to us humans to SHOW them the way of our world.
Remember a puppy learns through play.
If my dog isn't learning, I'm doing something wrong.
Randy
When purchasing any product from Leerburg Enterprises, Inc. it is understood
that any and all products sold by Leerburg Enterprises, Inc. are sold in Dunn
County Wisconsin, USA. Any and all legal action taken against Leerburg Enterprises,
Inc. concerning the purchase or use of these products must take place in Dunn
County, Wisconsin. If customers do not agree with this policy they should not
purchase Leerburg Ent. Inc. products.
Dog Training is never without risk of injury. Do not use any of the products
sold by Leerburg Enterprises, Inc. without consulting a local professional.
The training methods shown in the Leerburg Ent. Inc. DVD’s are meant
to be used with a local instructor or trainer. Leerburg Enterprises, Inc. cannot
be held responsible for accidents or injuries to humans and/or animals.
Copyright 2010 Leerburg® Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. All photos and content on leerburg.com are part of a registered copyright owned by Leerburg Enterprise, Inc.
By accessing any information within Leerburg.com, you agree to abide by the
Leerburg.com Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Re: 16 wk old GSD Leadership Questions.
Top
Previous Topic
Index
Next Topic
.jpg)
