Hi Rich,

I can sympathize with having a big goofy baby that can pull your wife across the street. My brother's dog was like that. One thing we found useful was letting him run in the backyard to take the goofiness out before going on a walk. That way, he'd mind better. Is your backyard fenced & is that a feasible thing for you to do? I used to lunge another dog (husky mix) I used to have, just like you'd lunge a horse: put the long leash on & let her run circles around me until she calmed down. Going for a walk was her reward for calming down

Which of Ed's training videos do you have? They might help as well.

Good luck with your pup!

Eva,

Yes, my backyard is fenced. Run him before I walk him ... I'll try that.

Ed's videos I have:
Your Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 Months
How to Raise a Working Puppy
Building Drive & Focus with Bernhard Flinks
Basic Dog Obedience
Electric Collar Training for Pet Owners
Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs

I've watched them all except the Dominant dog video. I don't really have any dominant dog problems, but maybe too much time on my hands .

Sounds like you have the whole collection Remember: "A tired puppy is a GOOD puppy!"

Best of luck!

A fenced backyard is great! Make it into a playground and do fun things with him that don't require a correction of any sort, only reward for doing something right.

For instance, one of the things that I have is a 4ft. piece of 30in. culvert that I teach my dogs to crawl through, jump over, climb on, sit on,etc. Doesn't matter if they don't do it correctly, it's just for fun, but, they get a food reward when they get it right. Use the food to lure them into the correct response. They catch on very quickly to what you are asking and it carries over to the other parts of life. Great for increasing the bond you have with your dog. Use your imagination. You'll be amazed at how his obedience will improve.

Have fun,
Debbie

One other fun thing is hide and seek with a toy or treat. Hide things before you take the dog out then in an excited voice say "find the toy" or "where's your treat" and go around as though you are looking for something. Even if you have to show it to him a few times.Then when you go for a walk keep things calm. This can go a long way toward keeping all the excited behavior limited to the backyard play.

Also, before you start any fun games say to him in an excited voice "lets go play, wanna play". In other words give him a signal of some sort that excitment and fun is proper behavior.

Debbie,

We specifically landscaped and fenced the backyard in preparation for getting our dog. Well, not quite. My son had been after me for nearly two years to get a dog, and I always said after we redid the backyard, and put in a fence. He was getting really frustrated, so I decided nothing would get me going on landscaping faster than getting a dog. So in March we brought home a 9 week old puppy, just after my son's 16th birthday, and two months later I had a new backyard, complete with nice lawn, sprinkler system, and fence. My property is 1/3 acre, and most of that is backyard.

I have a neighbor who shakes his head and says "all that for a dog". But really, it was all that to get the yard in shape, get a dog, and keep my son happy. And it has really worked out. For the first two months we had the puppy, my son got up at 2 AM every morning to let him out of his crate and take him outside. The breeder we bought the dog from gave us a training DVD he made at his kennel demonstrating how to train a new puppy. My son watched that, and taught him "sit" in just a few minutes. From there it was easy to use the same techniques to teach the puppy "down", "come", and "crate". "Stay" and "wait" ... I don't know how we taught him that. We just started saying those words and pointing at him, palm out, and he figured it out for himself. My son spends a lot of his time with the dog. My son is big, and he'll sit down on the floor and grab the dog, who is also big, and pull him into his lap. It's funny to see, and to see the dog put up with it.

I'm really off topic here. The point is, having this GSD has been a ton of fun for the family, has really helped teach my son responsibility, and this forum and Ed's DVDs have really helped me learn and enjoy my dog even more. Thanks for the tips and advice Debbie!

I don't get it. No one here requires at least a 30 minute down stay from an almost 1 year old dog? He said he got the dog or the dog was whelped in January, it is now December that makes this dog nearly one year of age. 30 minute down stays are not out of the question. I don't know what your ultimate goals are for this dog but in my opinion you are on the right track from what I have read.

Correct the dog immediately when he looks at the other animal. Do not listen to what Jan said or you will have this problem forever. As an example, for jumping: Is it better to correct the dog as he is about to jump on you? Or do you wait until he is already on you and then try to correct? The line of thinking that says wait until he is amped up and barking and lunging before the correction is wrong. Correct immediately when the behavior begins. You will not need near as high of a level on your collar and you will stop the behavior before it starts. This is dog training.

But another poster brought up a good point and that is to make sure you are rewarding for the correct behavior.

Chris, Your point is certainly valid and I am not saying for Rich to stop any of the things that he is already doing. The dog must know that he has to obey. My point is that it needs to be combined with fun things also.

Absolutely some behaviors have to be stopped before they start. Such as going into prey drive when it isn't appropriate.

It is my understanding that this dog is a family pet.

I agree with you Debbie. But the fun part for the dog is the walk. Rich is only requiring that his dog have some manners while on said walk. The dog shouldn't be freaking out if the dog has proper leadership the dog will know that there is nothing to fear when the owner is near. I think there have been alot of good pointers and tips in this thread. I am glad I read it.

Rich, after your initial post, Ed said "1- There is never a time table - don't loose patience and don't get in a hurry. You have a long time with your dog." He saw something, and I wouldn't discount it. If we get in a hurry with our expectations, we tend to correct often and motivate less.

Like the 30 minute down stay. Perhaps your pup is able to do that, but it seems he has not quite mastered that amount of time yet. So to me, I think the fact that you're requiring that much time from him is setting him up for failure. I may have missed it in your posts but at what age did you start him on a down stay and for how long? Was it slowly, in increments of time? Did you work up to it slowly? If you by any chance jumped to a 30 minute from a successful down stay of some other time frame, I would go back to the time frame the dog was successful at and stay there a while before going further. Then just in small increments of a minute or two. That way he is succeeding rather than failing.

It's not so much the time he stays down at this point, it's the time he can successfully stay down, without constant failure. I think that's most and more important, to him and his development. You don't want him to get into avoidance. It's my belief when a dog feels he is succeeding in your eyes, the bond grows deeper and stronger. Which in turn gives more desire to please you and succeed at what you ask him.