Hi All,
Well a new user of this site and my first post, just wanted to say thanks to all of the folks who take the time to answer those of us who are new to the GSD world questions. I had a rescue GSD and got him when he was a little over a year old, was a great animal and he taught me many thing while I had him. Just got a new male GSD out of two good parents out of Germany, he is a little monster ( well really a puppy), my wife and I have cuts and teeth marks all over our hands, arms and feet, I am looking to train him in the Sch world and do not want to break his little temperment at all. Reviewing through the board I see many other folks who have the same type of thing going on with thier pups, so it really makes me feel much better about all of the cuts that have taken place over the past several weeks. Yes I have many to say the least of Ed's training DVD's and they are a great and wonderful resource ( THANKS Ed). I kind of came from the old school of yank and crank and Ed has truly taught me there is a better way, I want a very close and personal relationship with my pup and Ed has really helped there. Then reading all of the other post that are on this board just helps more and more. So I wanted to take a mintue and write to ALL and say many thanks for taking the time for those of us with less experience and helping so many folks out (me at the very top of that list). <img src="http://www.leerburgkennels.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> Please keep up the good work and Ed you keep making DVD's, POD Cast and Writing.
Thanks,
Jay Biles
MY GSD Maxwell Hunter

What a nice post! Ditto for me Jay. I'm a newbie too to the GSD world and have benefitted highly from everyone's help. That was nice of you to take the time to tell them <img src="http://www.leerburgkennels.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> . Good luck with your puppy.

Judy

Jay:
Yes' I too am grateful for the advice here. The Leerburg website helped me winnow out breeders and make Jäger's first year go smoothly. I've had dogs all my life, but they were mutts and I never expected much from them. They were kinda like the Yugo of the dog world. Now that I've got Jäger, who's more like a five series BMW I've got to keep him like one to get the performance. It's a philosophical adjustment.

When Jäger was little I had a pair of heavy duty leather gloves (heavier than standard MIL issue work gloves) and he knew those were the let's play rough gloves. I still had scars and bled profusely from other play events, but I could play rough with him and he could bite as hard as he wanted.

It allowed me to rub on his face with one hand while he was latched onto my other. This slowly grew into me slapping (puppy level force) him about the face and head while he was busy killing my other hand. My theory was that he won't be as distracted during bite work because it was part of play time early on.

We took strips of denim and rolled them into hotdog sized chews that we soaked in water and popped in the freezer. This really helped with teething (just like human kids) because it helped with teething pain, gave him something positive to chew on, and he identified it as a treat. Keep them small enough to freeze fast because he'll go through them fast. We had over a dozen of em. Also, don't make them very fancy because they need to be unrolled and washed every night. It seems puppy slobber doesn't freeze as well as tap water.