I may be way off here, and welcome input, but when my GSD was 5 months, we would drive to the park and he'd play on the slides, then we'd walk around for a while, not too long, but it was at least 30 minutes of being at the park. It wasn't a constant walk though, a lot of stopping and exploring and sniffing. Hope I didn't do anything wrong by him.

At 7.5 months we now walk a mile or little less (maybe 3/4 of a mile) about 4 times a week. Anyone with input on whether this is too much? On days we don't walk we go to the park.

Diane, at home try teaching him to "drop it" when he's got something in his mouth by showing him a treat, saying drop it and when he drops whatever he has, immediately treat and praise. This may help on the walks with the leash grabbing. (Take treats with you.)

Hi Sandy,
Thanks for the suggestions. I've not taken him to any of the parks because I'm scared that other people will have their dogs "off leash" - not talking about dog parks as I know you weren't either. I just don't want him to be traumatized (as Ed says "for life") by an aggressive dog. It would have to be on the weekend when I'm not working (already dark when I get home now). Also, so you all don't think he is totally not trained, I've been working with him since we got him at 8 weeks first on "watch me" to get him to look at me & then reward him with a treat. We taught him to retrieve his plushy chew toy from across the room after just 5 tries when he was 13 weeks old. (I make him sit and wait with it in my hand and then throw it. He waits until I release him to get it). It wasn't long before I taught him to retrieve the toy back to me and then automatically sit after he dropped it at my feet. Now he is doing good on "down" after he sits and I give him the command (with some treats to help). I've tried taking treats with me on our walk in my pocket but he continually jumps up toward the pocket and tries to get at them. I'll have to re-think how to take the treats with me. He seems very smart and eager to learn new things - also very bull-headed (his is bullmastiff/pitbull mix).

Sure know what you mean about loose and possibly aggressive dogs and am always on the lookout. I found 3 parks within 6 miles of us that rarely have people with dogs there at least not at the time of day we go, very early in the morning, first dawn in the summer, spring and fall. We get there before the crowds wake up. I always scope out the park before we get out of the car. If there's a loose dog, we'll go elsewhere. I've taken my pup to empty parking lots, (big ones like Walmart sometimes have a large overflow area rarely used) just for exercise when he was younger and very vulnerable to parvo (people don't normally take their dogs to parking lots). A 20 or 30 ft lead is great for park adventures.

Your pup sounds a lot like mine was at that age (he's now 7.5 mos). Obedient, easily trained, yet rebellious and bitey when told "no". I had to adopt stricter ground rules. (I'm a softy - sigh.) It's amazing what a difference 2 months will make.

Another thing to think about for now is to not to play much tug games with him, if at all. If your pup has dominant tendencies with you and yours, tug isn't great for toning down those tendencies. My pup was always very bitey after playing tug. It made him feel powerful and he'd try to push me around afterwards. So I had to stop it for a while, just until he knows who's boss so now we play once in a while and it's not a problem anymore. We'll play more as time goes by. He still loves chasing and grabbing the rag in my hand.

Hi Sandy,
Well, an update on our walk this morning. I still had him on the prong collar but decided to let him set the pace (instead of a "forced march" like we had been doing). He really loved it. I let him stop every few steps and sniff at stuff and didn't stop him from picking up whatever he wanted to - just to see what he would do with it. He would pick up a little rock or stick and carry it in his mouth for about 10 steps and then spit it out on his own and run on to the next object. He ended up picking up and spitting out (on his own) a metal bottle cap, a McDonald's food wrapper, candy wrapper, cigarette butt, assorted sticks, olive tree pits, etc. etc. Not once did he try to grab the leash! I thought that he was getting very frustrated in the past from not being able to "explore" along our walk. Anyway, the only issue today was when a teen walking to school from across the street attracted his attention and when I told him "no" and tried to get him to sit, he started jumping up on me. (I forced the issue and he pouted for a little while). Anyway, when we got home, Nickie was still chewing on something so I pryed his "alligator" mouth open and found a piece of chewing gum! Phooey! Big time! Hope he outgrows this stage!

 Quote: sefi sahar

...you should also watch your dogs for they wont get over temaperature... pot tham in the shades between training and have tham drink after each session... ihope you got what imean with my lame english...
sefi.s
israel

Thanks Sefi,

I'm not worried about over temp right now, I think you were thinking 40 Celsius which is very hot. I ment to say 40 Fahrenheit which comes to about 4.4 Celsius and it was raining. I understand the reason for quitting the game while up in drive to strenghen it. I'll try to be more observant but for that evening the goal was to render them unconcious to have peace and quite in the house. Works with children too