Sorry about the use of the word "shame" as in shame on you. What I really meant is 'it sounds like you know what you are doing, and trying, and working, and it sounds like you need to be more anticipatory, and to the degree that you are not, you need to be more attentive and aware, and if you are not you are in some measure contributing to the dog's behavior.' Hmmm...

Must be a New York thing. Shame on you isn't like a real insult, it's more like 'hey, get your act together, you know better.'

Mea culpa.

Liz,
Please check your PM's. Thanks!

Will Rambeau
Moderator

I know you Mike (or at least, I'm pretty familiar with your posts)! I know you didn't mean anything nasty! But since she's a new poster I thought she might not be able to read between the lines.

It might be a New York thing. We have a lot of New Yorkers here in the summer, and they're always throwing me off with the things they say! Gotta love spice!

Any by the way, I love people who say 'mea culpa.' You just don't hear good latin these days!

If you are playing with this dog in the house, I have to ask "why"?

Playing in the house with him while you are trying to teach him to be calm in the house is counter-productive IMHO.

I do not play with 5 of my dogs in the house because they get SO worked up that it would turn into a nightmare.

Outside, they can get as wild as they want for the first 5 minutes or so to burn off any "wild" energy so that we can get to work.

I really try to balance crate, kennel, day run, exercise, work and play so that my dogs are well rounded and relaxed when it is time to rest.

I strongly agree with tethering the dog to you in the house so that you can teach him (with positive reinforcement) what is acceptable and what is not. Dogs need to learn what they can and cannot do through positive dog training before corrections enter into the picture.
From the sounds of it, your dog does not know his boundaries yet.

While I strongly agree with Ed's training methods, I will say that you need to look at what you, as the handler are doing and try to pinpoint what you NEED to do and what you NEED to stop in order to teach your dog what is acceptable behavior.
If my dogs start doing something stupid, it is usually something I am doing or not doing as the case may be that is causing unwanted behavior.
I would never socially isolate my own dogs for my mistakes. If I know that I am not making any major mistakes and the dog still acts up.....mmmmmaybe I would use that. I normally only use SI for new dogs that come in for training.

Thanks everyone, for all of your insightful input on my "situation"! And especially thank you for telling me that Gus sounds like a totally normal puppy... that's the part I worried about the most, because I am a first-time dog owner. My husband has had many labs throughout his life, and he kept trying to tell me that Gus was normal, but I tend to over-analyze things, which I know can be a bad thing.

It makes a lot of sense that he acts wild when he comes out of the crate to burn off that initial 5 minutes of wild puppy energy, so I will rechannel it into fetch in the backyard and then tether him to me in the house. I'm glad to know that I shouldn't keep him in the crate all the time because I don't want him in the crate all the time... I want him to spend time with us! I will also make an effort to play more fetch with him, which he loves (and I love it when he burns off his energy!).

Thanks again to everyone for their input!

My 8 month old rescued Catahoula pup will do what you have described; in fact I was thinking you are lucky because your GSD will play with his toys for a few minutes. For my pup, "playing with his toys" involves picking them up and tossing them across the room, then chasing and pouncing on them. He also jumps over the couch, play-barks at the other dogs in their crates, slides across the hardwood, etc. I have tried to leash him but he chews through the leash in 30 seconds. I definitely do not exercise him enough and will be using the tethering method suggested in this thread.

My point Liz, is that you are not alone, this is what we deal with with the high-drive, working breeds. He can be taught. My friend says we should have named my boy "Fast Forward" and I get the feeling yours is like that too!!! lol.

You are most definitely not alone.

Starbuck is only 5.5 months and she already has too much energy. We have a home office and she usually gets a couple sessions of play in the yard every day. She must have chased the "Flying Squirrel" for 20 minutes BEFORE her walk today.

We have the fence on order and I hope to have it installed within 2 to 3 weeks. That should allow here more time to run it off outside. Every couple days she will jump up and start running laps around the living room. Today she was running between the front and back doors.

I must have a short memory, because I sure don’t remember this 14 years ago with the last pup…