Hi all,

I'm coming up against some training issues, and I was hoping the board could shed some light on the situation. I am currently working with a 20 week old female GSD. I'm not sure which sport we are going to focus on. So far I am just exposing her to all the sports available. I'm starting to lean further from Shutzhund. I'm not ready to give up. My issue is with focus and grip. She shows pretty good prey drive. She seems more cat like than anything else. She refuses to grip anything. I'm hoping it is just a teething issue. I noticed some adult teeth coming in. Did anyone notice a marked decrease in grip work when thier dogs were teething? Also if the dog shows decent prey drive is it possible to increase it. I have listened to Ed's videos and he stresses a trainer is not going to work prey drive into a dog. It either has it or it doesn't. He also said his dvd will try to bring the prey drive up to the genetic level of that given dog. I'm going to post a video to show my dog working in prey. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Also what other things can we work on while her teeth are coming in?

David,
Don't be in a hurry with the pup. Work on relational things with her. Make every day an adventure in training for her if you can. In other words keep things interesting. Sometimes there is a drop in drive with a pup at this age but I've found it's mostly related to the handler because they aren't keeping it fun enough. If she doesn't want to do something she probably won't, so give her a reason.
Teething is an issue at this age, so do things like tracking, fetch, just plain old horsing around with her and having fun. Don't jerk the ball out of her mouth right now. More than likely she does have a tender mouth and you could cause an aversion to biting so keep it fun, there's no hurry.

Thanks for the reply. I will take your advice and work on other areas while she is teething.. It's kinda tough though, I so anxious to get into some serious training but I have to remember shes just a baby.. She weighs 47 lbs now at 20 weeks old.. Shes gettin so big. At what age is a GSD usually done teething?