Ok, I get it. *Food*. My Mink kid is learning detection, so food is out for that. She doesn't lose interest in the ball, but does lose interest in looking in those danged boxes.
The youngun is almost 6 mos now, his thing is to grab and carry. And carry. He would run around w/the tug in his mouth for 4 hrs if I let him.
Luckily, my GSDs in general have been very attentive, but 10 mins has always been my rule for young pups.
Baron, the former K9 was able to do obed for an hr at a time, no problem. But that came w/mental maturity.

Thank You Richard. I know what you mean. My pup is so high in food drive that he does not pay attention to my words he is so focused on the food. I usally have a puppy sitting and downing in two days. It took weeks for Kai. He gets so worked up that it hinders learning.

Vince,

The other advantage I have is this is a very handler sensitive breed. She will do any thing to avoid my displeasure, and I don't have to make a firm correction or even raise my voice. She has been the easiest training dog I have had for a long time. Now if I can just get her over the mouthy buisness (LOU, it still doesn't work), and get her to be more accepting of grooming we will have it made.

Richard:

I envy you in a way. My dog is attentive because I am the center of his world not because I am the pack leader. He will be a very hard dog. I feel your pain with the mouthyness. I have come to the conclusion that to stop his mouthyness I will have to put the fear of death into him and then cross my fingers that I do not have the most expensive pet in town. The flip side is I can just see it now. Him turning on me one day when he thinks that I have over corrected him or when his frustration level is too high. Only time will tell. The two most common SchH tee shirts are "My dog never did that in practice" and "If I can only go back and do that again this time I would do it differently." Well at least I can still stop number one from occurring.

Zak's 11 months old....I've had him for 4 months. He just is starting to come around as far as paying attention. Before, I was starting to think he was deaf.

He does a solid sit, and down, stays as I walk away, stays when I walk back (I walk around instead of going straight into position), and he walks well on leash. Not perfect, but I don't use correction and I don't want to start that.

I gained a whole new insight into my dad when we had company over for dinner and we needed the dogs out of the kitchen. Now my GSD Libby will go to her kennel on command, and you don't have to be sharp or loud. HE bellowed "LIBBY KENNEL!" snapped his fingers and pointed down the hall, and down went her tail, her ears and she went, thinking she did something bad....

I think it more has to do with him getting an ego boost when he gets to show off how well he can boss around a dog. And since Zak isn't 150% precise on anything my dad says, its a cut to his ego.

Right now I'm waiting for the chance to get a new leather leash (6ft Amish leather leash - Ed Frawly's Catalog - I have my eye on it) which will come right after Zak's paid for next month. A certain rotten-kid ate it on the way to a dogshow :rolleyes: not to name names or anything. Then we'll work on more precise things and hope that it won't interfer with any bitework training down the line.