I love reading the posts here. I get such great info. I have had many dogs, all strays or rescue, and never had a puppy. I got a GSD 6 weeks ago. She is now 5 months old. She is wonderful! Having a puppy is such hard work, though. I crate her and work with her several times a day, as I am a stay-home mom and home schooler. She knows a ton of commands already and she is excited to learn. From Ed's videos, I would guess that she is slightly hard. I have not done a lot of correction with her as she is young and I am having trouble determining when she is being a puppy and when she is plain not listening. I have some questions; thanks in advance for your help.

We are working with puppy about manners, like jumping up or trying to get food/snacks from us when she is out of her crate. She thinks all food is for her and it is time to train. She is not aggressive for the food, but she does jump up and sniff and will take it if she can. For example, we are at the table playing cards and eating pretzels. She runs around, tries some tricks to get our attention, and then sniffs the table and will climb up on us to get at the food. We are working with putting her in a down and we only treat or praise her when she lays down and ignores us when we have food. My problem is that I don't know when a 5-month old puppy is being a stupid puppy or when she is being dominant and needs a harder correction. Obviously any behavior that we don't want needs a correction, and from Ed's videos I know I have to up the correction if she continues the behavior, but I don't want to constantly be doing corrections when she is so young. I want to reward the good and ignore the bad as much as I can. I just don't know when she is being a puppy and when she is trying to be the dominant one in the house. She has not tried to be dominant with us; no growling, no possessiveness. It all seems like she is just being a puppy having fun and not knowing our house manners yet. When a pup is in a pack, do they try stupid stuff like trying to take food from other pack members? Should I be more mean, or just more patient?

I am working with her extended down. She is wiggly. She does not do well with lots of distraction, obviously. When do these things change or when do I discern is the time when she is not able to handle the distraction and when she is being stubborn? When I go to let her out of her crate, she is told to down and wait. I know she knows these commands, but she is so very excited about coming out of the crate. She will lick her lips and throw her head back, and I can't tell whether she is being stubborn, or she is a puppy pushed to the edge of distraction. Help! I am glad to have these problems rather than an aggressive dog, but I need help knowing when I am seeing puppy traits that will slowly dissolve, and when it is a future problem brewing. Thanks again for your advice! I look forward to reading it!

She sounds like a wonderful totally normal puppy.

I wouldn't worry about extended downs at this point. She just doesnt have the self control an adult dog has at this point.
My boy is a year old and has the attention span of a gnat. But it is slowly getting better all the time.

She won't be mature for another year at least, so don't worry to much at this point.

With puppies it is always better to set them up for success by not allowing them to be a position to screw up. If you are eating put her away, if you know there is something she just can't handle and be well behaved then avoid putting her in that position.

High food drive dogs are sometimes just goofy stupid with food. My girl(1 year old) can't do complex commands or commands that require a lot of self control with a high food value treat, which is anything more tasty than dog kibble for her . She just hasn't matured enough to be able to have a lot of self control. If I have food and she's being stupid about trying to get to it I tell her "mine" and she's beginning to understand that no matter what she does she isn't going to get that food.

That's all normal puppy behavior. She isn't being stubborn. She just doesn't have the maturity to wait for stuff like an older dog would.

As far as coming out of the crate.

Walk up to the crate. Tell her down. Wait motionless until she complies. When she does, move your hand to the latch on the crate door and touch it. Being a puppy, she will get up. Say nothing, but immediately remove your hand and look at her expectantly. She will wiggle for a few minutes, then maybe try and get you to let her out (cry, hop, etc). then... (yes it really is true) .. she will lay back down. Immediately put your hand back on the latch. If she remains down this time, let her out (but if she gets up at any time, remove hand again). Sometimes with my guy I had to undo the latch but hold the door closed with my hand because he would try and push out. Sometimes also, I had to open the door a couple inches then slam it shut because he got up. Now he knows he has to wait until I say "OK" before coming out of his crate or else I will slam the door on him!! (not on his nose. If his nose comes out I push it back in first, so I don't hurt him).

He has learned: stay down = get out faster. I never say anything to him or punish him, but if he isn't calm, he doesn't come out plain and simple.

This even works with shelter dogs the first day or 2 I have them. They catch on really quickly!
================

Now as far as begging from the table. This is behaviour that should be corrected. I had a pushy pup too. (He is more attention motivated than food motivated, though). What worked is making sure he had a toy to play with, at first, something like a stuffed Kong that was REALLY good. I would be at the table and puppy on his rug with his bone. I always slowly, quietly and calmly said "yeeeeessss... gooood puppppyy... gooood chewing.... (etc)", then ignore him for a minute while I carry on my work, then prais again etc. If he bugged me, Stern face, "no", lead him by collar to his rug. Now (15 months old) if I am busy he will go find his own toy somewhere in the house, and I'll look up and he will be laying about 8 feet from me, chewing his toy like an angel! (I always praise calmly when I see this!) Make sure she has something to do other than bug you - She is mentally the age of a four year old child, so if her brain isn't occupied or sleeping, she is finding something to do. Waiting patiently is not in the vocabulary just yet!

You have the right idea - praise when she IS doing the right thing and if you can, before she starts "bad" behaviour.

I am also an "adult dog" person and swear I'll never have another puppy (even though they're cute!) - that age was the worst! Around 10 months old he became more tolerable - but then I work outside the home and didn't have as much time to spend with him as you do. I'm sure you'll see good progress soon.

If you want to get any Leerburg DVDs, the "Your Puppy 8 weeks to 8 months" and the marker training DVD are good choices.

It sounds like you're expecting an awful lot from a puppy.

Licking lips is a sign of submission. Something to consider.


Instead of trying to "train" these behaviors, just set the puppy up for success in the way that you manage her. Put her in the crate when human food is present. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.