# How long did it take for you to trust your puppy?



## pancake (Oct 2, 2012)

For those with puppies past the age of 6 months or even those of you who own adult dogs and remember the puppy days.. how long did it take for you to trust your puppy? In terms of potty training, biting and chewing things, getting into trouble, etc. How old were they when they were able to have free roam of the house without much problem. 

I cannot wait for that day. I feel it will never come sometimes. My pup is 16 weeks old today and while her chewing and eating random things on the ground like leaves and barks are a lot less than before, I still need an eagle eye on her. indoors she still has accidents and bites and eats things around the house. All of her accidents have happened right under my nose while tethered to me on a leash. Her squatting down takes less time than for my reaction time to kick in and me standing up and running over to her to stop her. But I always catch her in the act 100% of the time. 

The other issue is crying and separation anxiety. It's funny because she didn't cry much at all when I got her but it's gotten worse instead of better. She was crate trained in the garage and she didn't cry that much where now she is indoors and older and she is crying even more. I believe before she was crying as a puppy because she was in a new environment and alone. Now it has turned into separation anxiety as it occurs whenever I leave the room or if she sees me leave through the front door. It will occur when I leave even when other family members are next to her as she spends the most time with me. I'll play with her and then crate her and she'll cry, yelp, whimper. I know what to do and it's being addressed but geez, it's been over a week and she still does it. Just wondering how long it took everyone before they can comfortably trust their puppy. If she's not crate trained, she is always tethered to me on a leash. She will naturally follow me whereever I go anyway.

Around what age should I expect a little more peace and quiet? I hope this isnt replaced with worse behavior at the adolescent stages haha


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## wink-_-wink (Aug 12, 2012)

LOL peace and Quiet? you shoulda got a fish! jk jk , Mine is 6 months and we are still working with some issues. We have a set of jingle bells attached to the back door that I make Hero ring in order for me to open the door. This took abotu 2-3 days and now if he wants to go out, he jingles. If we dont answer those jingles and there is an accident, it is our fault not his. 

As for the whining in the crate, I think they all do that! One of the easiest ways to stop or at leaset reduce it is completely covering the crate with a blanket. That normally settles Hero down. Also when it comes time to open the crate, he starts jumping whining and going nuts for me to open it. I stop and turn my back to him. He sits and waits quietly for me to open it, if not ill turn again! 

We keep a lead on him when he is out of the crate but we only grab it when he chases the cats, is counter surfing (new problem) ot is getting to rough with the kids. He is allowed out of the crate most of the day and we play all the time but if he grabs food out of the babies hands or off the coffee table, I got to scoop him up. We are working on reducing this problem where he steals whatever is edible thing from the kids. The other day stole a lollipop from the baby stick and all gone. Hero is pretty good, if I say his name or stand up he stops doing whatever he was cuz he knows he is wrong. As far as him chewing everything, your in the land shark stage where he is teething and going to lose all those puppy teeth. I suggest some KONG balls, lush and rubber, some stuffing free animals, try giving him an ice cube! feels good on those teeth and he will chase the cube which is fairly funny. Or you can put a few cubes in his water and watch him bob for them which can also be funny. 

Are you in any type of formal training such as puppy kindegarten, basic obedience or anything like that? If not I would DEF suggest that as well!!


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## pancake (Oct 2, 2012)

wink-_-wink said:


> LOL peace and Quiet? you shoulda got a fish! jk jk , Mine is 6 months and we are still working with some issues. We have a set of jingle bells attached to the back door that I make Hero ring in order for me to open the door. This took abotu 2-3 days and now if he wants to go out, he jingles. If we dont answer those jingles and there is an accident, it is our fault not his.
> 
> As for the whining in the crate, I think they all do that! One of the easiest ways to stop or at leaset reduce it is completely covering the crate with a blanket. That normally settles Hero down. Also when it comes time to open the crate, he starts jumping whining and going nuts for me to open it. I stop and turn my back to him. He sits and waits quietly for me to open it, if not ill turn again!
> 
> ...


Does your puppy still cry in the crate? I was expecting the puppy to get used to being there and the whining and separation anxiety to phase out as she gets used to things. Also when does the teething stop? I play tug with my puppy cause she loves it but I want to skip it while she is teething. I thought teething started at 6mo but I could be mistaken. 

We're def going to take a formal training class next month when she will be 5 mo old. She knows a good amount now and due to her drive I have good focus from her when we play tug Michael Ellis style. The problem I have with her is the whining and crying of course and general naughtiness. I was wondering when they get a bit more trust worthy. haha


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## wink-_-wink (Aug 12, 2012)

He still cries now and again. Mostly it is because he thinks if he hears us, than he shouldn't be in the crate. our problem is if our 5 year old is having a before bed snack and places it on the coffee table for more than about 4 seconds, its gone! 2 nights ago, whole cup cake vanished!

For us the teething stopped about 5 months old but he still will grab at my hand a tiny bit here and there, we are working on the mouthing issue still but all in all about 5-5.5 months he was done. We skipped tug while teething but teething started around 3 months for us. Your pup probably has already started and you have just yet to notice. 

Try the blanket completely covering the crate trick, it does wonders for most people. as far as trustworthy.. they are GSDs are they every REALLY 100% trustworthy hahahahha 

How is your dog doing on the leash for walks?


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## Mrs.P (Nov 19, 2012)

wink-_-wink said:


> LOL peace and Quiet? you shoulda got a fish! jk jk , Mine is 6 months and we are still working with some issues. We have a set of jingle bells attached to the back door that I make Hero ring in order for me to open the door. This took abotu 2-3 days and now if he wants to go out, he jingles. If we dont answer those jingles and there is an accident, it is our fault not his.
> 
> Also when it comes time to open the crate, he starts jumping whining and going nuts for me to open it. I stop and turn my back to him. He sits and waits quietly for me to open it, if not ill turn again!
> ...
> We keep a lead on him when he is out of the crate but we only grab it when he chases the cats, is counter surfing (new problem) ot is getting to rough with the kids.


Sounds like you're at my house! LOL We're doing the same thing and almost 7 months here and almost over counter surfing *knock on wood*. 

I would just like to add that when I was seriously crate training Enzo I always made sure he was put in the crate tired! We would play with the flirt pole, walks, fetch, visit the neighbor's dog, basic commands ect ect. So that pretty much crate means time to settle and sleep. Now the only time he makes noise is if he has to go out to potty and that is very very rarely(we always take him out before he's crated and once he gets out). 

And we're over the biting phase now. Sometimes he'll softly mouth husband or myself but it is nothing like 3-4 month phase. 

Anyways, what you could try to do which really worked for us is to teach your pup "bring-toy". Because when they get mouthy all they really want to do is to play! And I mean that's all they know how to play with(their mouth and paws) so we must teach them.

So if Enzo starts to mouth us and we ARE willing to play with him we will say "bring alligator" (he is getting really good at picking the specific toy -neat trick in its own!) and he'll search around like ahh okay where is it and bring it to us and we'll throw it or tug or whatnot. If he didn't bring me a toy then I would just get up and walk away -teaching him that is not how you play with us. 

One thing though and I've thought about this maybe too much! lol. You may have to watch out for them getting too pushy with bringing you a toy and wanting to play all the time. But so far Enzo hasn't been pushy about it and if we don't feel like playing we'll say "all-done"(what we say end of obedience training session or tug session ect) and then ignore. I think he gets it because then he'll start playing by himself with it or go chew on an antler or something. I guess it depends on the dog. It has just worked really well for us! No peace and quiet but I didn't get him for peace and quiet! :wild: 


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## Ziltoid (Dec 16, 2012)

I trusted my female unsupervised in the house by about 5-6 months old. The only room I kept blocked off was my bedroom but that was because I knew I was getting a second puppy and didn't want to give access only to take it away again when he arrived.

I don't use a crate but they are kept outside when I'm not home and inside when I'm home, I have a dog door though so they can choose to be in or out when i'm here.

That's not to say she wasn't causing damage at 6 months... but she kept that for outside - chewing the outdoor furniture, destroying my plants and digging holes.

Neither of my dogs have ever touched it but i have an extension cord that runs down the wall in my lounge room (where they usually sleep) so i make sure to turn the power off each night when i go to bed... not sure if I'll ever risk not doing that.

My male is about 13 weeks old so i pull a child barrier across the tv when i go to bed. I expect to be able to stop that with a month or two. He's been going really well in the house. The only thing he chews on was a door mat (which I've moved out of reach) and the cardboard on beer cartons (which i let him do). He's only just started using the dog door to take himself to the toilet at night, not sure why because he was using it throughout daylight hours... maybe its scary at night =) before that he'd whine at the bedroom door to wake me so I'd take him out.

Maybe i've just been lucky but all my dogs have treated inside with respect at a young age.


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## wink-_-wink (Aug 12, 2012)

Mrs.P said:


> Sounds like you're at my house! LOL We're doing the same thing and almost 7 months here and almost over counter surfing *knock on wood*.
> 
> I would just like to add that when I was seriously crate training Enzo I always made sure he was put in the crate tired! We would play with the flirt pole, walks, fetch, visit the neighbor's dog, basic commands ect ect. So that pretty much crate means time to settle and sleep. Now the only time he makes noise is if he has to go out to potty and that is very very rarely(we always take him out before he's crated and once he gets out).
> 
> ...


LOL It is funny that people can read these forums and still go out and buy a GSD pup! And all of us nuts that go out and get a second or more! it takes a special person/family! I know what I am getting into but when I move down south (in the next few months I hope) I will get another pup! Good to know I still have another month of surfing to deal with! It is never our meals tho. He doesn't bother us when we eat probably because while the table is being set, I make him his food and feed him when we eat. It is always a crime of opportunity lol. 

Getting too pushy and wanting to play all the time is funny as heck to me. Hero will bring me his Kong Ballistic plush frisbee thing and play tug or fetch then he gets sick of it and gets a smaller kong squeeker thing, then always ends with a baseball! I will have to try the get me a specific toy command! The trick my pup abuses is the Jingle Bells to go out. During the day sometimes he just wants to go for a walk or be outside. We don't have a fenced yard so that means someone has to take him and that used to be me only because he was rude on a leash We bought him one of those easy walker harnesses and OH MY GOD!!!! My 5 year old can walk him now! This is awesome because I got him a really sweet collar for christmas (mean old wife won't let me put it on him for pictures before hand) and now the collar won't be making him cough from pulling the leash. He loves walks and now he is manageable on walks! The only problem is when I first put it on him trying to size it was a pain and I think I need a smaller one because he was able to chew part of the front while in the crate. (He no longer wears this in the crate)


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## MattLink (Oct 23, 2012)

Link knew to use his pee pad by day 4. He knew to go outside by about 4 months old, and had one or two accidents after that which I'm sure were just a slip of the mind. 
He still wines when I leave him alone in his cage in the morning, but otherwise is quiet. As for his chewing things up that he shouldn't... This is certainly still a problem if he's left unsupervised but otherwise we're ok. His wining and getting into things got significantly better recently, as well as his ability to calm down and self sooth. I had taken a week off work to spend some more time with him, and he's shown significant growth.

He'll be 8 months tomorrow. From day one Link has been the calm attentive type (as far as puppies go), which made his training much easier I think. But don't get me wrong, it's certainly been **** at times! 


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

The only issue my dog had was potty training and it was really my fault. She was out of the crate at night when she was 4 months. By the time she was almost 7 months she was out of the crate day and night. She never chewed or ate stuff when she was younger. She has tons of toys and other dogs to occupy her time. She also never bit me or any humans, all her bite inhibition was pretty much taught by my other dogs. By the time she was 9 months she finished 3 obedience classes and got her CGC. We are now in agility and in about a year I will redo the CGC with her, maybe look into therapy work with her. The first few months I had to adjust, her energy level was through the roof. I just became very creative with ways to make both her and I happy.


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## MarkJoel60 (Aug 29, 2012)

Every dog is different, but this pup earned his trust at about four months -- and that's pretty unusual. I'm surprised by it myself. I have other threads where you can see some of the issues I've had with him -- he's not a perfect dog... but he was potty trained really fast. And for some reason, he just doesn't do the boredom chew thing.

One thing that helps is that he just loves it outside. I think it is one of those "He just does" things. I wish I could tell you what we did that instilled this in him, but I really can't think of anything I did differently with this dog than I did with my last one, who would only stay outside if we did.

Also, we have a sliding glass door leading to the outside, and we bought a doggie door for it that was really a great investment. Yes, it gets a little cold in the winter, but at our house, the sliding glass door is on a sunroom, so it isn't directly on the house, so it isn't so bad.

He can go in and out at will (We have a fenced back yard) and that helps I think. We also keep special bones on hand that he gets whenever we head out and know we are going to be awhile.

The thing that determined it for me was when he was about four months old and he had diarrhea. We were all downstairs (where my wife and my bedroom is) and Ninja woke up, climbed the stairs, went through the living room, sunroom, and outside... where the poor thing had diarrhea. I figured if a dog in that condition is still making it outside to do his business, he wasn't going to mess in the house. He's had full run of the house ever since.

Like I said, though, its just him. I did nothing different with him and my previous GSD -- who would sometimes have accidents in the house for almost a year.


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## JakodaCD OA (May 14, 2000)

I have had the luxury of being able to spend ALOT of times with my dogs/puppies when I had them.

Honestly, it depends on the dog as to when they can be trusted alone in the house out of the crate.

I've had quite a few dogs over the years, majority gsd's, (still have two aussies), and again honestly, none of them ever really did any chewing of furniture/stuff..

I can remember two incidents, my aussie chewed up ONE of a very expensive running shoe, my fault she got to them, one of my gsd's chewed up a pillow and a canvas bag, again my fault they had access. Jake stole a cake off the stove once

All my dogs have been crate trained, my male aussie at 12 still is in a crate when no one is home to supervise (he's a trouble maker)...I've had 4 gsd's at one time, 3 males, 1 female,and all were fine in the house uncrated when no one was home.

Now, the two girls, (aussie and gsd) are loose in the house when no one is home, and again, no problems.

I do exercise / walk/hike my dogs alot, maybe they are slugged out when I'm gone


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## Kyleigh (Oct 16, 2012)

I think every situation and every dog is different. 

My last dog was 2.5 before I could trust her alone in the house (I tested her every couple of months ... nope ... 15 minutes and she would destroy something ... so I just kept waiting and waiting)

Kyleigh is still not allowed out of her crate during the day when no one is home. BUT, there are two main reasons - the cat and the two parrots. If I didn't have them, she'd be allowed out of her crate all day. 

Trying to juggle two parrots and a dog (that still has just a tad too much interest in them!) means that the parrots are out all day while I'm at work and Ky's in her crate. 

Ky's out of her crate all evening, and all night. Funny thing tho, is that most times I wake up in the morning, and she's sleeping in her crate !


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## dylano (Jul 6, 2012)

Kai is now 7 months old. Since he was about 6 months old we could leave him alone (while we went upstairs ect) and he's be fine. We just had to make sure he'd been toilet because if we werent around we wouldnt hear him/see him sitting by the back door . We dont let him have free roaming of the house when we are out.


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## pancake (Oct 2, 2012)

Very interesting to hear everyone's experiences, thanks!

I think it makes it a little bit more difficult if your puppy has some drive. My puppy isn't a high energy high drive type but she could have some of that training if I wanted to. She knows how to relax but also she's generally searching, sniffing and biting things. Her tug is top notch and she chases anything that moves. Good for protection and Schutzhund I guess but definitely not the easiest to give free roam at this age cause she seems to get bored fast. 

She also loves being outdoors actually but I can't even trust her for a second even on leash 3 feet away from me. She's always munching on leaves and picking things up. I youtubed some 4 month old GSD videos and there are some that are very docile. They dont have the attention span but theyre not actively searching for things around their environment. Where my puppy is more naughty, always wanting to chase things. Once she stops eating stuff I can start letting her wander more outside hopefully.


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## Mrs.P (Nov 19, 2012)

wink-_-wink said:


> LOL It is funny that people can read these forums and still go out and buy a GSD pup! And all of us nuts that go out and get a second or more! it takes a special person/family! I know what I am getting into but when I move down south (in the next few months I hope) I will get another pup! Good to know I still have another month of surfing to deal with! It is never our meals tho.
> 
> Getting too pushy and wanting to play all the time is funny as heck to me. Hero will bring me his Kong Ballistic plush frisbee thing and play tug or fetch then he gets sick of it and gets a smaller kong squeeker thing, then always ends with a baseball! I will have to try the get me a specific toy command! The trick my pup abuses is the Jingle Bells to go out. During the day sometimes he just wants to go for a walk or be outside. We don't have a fenced yard so that means someone has to take him and that used to be me only because he was rude on a leash We bought him one of those easy walker harnesses and OH MY GOD!!!! My 5 year old can walk him now! This is awesome because I got him a really sweet collar for christmas (mean old wife won't let me put it on him for pictures before hand) and now the collar won't be making him cough from pulling the leash. He loves walks and now he is manageable on walks! The only problem is when I first put it on him trying to size it was a pain and I think I need a smaller one because he was able to chew part of the front while in the crate. (He no longer wears this in the crate)


Another in a few months?!? :wild: Ahaha DH and I are thinking two years! 

And unfortunately his first ever counter-surfing experience was extremely self-rewarding. He end up with a blueberry bagel! But seems to be a lot better now. 

And if he's bringing you toys already half the work is already done! Just add your cue to what it "good-bring ball". Soon you can ask him to bring his toy collection to you these guys are very smart! 

We have used the sensation harness and love it! We bought it from a local pet store and the lady was very helpful with sizing she let us try on the small and medium and we went with a medium and it still fits him. 

And just last week we decided to walk with a flat collar and he did really well I did have to change directions a few times to get his attention back on me but thats all no crazy choking pulling he walked very nicely by my side. Hope you have the same experience! 


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## m1953 (May 7, 2012)

Nala was completely house broken in less then 3 weeks or by 11 weeks old. As far as chewing and messing with things she is not suppose to, at nine months, I don't trust her at all


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## LaneyB (Feb 5, 2012)

I have been super lucky with housebreaking with Ruki. I can't remember how long it's been since he has had an accident, but it has been months (he is 8 mths old this week). He was briefly allowed to be out of his crate and blocked in the living room, but then one day decided to eat a big chunk of each couch. Thankfully Ruki doesn't seem to swallow nonfood items, but I put him back in the crate. Now that he is 8 mths he seems a bit more destructive, and has to be closely supervised. I am really hoping eventually he will be able to be free inside the house. 

I had hoped he would sleep in bed with me at night, and originally put the crate in my bedroom. Then I moved the crate to the living room when he was a bit older, and tried to let him out during the night to sleep in bed with me. He didn't like it at all, and would whine and fuss until I took him to his crate. The other night I decided to try blocking him in the living room overnight, and when I woke up he was sleeping in his crate.


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## Mrs.P (Nov 19, 2012)

pancake said:


> She also loves being outdoors actually but I can't even trust her for a second even on leash 3 feet away from me. She's always munching on leaves and picking things up. I youtubed some 4 month old GSD videos and there are some that are very docile. They dont have the attention span but theyre not actively searching for things around their environment. Where my puppy is more naughty, always wanting to chase things. Once she stops eating stuff I can start letting her wander more outside hopefully.


Enzo would do the same and eat dirt and pebbles ect. and I would just continually say "uh uh" and get it out of his mouth and give him a ball and praise like a crazy women! Lol that worked for us and it seemed like one day it just completely stopped! 

He was and is never left in the backyard unsupervised even though we lucked out with the house we're renting and have a nice large fenced in yard I just don't trust him yet! And our yard is nicely keep and he dug up and found random random things while I've been out there with him I can't imagine if I wasn't what he would do with them!
















I honestly have no idea where these came from haven't seen them before! But good luck! It does get better I can pet him and brush him without him going after my hand or brush! 



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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

For as long as you cannot trust them, you don't trust them. It is different for any dog.
One of mine I could leave alone at 4 months but most not before 18 months.
Problem will escalate if you don't work through them. get a trainer if what you do doesn't work.
For peace and quiet you need to adopt a Greyhound.


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## Ageizm (Nov 11, 2012)

Kyleigh said:


> Ky's out of her crate all evening, and all night. Funny thing tho, is that most times I wake up in the morning, and she's sleeping in her crate !


Even though Barack is too young to meet the eligibility for this thread  (4 months on dec. 25th) I leave him out at night as well, and find him in his crate *almost* every morning. In fact once I turn everything off for the night, after his final potty, as I'm getting in my bed I can here him adjusting himself in his crate. He's such a good boy!

I won't leave him out of the crate when i'm not home as he is fascinated with the taste of carpet (found this out after a trial of leaving him out in my room), least he won't potty in the house anymore, but the carpet seems to win out over everything else I may leave out, when I'm not present.


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## AngieW (Nov 13, 2012)

Covering the crate took care of the noise-making for Kylie. I just used an old bedsheet. I didn't want it to get too stuffy in there.

We taught Kylie to ring the bells we hung on the backdoor for us to let her out to use the bathroom. They're Christmas bells, so you ought to be able to find them easily right now. She only had one accident after we'd had her for one week (11.5 weeks old at that point) and that was when I didn't make it to the door fast enough after she rang the bells.

Somebody still has to be on Kylie-duty all the time when she is not in her crate unless she is asleep. 

Kylie is definitely high drive, high energy.

We have the stairs blocked off still (5 months old).

I'm going to puppy-proof upstairs over Christmas break and we hope to unblock the stairs in the next month or so.

We can't leave her alone in the backyard for very long or she starts digging and eating wood and acorns. We generally don't let her stay out there by herself for more than about 15 minutes at a time.

She is usually in her crate only at night (from about midnight-8am) and maybe a total of 4-5 hours during the week. Usually that means 3-4 hours on one day and another 1-2 hours on another day.


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## vicky2200 (Oct 29, 2010)

Dakota could have been trusted from day 1 at 6 weeks of age. Of course I didn't know that at the time. He peed in the house once and only chew on flip flops, newspaper, and one nick knack. That's it. There was a weird period from 1-2 years old when he got into the trash a few times.
Ditto could be completely trusted by 6months. Mostly trusted by 4 months.
Daisy could be trusted in the house alone if the trash was up by 8 months. Still can't be trusted with the trash down when we are home and food can't be left where she can reach. She can't be off her tie out in the yard.
Weegee: oddly enough has been great in the house a lone from day one at 4 months( no prior training). He will have an accident if we are gone too long. He took until a year old to be Fully housebroken, will still not come when off lead, but hasn't destroyed anything other than socks when he was teething.


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## pancake (Oct 2, 2012)

Haha well just to update, she's about a little over 5 months and she left her xpen for a few minutes and tore up my hat. My favorite cap that is no longer available for purchase.


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