# Why has he become such a brat?



## brandongill1 (Mar 27, 2012)

Odin who is now 11 months, has been perfectly fine to be left in the house to do what he wanted, and yesterday all of a sudden he chewed up one of my ps3 controllers, I was extremely upset, he never touched any of my things since he was a puppy, he has tons of toys and had just come back from a walk, but i blamed myself because I left it where he could reach. So today, it was the same thing, but instead i decided to leave him in his crate, with a few bones and some toys, and put my valuables up to a place where i "thought" he couldnt reach the night before, so I come home and I find that he has broken out of his crate, jumped up, grabbed my other 2 ps3 controllers and broken them as well as my tv remote. 

Why is he doing this? he has toys, i walk him 3 times a day including a few games of fetch and he is obviously excersized, im VERY frustrated with him at the moment


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## LoveEcho (Mar 4, 2011)

Welcome to GSD adolescence! How much obedience are you doing with him? Do you practice NILIF? How long are those walks?


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

brandongill1 said:


> Odin who is now 11 months, has been perfectly fine to be left in the house to do what he wanted, and yesterday all of a sudden he chewed up one of my ps3 controllers, I was extremely upset, he never touched any of my things since he was a puppy, he has tons of toys and had just come back from a walk, but i blamed myself because I left it where he could reach. So today, it was the same thing, but instead i decided to leave him in his crate, with a few bones and some toys, and put my valuables up to a place where i "thought" he couldnt reach the night before, so I come home and I find that he has broken out of his crate, jumped up, grabbed my other 2 ps3 controllers and broken them as well as my tv remote.
> 
> Why is he doing this? he has toys, i walk him 3 times a day including a few games of fetch and he is obviously excersized, im VERY frustrated with him at the moment


Well he obviously doesn't like those ps3 controllers


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## Jag (Jul 27, 2012)

You have entered the "teen GSD zone".  I think you're very lucky that you didn't have so many issues during the younger puppy hood. Looks like you're getting it in spades now, though. Hate to say it, but it's typical GSD behavior. They can be stinkers! I'd suggest a Veri kennel with the multiple locks. I had a male that started tearing apart expensive wire crates when he was older. I now use a kennel instead. My current pup loves his so he doesn't try to break out, but I think it would hold him if he did try.


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## brandongill1 (Mar 27, 2012)

He goes for a good 45 to hour and a half walk, he's always done this, and it seemed to be no problem before, and I did practice NILIF but I stopped after a few months, and I do a bit of obedience training, he's not completely out of control LOL 

and ya I guess I better switch to xbox or something, LOL god,

does this kind of behaviour go away as he gets older?


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

forget about stages. his behaviour will change with corrections, training
and crating.



brandongill1 said:


> He goes for a good 45 to hour and a half walk, he's always done this, and it seemed to be no problem before, and I did practice NILIF but I stopped after a few months, and I do a bit of obedience training, he's not completely out of control LOL
> 
> and ya I guess I better switch to xbox or something, LOL god,
> 
> >>>> does this kind of behaviour go away as he gets older?<<<<


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## marshies (May 18, 2011)

I know how you feel. Pup chewed up the Wii motes at night. It might be that you've stopped with some of the training because your pup had been so good! That's what happened to me recently. Puppy has been an Angel for the last 4 months. She is 16 months now so I thought, yay maturity. But nope, she regressed when I decreased the structure. I noticed an immediate improvement when I picked it up again. 

Use a more secure crate in an empty room/bathroom?


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

Do you mean an hour leash walk? If so, that is not enough to get him tired and full filled. You can walk him on leash all day and he won't be tired. Do you give him stuff to find, solve etc? Are the walks interesting for him? Like letting him climb, navigate obstacles, are you interesting for him, etc? You cannot expect this bratty behavior to go away without a lot of work. Some will let you get away with slacking off on obedience but the more assertive dogs will look for and use the loop holes.
I only go for a walk after he has played fetch for about 10 minutes to get rid of some energy. And I don't trust pups outside their crate before they are about 1.5 years old although it is tempting sometimes to do it sooner. Just look around what they can ruin in two minutes.... and you'll be happy to crate them. Tons of toys don't guarantee a content dog if you don't use them with him.
Generally you could say that when we are frustrated with our dogs they need: exercise, training, NILIF and plain fun with you. He kinda like a human 15 year old bored with school. Is he in a class?


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## brandongill1 (Mar 27, 2012)

wolfy dog said:


> Do you mean an hour leash walk? If so, that is not enough to get him tired and full filled. You can walk him on leash all day and he won't be tired. Do you give him stuff to find, solve etc? Are the walks interesting for him? Like letting him climb, navigate obstacles, are you interesting for him, etc? You cannot expect this bratty behavior to go away without a lot of work. Some will let you get away with slacking off on obedience but the more assertive dogs will look for and use the loop holes.
> I only go for a walk after he has played fetch for about 10 minutes to get rid of some energy. And I don't trust pups outside their crate before they are about 1.5 years old although it is tempting sometimes to do it sooner. Just look around what they can ruin in two minutes.... and you'll be happy to crate them. Tons of toys don't guarantee a content dog if you don't use them with him.
> Generally you could say that when we are frustrated with our dogs they need: exercise, training, NILIF and plain fun with you. He kinda like a human 15 year old bored with school. Is he in a class?



I do basically the same as you, but instead I take him for about 20 mins of fetch after a 45- to an hour walk, and he seems pretty pooped afterwards, I guess I was tempted to let him roam free, because he was doing so well, and the toys i guess he's a little weird because when its a new toy he'll go nuts with it for a week and then never touch it again. I found these last 2 days so weird, nothing new has changed, he finished classes about a month and a half ago, and for the most part as a pup will list to most commands, but I did lean off the obedience because he was seeming to calm down, guess I should get back up on that lol


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

At this age they sometimes throw in the towel and it is startling at first until you see the picture of the adolescent dog. It always surprises me too when they do it. So far so good on this front.
Regarding the toys: rotate them so they are new again after a few weeks. 
Keep him in classes, just to maintain his obedience and socialization skills. 
Enjoy this crazy stage. I am very well aware of it as I lost two of my old dogs last year. Before you know it our dogs are old and this silly time will be a sweet memory.


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## billsharp (May 3, 2011)

Resource guarding. He's jealous of the time you spend caressing the PS3 controller, and is instinctively killing his competition for your attention.


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## Sawwahbear (Dec 11, 2012)

billsharp said:


> Resource guarding. He's jealous of the time you spend caressing the PS3 controller, and is instinctively killing his competition for your attention.


Thats what I was thinking, or maybe trying to protect you from wasting your life away in a virtual world


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## gotahaveaGSD (Dec 7, 2012)

The exact same thing happened to me. I think our dogs are saying "less ps3, more walks" 

I've been told she's still a puppy she'll grow out of it. Because other then that she's been a near perfect dog.


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