# puppy stage



## tyler (Dec 2, 2008)

how was the puppy stage? easy, moderate, hard , or even worse then hard?


----------



## VALIUM (Nov 15, 2007)

It was moderate for me, he was such a perfect puppy


----------



## JerzeyGSD (Jun 26, 2008)

Depends on the dog, I would say. For me the potty training and crate training were easy but teaching bite inhibition and what was an appropriate chew toy was moderately hard. I think it's very do-able if you have the time and pick a breed that is right for your life style.


----------



## MelissaHoyer (Sep 8, 2006)

Grace was a fantastic puppy. Kira was a holy terror. I thank the heavens that Grace came first lol!


----------



## Elmo's Mom (May 21, 2007)

It really does depend on the dog. We got lucky. Elmo was a very good puppy. The breeder told us that he didn't chew on things he wasn't supposed to. I still can't believe there is no puppy damage from him around the house. I wish I could say the same about our Jack Russell.









Elmo was potty trained and crate trained very easily. 

He went through a teenage phase where he tried to push the limits with me. He would question whether he had to follow a command or not. He has always been eager to please, so once he went through the thick-headed phase, he was back to his mellow self again.


----------



## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

Argos was pretty easy, Anka was harder. She cried more, had more energy, and would pee with excitement as soon as you touched her crate door. It resolved in about 4 weeks. She also bit much harder and more persistantly. I distinctly remember thinking about how much I hate puppies until she was about 4 months old. It was hard. She was really cute sometimes and other times (usually around 4am) I would have been happy to throw her out the window. Sleep deprivation makes me cranky. 

Argos was good to go with potty training and crating/sleeping within 2 weeks. Bite inhibition took longer...but he was more easily directed to toys.


----------



## Wolfie (Jan 20, 2006)

Yukon was easy. He slept the entire first night in his crate without any problems. House training was complete by 3mths. He aced his puppy class. My trainer had fun with him because as she was going through all the commands, little Yukon would be performing them next to me. 

He kept that puppy enthusiasm up until about 10-11mths, then the teenager mind took over.


----------



## WinitheGSD (Sep 21, 2008)

In some ways it was so easy with wini(well she is 1 now so she's still a puppy anyway) like the training, her behavior, and housebreaking. I have absolutly NO idea what happen with the housebreaking. We joke about it, it's like wini housebroke herself!! But then wini was extremly difficult with her health and nutriton. But buddy was an extremly easy puppy, exept for housebreaking. She was terrible! One of those dogs that just takes longer to housebreak.


----------



## mjbgsd (Jun 29, 2004)

I also agree it depends on the dog. 
Cody was very relaxed compared to Isa. Isa tore up so much stuff as a puppy and was always on the go, never wanting to stop. Cody was more lazy and wanting to lay around. As adults, they are very calm in the house and like to sleep unless they are outside or Isa sees on of the cats, lol.


----------



## bethandglen (Jan 5, 2009)

Well for us it was rough! Lexi did real good with crate training (until the cat scared her at night and then she wouldn't go in it anymore!) okay with potty training I guess. But she went through a bad phase with biting and nipping and took a long time to learn to control the strength of her bite and to not jump up and nip at our faces. All three of us, my husband, me and my daughter got nipped in the nose when she jumped up while playing and she drew blood all three times. My husband got so upset about it he considered taking her back to the breeder. But we stuck with her and with lots of love and training she is now the cuddly puppy we always wanted. She also went through a phase where she was very standoffish with us, it was very upsetting because it was like she wanted nothing or very little to do with us. I think now it had something to do with the fact that even though she was around humans at the breeders - as in playing during the day and feeding etc, she was in a separate building from the breeder's house, not raised in the house with an actual family. I could be wrong about that, but that's one thing I thought anyway. Plus she was definitely the dominant female of the litter, the first time we saw her she just strutted around with her ears up exploring all around, would only come to us for a tiny cuddle then was off again.

But we all love her to pieces and she is now a big cuddly puppy of almost 6 months. Now, my husband grew up with Shepherds and he said their dogs tended to go through the worst stages starting at 6 months!!! One dog even tore out an entire wall!!!!! So I'm a little nervous to see how Lexi does now! 

Beth


----------



## DSudd (Sep 22, 2006)

Rocky was pretty easy to train. Dh had him housebroken within a few weeks. Crate training was pretty easy also. He did do the brat teenaged phase. Biggest issues we have had with hiim is hi pickiness when he comes to food. Somedays he will eat and some days he wont.

Worst problems we had was his destrocto phase, destroying blinds, chewing up carpet,


----------



## Brightelf (Sep 5, 2001)

Some puppies, like my Grimm, truly are easy pups who come housebroken at 9 weeks, never nips, bite, bark, etc. He was a GREAT puppy. Adults are simply easier for me.







Puppies in general are tough.


----------



## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

i think a lot of the puppy stage is how you fell about it. i got my dog at 9 weeks old. he's now 20 months. i didn't find anything hard about having a puppy. we trained and socialized our dog with no problems. i've never had a problem or found it hard having a puppy.



> Originally Posted By: tylerg95how was the puppy stage? easy, moderate, hard , or even worse then hard?


----------



## selzer (May 7, 2005)

I have some regrets, mostly that I had two pups, then three pups, this time I was set on one puppy, but I had a handful up through four months, and have two now. 

When I got Arwen I had just Frodo and he was an adult and lame. I was able to spend a lot of time socializing her. 

I spent quite a bit of time with Babs and Jenna, mostly together though. When they were eight months old I got Rushie. 

I did a great job with him, but the time I could have spent with the girls I did not spend. 

When he was eight months old, my second litter was born. Needless to say, my spare time went way down. Then with three of them, I felt like I was in classes ALL THE TIME. Forget the idea of working on ANYTHING outside of class. I suppose the shocking thing was that I got a Rally title and a CGC on each of them before they reached two. 

With Ninja and Milla being my current babies, I am focussing my efforts on them. I still try to get each of the others out some, but the babies have priority right now. 

So my only regret is socialization. 

The normal puppy stuff, chewing, biting, soiling in the house, these pups have been awesome. In classes, they have been moderately good. 

I expect that nine years from now they will be the best dogs on the block, well except for my then 11 1/2, 12, and 12 1/2 year olds.


----------



## BJDimock (Sep 14, 2008)

I've had the full spectrum as well.
My broken Frodo was and still is the easiest puppy that I have ever seen. At 7 weeks he was housetrained,(and I mean fully) and other than the demolishing of my barn boots one night, has done nothing wrong. At 8 months, he is crate free and beautifully behaved. 
Fenna is close on his heals, but will get into trouble if I'm not home. (Darn working lines)
The worse puppy I have ever had was my second Fidelco foster, Seda. She was a holy terror from the get go.
On that note, she was the best working guide to ever come from my house.


----------



## mmarie (Feb 25, 2009)

Bella's puppy days were relatively easy, with a few exceptions. She's a lot smarter than I remember Angel being, from the beginning she was very good at figuring out if she had to sit because people were walking by or because we were practicing--if she saw a reason for the command she did it, if she thought it was practice she usually didn't. That got better with some persistance on my part.

Difficulties included chewing, down-stay, and crate training. We gave up on the crate pretty quick because we just couldn't take it. She potty trained almost immediately and as a puppy would hold her potty all day if thats what it meant to potty in her back yard, so that wasn't a concern. She failed obediance training because the moment you said "stay" she got up and ran. I was training with an experienced GSD owner and trainer and NOTHING she did fixed the problem. It wasn't until about her 3rd birthday 3 months ago that we could finally get her to stay. And chewing, well I still wake up to high heels with chewed heels once every couple months. Chewing was the worst: my most expensive shoes, any pair of socks left on the ground, I even woke up one morning to her having chewed up the corner of the wall that connects to the window down to some metal piece. Pretty much anything she could get her mouth around, and nothing but time to grow out of it stopped her.


----------



## darga19 (Mar 4, 2009)

Marshall was a pretty good pup. Housebreaking and crate training were easy. Lots of exercise...just walks at a young age...you don't want to over work them...which kept him burning that energy. Although he's still in his puppy phase (energy and playfulness wise) at a year and a half!! 

He never really did the chewing thing either. He learned at a very young age that just because something is on the floor, it doesn't automatically belong to him. IMO it's VERY important to teach them that young...not just a GSD but any dog.


----------



## sam the sheperd (Jan 11, 2009)

> Originally Posted By: tylerg95how was the puppy stage? easy, moderate, hard , or even worse then hard?


I'd go with moderately hard. First dog from a pup, got her at 5 weeks, single, so I had all the responsibility, and to top it of she's a German Shepherd.









TOTAL lifestyle change. Wouldn't trade her for the world.


----------



## lupina (Mar 4, 2009)

I have to say raising a puppy can partially depend on the disposition of the parent's! 
With my 1st Shepherd, Lupa, it took 5 weeks to housebreak her because I had Zero experience with raising a puppy. I got her the 1st of May in a year we had rain 28 days...She thought getting wet was a way of life. We used a crate and I came home everyday at lunch. I used the word 'business' for pee/poop and she did on command. My avatar photo is of her at 8 weeks. She was remarkable and went everywhere with me. 

My 2nd puppy, Bravo, was housebroken in 3 weeks. It helped that my husband's female, Duchess, was 6 and I had done a good job training her so when I called or gave a command he would mimic...that was fun. I wish I'd had a video camera to capture his willingness to please. Bravo had his CGC at 6 months. We did 2 classes a week. I wanted him well socialized and at the time there weren't doggy day care facilities avl. near me. I put a lot of time and energy into him because I knew the payback would be a well mannered adult I could enjoy and travel with. 

Once you have a well trained GS I think getting a puppy at that point means you'll accomplish more with much less effort! 

I do equate having a puppy to raising a 2-3 yr. old. You get out proportionately what you invest. Some dogs will simply be more stubborn than others. 

When I rescued Skye she was 2 1/2 and Terra was 3 1/2. I knew there would be challenges. I was unprepared for the length of time it would take to housebreak them and there were times I wondered what I'd been thinking! These dogs had lived in the country. They'd never heard sirens, seen a garage door go up, looked at themselves in a mirror or heard a TV, they'd never taken walks on a leash. That was probably the most difficult thing for me...walking them 40 minutes, having Skye assume the position...actually start to download and she'd see a rabbit and literally suck it up and go after the wildlife. For the 1st year I had her I called her my ADHD GSD...She's extremely bright...tilts her head and listens to me. I don't have to ask her to do something twice. I think it's because I used the crate during the training process.


----------

