# Advice needed for a 9 week old puppy!



## Charlie's Mom

I am new to this forum.....but hoping I can get some good advice! We recently brought home a male GSD, named Charlie. He will be 9 weeks old on Monday, and he is a handful....to say the least! The 2 main concerns I have and need help/advice on are:

Mouthing/Teething/Biting - he continuously bites on ankles when we walk, starts biting us when we are playing with him. He is not responding to "No", and/or "ouch". He appears to think it's a game, and keeps doing it more. I realize that this is normal puppy behavior, but is there anything I can do to get it under control? 

Chasing/Barking/Growling at our cat - everytime he sees the cat walk by, he immediately starts barking and chasing him. I have tried to have him on a leash, and say "leave it" or "quiet", but he continues. I know that GSD's have a strong prey drive, but I am hoping to get it under control where he doesn't one day hurt the cat.

So if anyone has any suggestions, it would be beyond appreciated!! We are beginning puppy kindergarten in 3 weeks and need some advice before then!!! 

HELP!

Thanks again!!


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## valreegrl

We were exactly where you are now! I am not an expert, but will give you some tips we learned from our trainer......

Mouthing: This is a tough, especially since he is so young. We also didn't have any luck with "ouch"....Timber thought that word was just part of the game. First, you can try to turn away from him when he tries to nip. Walk away and ignore it. He may get the idea that you are no longer fun and will stop. Never reward this behavior, so say nothing. Even negative attention is attention. Just turn and walk away. 
If he continues, try a time-out in his crate. No words again, just walk him straight away to the crate. Once he settles, he can return to the family. Having a leash on him at all times during this period helps. That way you can correct him right away, rather than having to catch him to put in the time-out. Just make sure you are watching him, so the leash doesn't get caught on anything. 
You may have to use the time-out method a few times before he gets the idea. And don't be discouraged if it gets worse in the beginning. He is still trying to find his way within the family. 

Cat issue: We also have/had this issue but with our Chihuahua. Again, leave the leash on him and you may want to have him tethered to you in the beginning. That way, he can't get to the cat when you are not looking. If he is clicker trained, this may be easier. And you may want to teach "look at me" first so he knows that paying attention to you is rewarding. To do this, just have him sit in front of you and wait for him to look at you. When he does, click and treat. Do this a few times before you give him the cue word. Next say cue word "look at me" and when he does click and treat. He should have this down fairly well when you move forward to the next exercise. 
Start slow....say the cat is in another room, but still in eye sight. Whenever he looks at the cat, click and treat...as long as he is quiet and not moving. Next have the cat closer. Still calm, click and treat. Even closer, calm click and treat. Once you have mastered that his attention is on you when the cat is in the area, you can move to the cat moving. Walk him towards the cat, but not too close. Just to the point that you are about to lose his attention, turn away click and treat. Keep doing these exercises until you can walk right up to the cat. 
What you are doing is showing him that the cat means staying calm and getting a treat. You may also want to use something really special with this exercise to treat him with, that way his attention on you is really rewarding. That cat becomes nothing special. 

These have worked wonders for us...but believe me, our Timber also has a high prey drive and we have to have little reminder training sessions every so often.


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## aubie

Charlie's Mom said:


> Chasing/Barking/Growling at our cat - everytime he sees the cat walk by, he immediately starts barking and chasing him. I have tried to have him on a leash, and say "leave it" or "quiet", but he continues. I know that GSD's have a strong prey drive, but I am hoping to get it under control where he doesn't one day hurt the cat.


Does he know what "leave it" or "quiet" mean? If not (which even if he does he's probably not very reliable on it at 9wks) you're just saying meaningless words to him...it'd be like if you were walking towards a car you wanted to look at and someone screamed "POTATO!!!" at you...you'd be like...umm..okay and keep going.

There are several threads on here on reliable "leave it" training. I'd start there, get this down and go from there...he still has a lot to learn and this is the perfect time!


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## JKlatsky

*Mouthing.* 
I have always found that it does taper off after they get their adult teeth in, but in the meantime. A couple suggestions in addition to the ignoring and time outs. 

If I have a really mouthy pup then I like to feed by hand. What I will do is sit on the floor with the food bowl in my lap or on a table where I can reach it. I will take a small hanful of food in my hand and close my fist around it, letting my pup know that the food is there in my hand. He will then proceed to mouth and chew on my hand, which will hurt but you just have to bite your tongue and tough it out...the INSTANT he backs away from my hand I give a marker (A click or a verbal YES!) and open my hand to let him eat. Repeat. Within a couple of meals, usually they are then touching your hand with their nose and now longer chewing. This reinforces being gentle with your hands to get rewards like food or attention. 

Another thing is to redirect that playing to a toy. I do not go anywhere with my puppies without a toy. If they want to play with me, the only way it's going to happen is if we have a toy. If you can get them interested in carrying something around, then they will keep their teeth on that. Most of mine liked tennis balls or these neat stuffed dragons that I got at PetsMart. 
This is Cade at 10 weeks out walking with his tennis ball...can't bite my ankles with this monster ball in his mouth!










*Cat Issue.*
How does your cat feel about dogs in general? The reason I ask is that we never managed to get over our cat issue, and I think it had more to do with the cats than the dog. My cats were front declawed and had lived with my other big dog, but she was very gentle and never paid them much mind, and even when we brought her into the house it took almost 6 months for them to not avoid her completly if they could. 

My dogs were extremely high prey drive, and my cats wanted nothing to do with the dog. Anytime the puppy would approach, they would growl and run. All they had to do was SMELL the puppy and they started with the noise, which would start the puppy and then any step forward and the cat ran. This reinforced the puppy's prey behavior. He found their reactions very rewarding. I put him on leash, which actually seemed to be like Kitty back tie work, it only frustrated him and raised his drive. We did a lot of work on it, and we got to the point where he would listen and obey commands with the cats there, but he was always tense and wanting to give chase and the cats were always on edge waiting for him to chase. Our next step was going to the electric collar. But we never got there because in the end we placed the cats with a friend of the family who had just lost their 2 elderly cats. 

Anyway I know that many people overcome their pup's desire to chase, and I wish you success but I never had any luck.


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## valreegrl

JKlatsky I LOVE the food tip! Every once in a while, we still have a mouthing issue, even at 8 months....but your idea just may be the trick!


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## Bama4us

Hello and welcome to the board. It sounds like your off to a great start, you found this board for advice and enrolled him in puppy class. The mouthing will last awhile, but eventually will taper off. The advice about ignoring or saying ouch just never worked with my Bear (aka sharkboy). We wanted to make his crate a place he loved to go, and scooping him up and crating him for bad behavior seemed counter productive to me, but others swear by it. I do like the hand feeding advice. Keep a tug or a squeakie toy with you at all times to redirect his mouthing will help. The watch me command is great advice for dealing with the cats, a treat is so much better than a cat, anyway! You will need to keep a leash on him when the cat is near until he learns that a cat isn't a chew toy, but he'll learn to coexist with them. Here's proof that there's better days ahead......


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## Jason L

JKlatsky said:


> *Mouthing.*
> I have always found that it does taper off after they get their adult teeth in, but in the meantime


This is true with my puppy Ike. He was freaking nightmare as a young pup. He's still teething right now but as far as biting goes, a lot better today than he was 6 weeks ago and I did not do anything to correct him or work with him on this issue so the behavioral change is all him.


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## rackfocus

Spock is really mouthy with hands (and feet). I started teaching him "touch", so when he gently touches my hand with his nose, I give him a treat. I've noticed that he doesn't bite as much.


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## MaggieRoseLee

Just in case you didn't see it yet, the biting puppy thing is SO common in our GSD's we made a permanent sticky to help 

http://www.germanshepherds.com/forum/puppy-behavior/85888-teaching-bite-inhibition.html

As far as the cat goes, sounds like the cat looks like the best chance for play in the house right now! About his size, furry, the game is on!!!!

Think you need to work out more games with the puppy (so you and your toys are more fun then the game 'Chase/Bark at the Cat' ). And packing the puppy out for car trips to socialize, exercise and wear your pup out will make him much easier to deal with when you return home.


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## shrabe

For the mouthing, we always redirect with a toy. We also give ice cubes, unfortunately I have no advice for the cats....sorry


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## diana72805

I like what JKlatsky said about the food tip. We did a similar excercise with our pup in which we hold a treat. He will attempt to snatch the treat and be mouthy (this was going on from day one... but we did this excercise when his adult teeth were already cutting) We took this opportunity to teach him to "Be gentle". He couldn't have the treat until he gently took it out of my hand. It not only helped with the nipping, but also taught him that when he DOES get rewarded with a treat (during training) he has to take it gently from my hand and not with his teeth. 

They do grow out of it, just keep at it with the training


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