# Advice needed about 9 week old GSD



## leeandriley (Jul 15, 2017)

We (my family and I) recently got a female German Shepherd pup, and since this is our first time raising any kind of puppy, we have a lot of questions. She's a great dog but also very frustrating to train and take care of. I'd like to know which of these are normal for a GSD pup at this age and which behaviors are not normal and need to be corrected.

(Here's our daily schedule which might help answer some questions. My mom wakes up at about 6:30 and feeds her and takes her outside for a potty break before she goes to work. Then Riley (our pup) is back in the crate. I wake up at about 8:00 and I take her outside again, and then exercise her by running around in the backyard (she likes to chase me around the pool) and playing with her toys. I toss them around the house and she chases them). Then after about an hour or two she tires out and naps, either on the floor in our living room or in her crate. At 11 or 12 she gets her second meal. We take her outside to pee every hour or two hours and she's in and out of the crate. She's never in the crate for more than an hour and a half except for overnight. She gets her third and final meal (sometimes she gets four, though) later in the afternoon around 5 or 6. This is about the time she gets tired and naps a lot. Then 10:00 is bedtime and we keep her in the crate overnight, but one of us will take her outside once during the night.)

1. Of course - crate training. I'm afraid we ruined the process because we took it too fast, but the thing is, we had no idea where to put her because we can't really supervise her 24/7. She cries and cries when she's in the crate and quiets down after about 5-15 minutes, but it seems like she really hates being confined in dark enclosed areas (she tends to sleep on the floor in the middle of the living room, but maybe it's because of the hot weather??) I mean it's not the worst case scenario, but I wish we could get her to enjoy being in her crate and keep quiet when she's in there. Is that still possible?

2. The play biting is really getting out of hand. Sometimes we're successful with distracting her with a toy but other times she completely ignores the toy and goes right for our hands, feet & arms. She especially likes biting our feet when we're walking by. I reward her when she stops but it still seems like it's getting worse.

3. She hates dry food. When we got her she was sick with a gastrointestinal infection (we got her from a litter from somebody through a friend of ours) so she was on a bland diet of boiled chicken and rice, but we can't seem to switch to the dry food we got no matter what we do. We're mixing it with her diet of course but she avoids the dry food completely. Wet food is expensive and we need to switch completely to dry food eventually.

4. A much less important question but more out of curiosity - is it normal for a GSD's ears to be completely up/pointy at such a young age? Since we barely know the individual we got her from we're not 100% sure she's purebred even though we were told she is. I'll try to attach a picture of her, hopefully it'll show up


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

1) Yes it's possible, but it will take time. Be patient. 

2) Teaching bite inhibition is a process, which can take time. Here's a sticky thread about puppy biting: http://www.germanshepherds.com/foru...wner/188549-puppy-biting-hints-tips-help.html

4) She does look purebred. It's very normal for ears to be up and down - in fact, we have an entire sub-forum devoted to ear questions, where you can read previous threads and see photos: Ears Up?????? - German Shepherd Dog Forums

BTW, how long have you had her?


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## leeandriley (Jul 15, 2017)

We got her at 7 weeks (yes I'm aware that 7 weeks is too young for a puppy to go home but her parents weren't even at the house when we were there and we felt really bad for her & the conditions she was living in) so it's been two weeks now. Thank you for the links I'll check them out! It's still a struggle with her, though. She has an insanely short attention span (which I'm guessing is normal for puppies, though) and it's very difficult to get her to sit and pay attention. I read that you should tire them out beforehand, but sometimes she completely ignores my attempts to play tug of war and fetch w/ her and just wants to bite us. How would I do that, then?


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## Ikigai (Jun 26, 2017)

This is our first puppy and second gsd, although after almost a decade. He's 14 weeks, 4 days old right now and I shared the same thoughts as you in your original post.

The biting will start fading, I felt like I had no hope when I was around the 9-10 week mark, felt like it just kept getting worse. What I found was just be consistent, whenever she starts biting too hard either leave the room for half a minute and then come back and continue playing. Alternatively if she bites too hard, won't give it up with redirection and won't let you walk out then give her a timeout. Put her back in her crate and teach her that when she bites that hard, all play stops.

I also made the same _mistake_ with crate training but now he has much less of a problem being crated, goes in when being directed with a treat and even downs and waits patiently while I close the crate. The only real problem he has is when we open the back door (since he's in the kitchen), he'll cry and go crazy wanting to go outside.

And as Debbie mentioned above, it'd help to know at what age you got her from the breeder. If it was before 8 weeks then she would have missed out on crucial learning experiences and bite inhibition from her mother.

Edit: Adding to the bite inhibition part, remember that everyone in the family has to be consistent on this, biting too hard stops play, over time you can change your definition of *too hard* and eventually take him off teeth to skin if you want once he's gentle with his mouth. We have issues right now even though at the 14 week mark I posted about how he almost never bites anymore and if he does on the rare occasion it's not hard at all. He loves playing with my mom way more than anyone else and she's been unintentionally giving him attention for jumping and biting by touching and interacting with him, even though she says no. So that's pretty much the most important when it comes to teaching bite inhibition, consistency and everyone around the puppy has to employ this.


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## Steve Strom (Oct 26, 2013)

One thing you should stop is the chasing you. Chasing encourages biting. It may seem like its not a big difference, but the puppy coming to you or following you is a lot different then chasing you. It never seems to explain well online, but be very direct about showing them what to bite. You have to make the toy animated, not your hands or feet. Try something soft and a little on the bigger side, tie a line to it and let her chase and bite that. The line can help put some separation between what you want her to target and your hands.

I buy cheap burlap sacks, or you can buy a good size fleece tug or something. Move it in a way that focuses her prey drive onto it. Don't wait for her to focus on biting you and then try to redirect her onto the toy, get her onto the toy or rag first.


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## leeandriley (Jul 15, 2017)

Thank you for the tips, it's good to know that the biting will start fading after awhile. I've tried to walk away after she bites and ignore her for awhile, but then she immediately runs off and starts chewing on things and I can't really just ignore her then. We've put her in the crate after she's done this but I also read somewhere that you shouldn't crate a dog as punishment. Also I usually don't let her bite me, is that not helping? Usually when she bites it's painful and breaks skin so when she's mouthy I try to avoid her. Also we got her at 7 weeks so that probably explains a lot.


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## leeandriley (Jul 15, 2017)

Thank you, I'll definitely stop the chasing then. I had no idea that could be contributing to it ! I do play with her with the rope, and she chases it around, but after about 5-10 minutes she forgets about it and tries to bite my arms/feet. Same with her other toys. After she's tired of them she'll wander around trying to chew things and biting at our feet when we walk by etc. What would I do then to distract her if she's not interested in the toys or even a treat?


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## Ken Clean-Air System (Feb 27, 2012)

Get a selection of acceptable things to chew on aside from people, furniture, etc. I'd advise against rawhide, but things like bully sticks, pig ears, raw bones (like marrow bones with most of the marrow scooped out), etc. can be a godsend. The land shark phase will pass, but it can take a while. 

As far as your problem with dry food, have you tried pre-soaking the food in water before feeding? It may make it more palatable for your pup if they are not used to eating crunchy food. I've never had to do it personally, but I know some people pre-soak dry food even with their adult dogs.


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## leeandriley (Jul 15, 2017)

We have tried mixing the dry food with her wet food and chicken but she eats the wet food/chicken and avoids the dry food completely. By the time she's finished eating there's just a pile of dry food in the bowl that she hasn't touched. We're going to eventually try getting a different dry food and I'll definitely try soaking it in water this time! Hopefully she'll eventually get used to the dry food because it feels like a lot of unnecessary effort for each meal.


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