puppyprimer2

Potty Training

The cardinal rule is to remember that your puppy wants to do the right thing. If he has an accident, it is truly an accident. He is not willfully challenging you. Use a little patience and in most cases, your German Shepherd will be potty trained in just a few days. DO NOT SCOLD OR DISCIPLINE YOUR PUPPY if you come home, and he has soiled the carpet. In the first place, you should not have left him on the carpet. In the second place, he could not help himself. In the first few months, he does not have enough bladder control and he probably just hasn't figured out what you want yet. The only time you can use a verbal correction is if you literally catch him in the act. If this happens immediately pick him up--even in mid-stream-- and take him outdoors to finish.

The secret to all training including potty training is to praise the good behavior and try to ignore the bad behavior. And the first step is to encourage the good behavior that we want.

Let puppy out to potty:

before crating him or leaving him

immediately after he wakes up from a nap

during and after play

after he eats

anytime he starts sniffing the carpet or walking in circles

frequently

And praise, praise, praise when he does his business in the right place! You want to keep the accidents to a minimum and clean them thoroughly so scent does not remain. They will associate a certain spot with their bathroom duties, so you might take him to the same spot in the yard each time.

Most German Shepherds are very easily potty trained if you spend just a little time with them the first few days. In fact we have heard from some folks that their puppy went to the door when he had to go out even without training. This is very possible because we keep our puppies outdoors once they are about 5 weeks old. They learn that outside is the place to do their business.

Crate Training
"Oh, those wicked, wicked cages that people use for their darling dogs. How could they be so cruel? I would never put my dog in one of those cages." I cannot even recall how many times I have heard this type of diatribe about crates, and in all likelihood, I probably once also held these beliefs. I guess what changed my mind was taking my Siberian Husky to obedience class riding loose in the car. I thought she would just sit there looking out the window, but she had other ideas. She thought it was cool to play under my brake pedal. After almost running off the road several times getting to obedience class, I decided to invest in a dog crate. Of course, this was after my sweet husky had eaten our carpet, coffee tables, couch and even the windowsill. I'm sure she ate a few other things I'm trying to forget like pantyhose and various items of clothing. Sound familiar to anyone?

To save yourself a little grief and to ensure the safety of your puppy, please use crates when you have to travel in the car and when you have to leave your dog alone inside the house for a few hours. They are not cruel. After a transition period, your dog will actually regard his crate has his own private den where he can rest and not be disturbed. Place the crate in a quiet place if possible and be sure to have a small water bowl securely attached to the crate. You might also give him a safe toy to chew on.

In order to transition to a crate, feed him in the crate with the door open. Also, place some treats in there and let him go get them. Start with very short periods of time like 30 seconds with the door closed, and then let him out. Build up the time gradually so he'll know you're always coming back. Your dog should readily adjust to the crate in a day or two with no problem. Our housedogs seek out their crates to rest during the day and at night. This is their den.

But do not use the crate as an excuse to ignore your dog. A crate should not be used as a permanent home for your dog. They should not be crated more than a couple of hours at a time.

Veterinarian
Selecting the right veterinarian is important for you and your new German Shepherd. You want to feel comfortable with your vet and the clinic. Your vet should explain all procedures and allow you to accompany your puppy for any examinations. Many clinics have a policy of taking the puppy to the back for blood work and shots. Insist that you go with your puppy, and if a clinic will not allow this, find another vet.

You might check with other German Shepherd owners in your area to find the vets they prefer. Your vet should be proactive in your dog's care. You should have regularly scheduled vaccinations and check-ups and in most parts of the country have him on heartworm preventative. If you are ever uncomfortable with a suggested procedure or medication, seek another opinion.

When you are ready to do your OFA hip radiographs, ensure that your vet has experience in positioning the dog for these x-rays. Some vets will readily admit that this is not their area of expertise and refer you elsewhere. If the hips are not positioned exactly correct, you can get an incorrect reading, even showing hip dysplasia when it is not present.

The Pack
The dog is a pack animal. He is not a furry child who wags his tail. Your family will become his pack, and he will perceive a definite pecking order within the pack. If you do not become the pack leader, he will readily move into that role. He will determine when he eats, where he sleeps, when or whether he will come to you, and who enters his home. He may even become excessively possessive of his toys and food growling and snapping at you if you dare approach. He will push his way out of the house in front of you and come back in the same way.

The time to start establishing yourself as the pack leader is when he is a puppy. This is not done by brut force. It is more of a state of mind. You do not allow your dog to take over your house. You give out the toys, and you decide when to put them away for another day. You teach some basic obedience exercises and have puppy sit before you present his dinner. You place puppy on a long line and call him. If he does not come, gently guide him in to you. Always give him a petting, praise, food or a toy when he comes to you whether you have helped him come or not. It is absolutely imperative that he associates coming to you as the most pleasant action in the world. And he also learns that when you call, he must come. Stick your hands in his food bowl while he is eating. When he is in the middle of eating, remove his food bowl and have him sit again. Then give it back so he can resume his meal. Stroke him once or twice gently down the side while he is eating or chewing on his toy. Only do these activities a couple of time while he is a puppy. Do not do them to excess or you could create some other problems. You generally want to give him peace and quiet while he is eating and chewing. Do not let him run out of the house in front of you. This is potentially dangerous as he could bolt in the street. Have him wait while you put on a lead. Use a little tough love on your puppy.

Many behavior problems in adult dogs come from the dog moving into the pack leader position because no one else in the family was willing to do so. The dog want/needs a pack leader. It is part of his natural order. Starting him off right as a puppy is so much easier than trying to grapple with this problem when you have an 80lb adult dog growling at you.

When training your puppy, you must be gentle, fair and consistent with him. You must guide him or shape him to the behavior you want in your home. If one day you kick him when he jumps up and the next day you pet him, he will be totally confused. Every member of your family should practice the same consistency with the puppy. Give him some attention and training every day. Do not ignore him or he will improvise his fun. These are very intelligent animals, and you will be amazed at how easily they learn. It will be fun for you and your family to teach him obedience commands and tricks. Just use patience and consistency, and he will learn.

Remember that pack placement is not necessarily a relationship among the physically stronger entities. You see many examples of a tiny dog totally dominating a giant dog. The toy poodle just thinks he's big, and he has convinced Goliath beyond a doubt. You must think of yourself as the strong and compassionate pack leader, and you will be.

Another Dog/Cat In The Household
You can readily introduce a little puppy into a household with other animals, but you need to take some precautions. Very small pups do not have a whole lot of sense, and they are generally not afraid of approaching an older dog. Sometimes they can annoy even a good-natured older dog to the point where he hurts the puppy. Never leave a very young puppy with an older dog unless you are there to observe. As your puppy gets a little older, he will naturally submit to the older dog, and this will reduce the possibility of a problem. But take it slow and easy during the introductory phase. Your older dog has had the run of the household, so there is going to be a little sibling rivalry.

Remember, the older dog is always going to dominate your young puppy. This is why folks who do Schutzhund keep their dogs separated. They do not want their puppy to be dominated by anything or anybody except themselves.

What about cats in your house? Some friends kindly allowed my four month old puppy to stay with them while we went on vacation. My pup had never been around cats, but he knew intuitively that they needed to be chased and put in trees or on top of the highest furniture. Actually, the cat ran, triggering my pup's prey drive. I suspect that a very, very young puppy would not chase so readily. Also, it would be helpful to have a cat that held his ground and didn't scamper. One good swat might discourage an overly curious puppy.

When we walk through our neighborhood with our dogs on lead, the cats that run are fair game. They do not perceive the big yellow tom that sits there and stares as a cat--he is just an inanimate object like a yellow bush or shrub, and my dogs just act like he's not even there. They really know he's there. They are just embarrassed because he won't move no matter how intimidating they look. Introducing a kitten with a puppy seems to work the best. They usually become the best of friend.

Allow me to share a charming story about our Miniature Schnauzer's experience with a kitten. On an evening walk with Pretzel many years ago in bitterly cold weather, we noticed that a very tiny kitten was following us. She could not have been more than 5 weeks old. Pretzel was a very sweet dog but was not particularly fond of cats. She would chase them if she had the opportunity. She allowed this kitten to follow us for several blocks until we finally returned home. Pretzel would occasionally look back almost questioning what she was seeing. The kitten meowed on our front porch with such a pathetic cry that we gave the tiny animal shelter indoors inside a shoebox. This kitten, whom we named Bagel, was convinced that Pretzel was her mother, and I guess it brought out Pretzel's maternal instincts. The two became best buddies although Pretzel was not too sure about what to do when Bagel tried to nurse. Sometimes you get the strangest and most wonderful friendships.

Teething
Puppies start to cut their adult teeth when they about four months old. During this period that lasts a couple months, their mouths are painful so you should refrain from heavy tugging play, and you should provide puppy with items to chew. If you don't provide puppy with chew toys, he will find his own, and you will not be happy about his choice.

Puppies tend to get very mouthy during this period. Just redirect their mouths from your hand to the toy. When they have the correct item in the mouth, praise to let them know that the toy is what you want them to chew. Be patient as some puppies prefer to chew on you. Just be calm and consistent.

Watch to make sure the baby teeth are falling out as the permanent teeth come in. Sometimes you might need a vet to remove a baby tooth so it does not hamper the growth of the permanent tooth.

Exercise
Puppies should not have strenuous exercise such as jogging or bicycling with you until they are at least a year old. We also limit climbing up stairs and jumping as much as possible. This is one of those controversial areas where there are different opinions, but the consensus is that you can possibly do damage to growing bones with excessive stress. There is some thought that a lot of bouncing around and jumping up in young puppies can contribute to hip dysplasia. More research needs to be done, but we limit these activities as much as possible.

Obviously you are going to have difficulty limiting activities of a very energetic puppy. Just use your common sense and try to minimize these activities as much as possible. Lift them in your car rather than having them jump. Instead of allowing your puppy to jump out of your car and land on concrete with all weight being absorbed by his elbows, help him out.

Obedience
Let me preface this discussion by saying there are tons of superb books and videos available on this subject. Read and watch as much as you can about canine behavior and training. But one word of caution, don't switch your training methods with each new book you read or each seminar you attend. Give a training method several months to work. If you then experience failure with a method you have been using consistently or decide the method is not compatible with your personality, consider changing. You will cause much confusion and stress to your puppy and dog if you bounce around from one method to another.

When I started training dogs in 1983, the popular method of teaching was what I call the "jerk" and "good correction" method. I remember receiving praise from my instructor when I made my dog yelp. When we started heeling the dog, we would take a step forward, say "heel" and give a good hard jerk. And we wondered why our dogs were lagging! All teaching was done with compulsion.

Animal training has come a long way since then due in part from the influence of marine animal trainers. You cannot put a pinch collar on a dolphin! Happily training has become more humane. If you enroll in a dog obedience class where the instructor is still using the "jerk" and "good correction" method, get your dog out of that class. With that being said, there might still a place for severe corrections if a person or other animal is in danger, and other more positive methods have not worked. But this is another story, and what we want to concentrate on here is getting your puppy off on the right paw in his training.

There is one cardinal rule for dog training, and this is certainly not original with me. Dogs do what they find successful. If they find jumping up on you successful, they will continue to do this. You might say that you would never reward this type of abhorrent behavior. But you might inadvertently be doing this very thing. When your dog jumps up on you, do you place his feet on the ground and then pet him? What are you communicating to your dog? You are telling him that the routine goes as follows: "I jump up on mom, she touches me to put me down and I love her touch and she pets me--oh joy!" What if instead you just walked away from your dog back in the house without touching him? In this scenario is your dog being successful by jumping on you? No. But you need to teach him how to be successful. By telling him to "sit" before he has jumped on you and then lavishing on the petting and praise, you have patiently and kindly taught him how to be successful.

You can start shaping your puppy's behavior very early. When they are 7-8 weeks old you can teach them very basic behaviors such as sit and down. These are behaviors they already perform as part of life, but you are going to associate a word to the actions so they will eventually do them on command. To get a very young puppy to sit, hold a delectable tidbit directly over his nose but don't let him get it. Move the food back until you have manipulated puppy into a sit. Reward immediately and repeat several times. Don't say "sit" at this early stage. You puppy doesn't have the slightest idea of what he is doing. He just knows that when he went into a certain position, he was rewarded. Remember that he does not understand English.

You will find that he readily starts sitting on his own to get the reward. At this point you can start introducing your verbal command, but you will be saying, "sit" after he does the required behavior, not before. Just tell him what a good sit he has done while he is in the sitting position. It will not be long before he will start to sit on command. Be sure to reward immediately. This is not a "stay" exercise. This is a "sit" exercise. If you do not reward immediately, he will get up, and the reward will be for getting up and not for sitting. Timing is extremely important. These are little puppies, and their attention span is only a few seconds. Have the food in your hand so you can reward. Do not scold in any way if they move from the sitting position. Just start again. All you are doing at this point is teaching puppy to make a good association between doing something natural with their body and getting a yummy reward. Keep your voice light hearted and keep your sense of humor. Laugh a lot. Make this entire process fun, and later on when you start teaching more advanced obedience, your dog will think it is playtime. Another important point is not to make these play sessions very long. A minute or two with a young puppy is all they can take.

The "down" is the most important command you will teach and starting this command with a young puppy will save you lots of wear and tear down the line. It's real easy to teach. Once your little puppy get the hang of sitting, take the hand which is holding the food right next to his nose and lower it to the ground. Do not go out with your hand or the puppy will just stand up and follow it. Just take the hand almost straight down and hold it to the ground. Do not let the puppy have the tidbit until he gets his body in a down position. Most of the time they figure it our fairly quickly, but sometimes they need a tiny bit of guidance with your other hand. Before helping them with your other hand, try the exercise several times to see if they will pick it up by themselves. I rather have them do any exercise without physical guidance from me. I like to bring the food straight down, so they learn to do their "down" without a crawl. If you let your hand go out in front of puppy's nose too far, they have to move forward to get the tidbit and may learn to crawl whenever they do this command.

It is imperative that your dog "down" immediately on command. This could be a life or death issue. If your dog is heading for the street after a cat, he may not come to you, but if you have taught the "down" properly, he should hit the ground on command. This is one of those commands you definitely want to start with puppy. Many older dogs instinctively do not like the "down" because it represents a subordinate position. Teaching a free spirited, dominate adult male to "down" is not a fun process. If you train a puppy properly, you can make this command a game. As soon as they "down" give them the ball or treat. One thing to remember is that anticipation is the beginning of learning. Do not scold for anticipation. If your puppy or young dog starts to sit or to down on his own, he is learning. He has discovered how to be successful. Now all you have to do is put the command to it, and you have a winner.

The only other obedience area we are going to cover here is teaching heeling basics to a very young dog. Heeling means the dog walks on your left side with his shoulder approximately at your left knee. Formal heeling is used for AKC and Schutzhund competition obedience, but it's a good idea to start teaching walking next to you under control even if you are not going to do formal obedience. You want to manipulate your dog's position until he figures out that success comes from being on your left side. Right at first, do not worry that his position is perfectly correct. You just want him on your left side roughly beside you. You can show him the food and guide him to the right position. When he gets there, reward and praise, praise, praise. I use a carpenter's apron or a bait bag to carry my food that is always something yummy. Reward continuously when he is on your left side in rough heeling position. As he starts getting the idea, refine the position better where you are rewarding only when he is precise. Before long you will have a happy, heeling dog!

I feel I must cover one other issue in this category. NEVER CALL YOUR DOG TO YOU FOR PUNISHMENT WHETHER VERBAL OR PHYSICAL. Your dog is very intelligent, and he will immediately figure out that it's not much fun to come to someone who hollers at him or worse hits him. If you catch your dog in the act of doing something wrong, go over and tell him with a "no" or a "phooey." And REMEMBER, if the bad or good event has occurred more than two seconds ago, forget it because he has. Unless you reward or discipline within a couple of seconds after the event, it's lost on your dog. If you come home from work, and he's dug a hole in the middle of your prize flowerbed, go out and get some more plants because this is the only productive action you can take. It will do absolutely no good to punish your dog after the fact.

Conclusion
We hope this information will help you a little in making your new puppy part of your family. Please let us know if there are some other topics that you would like us to address. We wish you many happy times with your new puppy.

reprinted with kind permission from Alice & Fred Stroman