GSD puppy update and questions!

Lintel

Lintel

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So the little one is growing up fast he is now 15 weeks old and has both ears up! We have got the hang of Sit.Down.Wait.Paw.Heel and recall... As long as there are no distractions! We are starting puppy classes in Janurary but any advice on recall would be much appreciated.. Or is it a matter of time?
He gets awful sick in the car too bless him, is there anything we can do to help this? I realise he will probably grow out of it but in the interm?

I have also been hearing stories of how amazing and house trained folks pups were at 15 weeks... he has not figured out how to let us know he needs out can we help him with this at all or is it a case of he will work it out? We are currently watching him like hawks for the intense sniffing!

Thank you all in advance have a lovely new year!
 
Firstly- HOW CUTE!
Recall is practice, if you can set up very mild distractions and get them more intense with each success. Also make sure YOU are the *BEST THING EVER* toys/sweets/lots of excited words. It will come. Puppy classes will be good as they should help you with the distractions.
Similar with the car sickness, take it slowly, first just getting in the car and being in it for a minute without moving, then getting out. Then engine on, then very short journey, then you can slowly extend the time for the journey, until he is happy.

House training is just consistency from you- have him on a schedule. so out first thing, then 20 mins after any food, after playtime or naps, and then last thing at night, and in-between morning and night should be out around every hour and half at that age. if you keep it consistent then he will become predictable and then with age he will be able to hold it longer, our miya was "housetrained" from day one by this method- she never messed in the house- but i wouldn't have expected her to hold it! I also watched her like a hawk, she was tied to me ALL the time unless in her crate up until about 20 weeks, then she was allowed some freedom in the house but not completely and not unsupervised! It will come- but puppies are hard work and need a lot of consistency to get things.
 
on the car sickness bit my BC was sick from 8 weeks and never got any better. Just a lot worse. To get to the vet's I had to change my T shirt when I got there as I was absolutely soaked with liquid she brought up. Nothing improved. We tried taking her in an open top Jeep, wind in her face. My old shepherd would have thought she had died and gone to heaven to have that treat. The BC was just sick and totally miserable. Had to drag her to the vehicle on a lead.

Just left her at home where she was happiest. Then when she was about 10 years I gave it another go. Carried her to the landrover and I sat in the passenger seat and stuffed her under my legs in the footwell. We manage 5 miles, took a walk and in all managed an afternoon outing. Carried on doing that then put her in the back loose. Now she can't wait to go, loves travelling and never sick.

Never thought anymore about it until I went to my breeder to discuss how to transport my new shepherd pup home in 3 weeks. We talked about travel sickness and she had been told to stop the animal looking at movement outside the vehicle ie put in a cage and put a towel over. Then I thought that was what I had done, stuffed her under my legs where she couldn't see anything.

No idea if that was coincidence but I shall try it again. As someone who is travel sick that is the total opposite of a person who needs to see and adjust to the movement of the vehicle. I tried the putting it in for a few minutes, getting it happy in the vehicle type training. That worked fine but the problem came with moving.
Look forward to any more replies you get on travel sickness.

Apollo storm, can you define "tied" please? ie you teach the pup to come around everywhere with you or you attach it to yourself?
 
With recall I would train with distractions and the dog always on a line and never given the benefit of the doubt. The first time the pup runs off and ignores you and self-rewards, you'll be fighting against that forever more. If the dog only learns the right way in the first place, and never knows/gets the opportunity to do it the wrong way, then you have a head start. The best way to do this is a combination of, as above, making yourself very important to the puppy as a source of food and fun, and of creating a physical barrier where you can control the puppy, IE the line.

I would always travel a pup in a covered cage or crate. As well as making it less stressful an experience, the thought of a dog loose in the car and an accident happening is enough for me.
Travel sickness/drooling can also be an indicator of future insecurities in later life, thats certainly been my experience anyway. Mine used to be saturated with drool, he did grow out of it but the issue has popped up in other places in later life.

It's hard to advise on toilet training without knowing your routine or set up but as a generalisation, keep them confined to one area when indoors, keep a note of eating and drinking times, monitor like a hawk, outside regularly on a surface you can identify that they are comfortable going on, associate it with a command like 'pee pee' or something, and lots of praise when they do gom
 
All of mine have grown out of travel sickness-quarrie was the worst. One thing that seemed to help him was the Johnson's pet travel pills and also avoid feeding for as long as possible beforehand i.e. hours but if they are very worried they will still be droopy (sign of nausea). I drive a van with the dogs in large crates in the back-attaching a fan to it for him also seemed to help. He'd grown out of it by 5 months, he gradually got better-the other dogs that suffered with it grew out of it much faster. Both of them travel perfectly now.
 
CorvusCorax said:
Travel sickness/drooling can also be an indicator of future insecurities in later life, thats certainly been my experience anyway. Mine used to be saturated with drool, he did grow out of it but the issue has popped up in other places in later life.

I
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that's interesting. My BC has always been a nervous dog. She is scared of sheep!
 
paddy555 said:
Apollo storm, can you define "tied" please? ie you teach the pup to come around everywhere with you or you attach it to yourself?
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Harness on the pup, lead attached to belt, enough so the pup can get about 2 foot away from me at most. but no more, I can get on with my day, knowing exactly where the pup is without having to look around manically. Frequently recommended for shepherds as they tend to get into things in a big way. Shepherds are velcro dogs anyway so will not tend to protest! Also helps greatly with leash training as it teaches them that they always have to come with you.
 
The tieing idea sounds great theoretically but not sure how it would work with going to the bathroom(for me!) etc. With that i would also sorry about separation anxiety at a later date?
I'm so used to terriers I'm not 100% on what's best for the shepherds!
 
Lintel said:
The tieing idea sounds great theoretically but not sure how it would work with going to the bathroom(for me!) etc.
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wouldn't be any change for me. My BC sleeps by the side of my bed and insists on coming to the loo with me in the middle of the night. I tell her I can manage but she still insists on coming.
thanks for the info Apollo storm. Hadn't heard of tying before.
 
It's not something I would do in the house, particularly if the pup is drooly or travel sick, which can be an anxiety thing, but horses for courses/each to their own. A light house line perhaps but I wouldn't be encouraging the pup to come absolutely everywhere with me, that may present problems when the pup has to be alone for whatever reason.
JMO.
 
With regards to toilet training, we got Luna at the end of August, so summer time. We did all the taking her out for a wee, praising when she went in the garden etc. The back door was open pretty much all the time (summer), so she never really learnt to ask to go out, just came and went as she pleased. There were a few accidents once door was closed, us not quick enough on the signals etc. Once it got colder, we started shutting the door when she was in the garden, and she learnt to ask to come in, that in turn, taught her to ask to go out. Not sure if that was the right way to do it, but it certainly worked for us. If we saw her getting fidgety indoors when door was shut, we always opened it for her just in case.
 
Thanks TW, we have been leaving our side door open the last couple of days but I had heard training is abit easier in the summer... He isn't so keen on toileting in the snow.
 
Ha ha. Luna is a husky, been harder keeping her indoors in the snow!

Just keep an eye/ear out for more subtle signals. Luna used the tap on the cat flap if she wanted to go out in the beginning if back door was closed. If we weren’t in the kitchen, we didn’t hear it. Was only by chance I was in the kitchen one afternoon having a cuppa that I picked up on it.
 
What a super cute pup!

Recall-harness and light longline in field, huge praise for returning without needing a gentle tug on the line.

Re car sickness, I’m fascinated by what CC says about it being linked to insecurities later in life. I can relate to that with one dog, but not the other who was equally sick. Ours did grow out of it, they were taken everywhere I could take them as babies. I think it helped that they could see out of the boot through the window.
 
I said it *can* not it *will*
I know others who will put a puppy in the car as part of the evaluation process although that's selecting for a particular purpose.

Mine grew out of it and now travels long distances by car and ferry with no issue. He has no separation anxiety in home or in car. But he is very noisy lol.
 
CorvusCorax said:
I said it *can* not it *will*
I know others who will put a puppy in the car as part of the evaluation process although that's selecting for a particular purpose.

Mine grew out of it and now travels long distances by car and ferry with no issue. He has no separation anxiety in home or in car. But he is very noisy lol.
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Sorry, CC, I wasn’t disputing it, rather wondering if this explains Zak to an extent. He’s a dog that worries about lots of things, other animals on the telly, other dogs, people looming over him, the wind, recently! It’s funny how different the siblings are, Bear, also horribly carsick initially, is so laid back he’s horizontal!

Oddly, both the older boys were never carsick and were/are both very chill.
 
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