Any advise or suggestions on how to take care of a puppy?
My husband and I just bought a German Shepherd puppy. I’m not sure what I could do to help my husband out. Any advise and/or suggestions would greatly be appreciated!
Related posts:
- I have a neighbor who bought a beagle puppy, not taken proper care of it. What to do to help the puppy? I’ve never been so upset over this 9 week old...
- Whats the cheapest and best dog insurance? Hi my dog is 10 years old Im struggling to...
- What is the best and cheapest dog insurance? Hi my dog is 10 years old Im struggling to...
- What are good suggestions on how to take care of a maltiese puppy.? Someone just gave us a six week old maltese puppy...
- How to care for a puppy with a broken jaw ? Hi. Our 4 month old puppy was attacked by a...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Tagged with: german shepherd puppy • how to take care of a puppy
Filed under: Puppy Care
I have an 8 month old german shepherd. A ton of work!!!! But I would suggest crate training. Young puppies (around 8-16 weeks) sleep a ton. They run around for an hour then take a nap for an hour. When he gets tired, put him in the crate and shut the door, so he knows that this is his sleep/safe spot. Then when he wakes up, take him right outside where you want him to pee. Keep doing this with every nap and every night when you go to sleep. This will not only house train him, but also he won’t get separation anxiety when you leave for work and have to put him in the crate so he doesn’t tear the house apart.
Also, get a bunch of toys that will keep him busy on his own like kongs and stuff that you can stuff treats in and they have fun trying to get out. I fill a kong with peanut butter and stick it in the freezer so that when I have to crate him and leave for work he doesn’t mind being in the cage since it takes him a few hours to lick all the frozen peanut butter out. This is great also to keep the pup busy if you just want to relax and watch tv.
And training is not optional for german shepherds. Not only do they need it for your sake, but it keeps them mentally stimulated. Training, play, and long walks every day and you have a happy german shepherd!
train the dog young, that will make life so much easier. Also everyday put the dog on its back and rub its stomach. this is a sign of dominance and will help your dog understand that you are in charge.
You don’t tell us who stays home with the pup 24/7 for its first week or two, nor how old it is, nor what your plan is for its sleeping place.
So we could waste all the limited space that YA allows yet not write what you REALLY need to know.
• I am against anyone who thinks that a pup should be crated for more than a few minutes at a time, to protect it from brats whose parents won’t be invited back again. A pup needs to exercise its fast-growing bones & muscles the whole time it is awake, and then it needs a safe place to collapse & sleep. The younger the pup, the more often it needs to be fed and the more often it needs to go toilet – because its belly, bladder & bowel can’t hold much. Pups are born with the instinct to get away from their nest before piddle-pooing. Catch 22: A crate small enough to invoke that instinct is too small to exercise in. A crate big enough to exercise in is big enough to piddle-poo in. So I paper-train the first afternoon my pup is inside, and the pup has the run of almost the whole house 24/7. I also have outside pens with raised sleeping boxes, so that when no-one is home the pup can be out there with a gnaw bone and lots of choices while experiencing the environment’s movements, scents, sights, sounds from a safe place.
• LEARN its signals & timing for "wanna go toilet" and "wanna BITE something!", and take immediate appropriate action.
• Book in NOW to a training-club class that will start when Pup is 18-22 weeks old. Until the instructor there says otherwise, ALL your training attempts are to be be purely using reward-reinforcement, so that the pup thinks that the world is a fun, safe place and you are the centre of everything good in the universe.
• Except for a trip to the vet, Pup stays ON property until 2 weeks after the first vaccination. From then until 2 weeks after the boosters given at 16 weeks you let it explore at the end of a longish lead, but NOT where dogs run loose or piddle-poo-vomit.
• Add http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_GSD_Source to your browser’s Bookmarks or Favorites so that you can easily look up such as feeding, vaccinations, clubs, weights, teething, neutering, disorders, genetics.
To ask about GSDs, join some of the 400+ YahooGroups dedicated to various aspects of living with GSDs. Each group’s Home page tells you which aspects they like to discuss, and how active they are. Unlike YA, they are set up so that you can have an ongoing discussion with follow-up questions for clarification. Most allow you to include photos.
Les P, owner of GSD_Friendly: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSD_Friendly
"In GSDs" as of 1967