advice on puppy behaviour please

[Clareandjaya]

I would really welcome some advice. I have posted on here a couple of times over the last few weeks about our gsd puppy. I am pleased to say that in many areas (on the lead, in the car, in the crate and housetraining) things are really progressing. We have got through that "oh my god what have we done?" phase and come out the other side and for a lot of the time he is a lovely companion.

Now on to the not so good bit... all the time DP is in the house, pup is wonderfully behaved. he listens, is calm, just generally nice to have around.

As soon as DP leaves for work in the morning pup becomes extremely high maintenence (I know this is part of being a pup but I still need a solution to manage it). His mouthing, nipping and chewing goes out of control. He runs like a maniac from room to room- will not listen, sit, lie- any of the things he does with DP in the house. He listens to me with DP around but will not listen when he is not.

I try to ignore as much of the 'naughty' behaviour as I can as I have been told to do and then reward the good. The result is, he doesn't care that he is ignored. in fact, when he is put in another room he immediately damages something.

Sometimes, I can't just ignore things-e.g he runs off wih DD best coat- so I say 'leave' and give him a treat when he does 'leave' the item. Now, he purposely takes things and then looks to me for a reward.Not really the idea I had in mind.

With regards to the mouthing- when you try and stroke his head, his mouth is immediately open whipping his head around to try and get hold of someone's clothes or hands. If the person ignores the behaviour and turns round, pup will do what appears to be a retalitory nip on the thigh for example.

He goes to puppy training, has good exercise in the day and is doing well in other repects.

I expect people may think that the only reason he is so 'good' in the evening with DP is because he is tired. Not the case- there have been several evenings where dp has been out til late and pup has behaved really badly all up until my bedtime.

Any advice much appreciated!!

Who feed sthe puppy the meals

Is it you or DP?

It sounds like DH has got more respect from the dog than you have? You need to be firm and consistant and use a strong voice.

Also puppies play. They need to be able to have the freedom to do that in order to learn.

Who takes the pup to training, DH? It would be a good idea if you could go alone and the trainer will be able to show you how to demand the pup's attention.

Glad some things are working for you ok sounds like you have a great intelligent dog.

Re the picking stuff up and running off you brilliant that you have a good leave it command. Now you have start using it before he goes to pick up objects rather than afterwards. This will break the "if I pick it up I will get attention" thought going on in the puppy brain!

I don't think it is so much to do with you DP rather what happens when your DP is not there, (although not seeing this in situ it is a guess obviously) I guess when DP is there one of you is busy and maybe one is talking doing stuff with the dog. I can imagine DP goes out you are left with the normal morning chaos kids, breakfast, etc etc and Dog obviously is left to his own devices.

You need to get to a stage when the dog is happy to be amused by himself while you are busy.

When DP leaves the house can you give the dog a well packed Kong? Maybe his breakfast could be given to him via the kong. Does it fin to your schedule to immediately exercise the dog when your DP leaves the house.

Let me know what you think if none of these ideas work we can move on to plan B!

Hi,

Thanks for responses.

RTkangaMummy: it is me that feeds all three daily meals.

Shinyandnew: definitely it feels like he respects dp more. if dp reprimands him (using same word as I would) pup shrinks down, ears flat, belly to the floor. If i do it, he goes into play mode- bum up in the air and tail wagging. we do try and provide him with as much play as possible. he has a definite preference for our clothes and dd's toys over his own toys. It is me who takes him to training.

Minimu: you are definitely right with me left with the morning chaos. I think Dex is intelligent enough that he realises the moments I am busy with DD and knows i wont be as quick off the mark to see what he is doing.

I will try the kong and will perhaps try and get a walk in earlier in the day- h dp leaves so early it is difficult to get organized for a walk at that particular time.

On that note, just wanted to check the exercise he should be getting at his age? he is 15 weeks and a GSD. you hear so much about over exercising them. The other day I took him for a short walk around a small bit of woodland near our house. he was on the lead and the walk took about 20 mins. we met an elderly lady who got cross and said he shoudn't be on the lead and that i would ruin his legs?!

Sorry to hear your having probs with your young dog. We thought we had established authority but obviously we hadnt,(dog who is a year old now respectd dh but i was carer figure ,and less respected)so took advice to go back to square one and establish pack leadership.
you always pretend to eat dogs food in front of him/her then leave her the bowl and walk away, you always go through doors first,if they run through you take them back , you give them one toy at a time them take it up ,like the food bowl when they have had a good opportunity to play/eat.the food and the toys are yours and you are letting her eat/play. I know all this sort of thing has been covered before on mn but its really easy to start accomadating the dog especially if you are there all the time and you are looking after others. One thing the trainer suggested was to use alucozade sport bottle of water. if the dog does any thing that you dont like, then squirt the spray in the air with a "manly"single word "no" or "enough" or "leave "or "off". It means you can be at a distance and you arnt chasing them. a sqquirt in the face, or ahead of them plus the command will drive home the message.
I didnt want to be mean to our dog and to have water puddles everywhere(or to carry a bottle everywhere)but we started this on monday with here charging the fence,sleeping upstairs ,barking andhaving walking issues . all i can say is our lovely dog is sleeping downstairs ok,barking much much less(this is a work in progress)and walking on a standard lead (not halti typenow)this is also a work in progress. She looks happier in her new non dominant position.

I would get a crate to use for high stress times - like the early morning school run preparation.

Fill a kong or find a toy/treat that he particularly likes. At times, like these, when you cannot give him positive attention pop him into the crate with his treat.