I spend most of the time with my pup. i'm in school and therefore have more time during the day to spend with him. When he plays with me , he nips , when i tell him no he barks back ...as if to challenge me. But when i stand up and sternly say no he calsm down. So he is testing me, this much i understand.
He listens to all my commands...very smart dog. Learned to sit ina matter of minutes, and does it for me with out a treat or with out me even asking him.
When i say come he runs to me even if im across the house. When i say leave it, he is starting to learn to drop whatever he has in his mouth.


When my fiance comes home and takes him for a walk(alone) he acts the same as he does with me, listens, perfect dog. Logan (the puppy) loves to play ball with my fiance'
Now, when we are together ..my fiance and I, Logan ignores all of my fiance's commands when he asks Logan to come he ignores him. But as soon as i say come, even if im standing next to my fiance' he runs, ever so happy to oblige.
But he does not nip at my fiance' . Last night while they were playing in the yard Logan ran into my fiances leg by accident. He ran yelping to me and hid behind my leg.And i have noticed that whenevere I am present and he gives hima a command or bends down to welcome the puppy into his arms, the puppy either hides behind my leg or just ignores him.

My fiance' has never layed a hand on him ( otherwise i would rip his hands off). He is an animal lover just like me and this is his second dog.
Logan is not scared of him and loves when alex rubs his belly. Logan also gets so excited when my fiance coems home that his whole body is wiggling .He runs to greet him with no problems even if we happen to be outside.So its nothing to do with fear. I think he just doesnt want to take commands from him when im around.

Last thing, Logan barks at other dogs, and kids when im around and doesnt do it when he is alone with my fiance'


What gives? Any suggestions?
Im scared that my house is going to turn into the "good cop bad cop" drama. or worse aggression !

***Edited By: JULZZ819 on 3/30/2005 12:56:13 PM***
Reason: caps

JULZZ819 - Could you please find your CAPS LOCK key and off it? It would be so much easier for my old eyes to read your posting.

You could go back into the original posting and re-type, using capital letters where necessary.

Thanks so much,
Basset_Lover

Im sorry, no more caps..... but i dont know how to make my post non caps.
didnt even notice it

So, do you feel like Logan respects your fiance more than he does you? Or listens to your fiance better? I'm sorry, I read so quickley I lose what I've read, lol.

Anyways, you should enroll your puppy in puppy kindergarten. That will socialize him with other people and other dogs, too. That may help his barking. I have a one year old GSD, Abby, and she barks when people walk by our year or if she's in the car and people get to close, she barks. Maybe you can be the one who takes the puppy to the puppy kindergarten classes and he will learn to answer to your commands all of the time, not only when your fiance isn't around. Good luck!

Your puppy is just 9 weeks old, perhaps you are expecting too much from him. He is still a baby, I would assume that you have had him just a week, because of his age. So it could be a seperation issue from being removed from his Mom and siblings.

He sounds like a nice dog. You might consider checking with your local vets or humane society to see if they know who offers puppy classes in your area. I think he might be too young for classes though, check to see what their age rules are.

Do you have an pictures? You can open a dogster.com page for him and show us your beautiful puppy. Go to http://www.dogster.com to create his own webpage.

Good luck and thanks for offing the Caps Lock. :)

Basset_Lover

Acey, i dont think that he respects him more. because he does listen to him when he is told no or leave it. Alone they are fine. its just when i am around. Logan ignores my fiance. But yet, he nips at me, while playing and doesnt nip at him.
I heard that this behavior turns into aggression. Is this true?
He is also very finicky when it comes to eating around me. He gets good food, organic, that i mix with water and Iams puppy gravy. he will eat it if i stand next to him. but only takes a few bites and then sits in front of me and looks up..as if to say "There I ate..happy?". If i walk away he follows me. for the first week (i got him at 7 weeks) he would cry if he couldnt see me, frantically. Now he just follows me whereever i go. When my fiance gives him food he eats. no problems, even if my fiance steps away from the bowl.
Could this be a security issue?

First off congrats on your pup. GSD are great. I have a 9 month old female and let me tell you I know what you are talking about. If you look back 7 months I had the same exact problem with Aisha. Talk about bite the hand that feeds you lol.

First off your pup is seeing you as a little mate. He has bonded to you and does see you as security but has not quite figured out who is the leader in the pact as far as you are concerned. He most definately see's your boyfriend as higher up in the ranks. The fact that he does not listen 100% to him does not mean that he does not see him as a leader. The fact that he eats when he gives him the food does, also he does not nip him and does not bark when he is around. A dog who is not the leader will not bark and go nuts when the leader is around. He will give a warning bark but thats it.

There are some very simple solutions to your problem so simple in fact you will probably shrug some off thinking that it will never work.

When you feed your dog and he does not finish it take it away until next meal time. Do not feed the dog unless he is in the room and see's where it is coming from. Ask the pup to sit place the food down and make him stay not letting him eat until you say its okay. Use one word only to release him from sitting. I use Okay.
If he still does not finish after this you have two choices. One is to hand feed the dog. The other is to take it away. Unless he see's you giving him the food he will think that the ground is God not you.

Train the dog on a leash (both of you) and have a pocket full of treats for even the littlest things like sitting down on command. Get a training leash that is really long. Have your boyfriend and yourself put the dog in a sit and stay and walk away. Call him. If he does not come pull the leash toward you until he has no choice to but to move toward you and then reward him when he is near.

Whenever giving a command always use the dogs name first and then the command.

When he bites (nips) you say no bite and as soon as he stops praise him with a treat. In other words ignore the bad and praise the good.

There is a site that you can go to that may help.
http://www.k9force.net/nilif.html

The puppy will never respect you unless your firm with him. I do not mean hitting him but change your tone of voice around him especially while in training. If you use all that baby talk that I know you have to be using he will never take you seriously. Also, consider getting him a choke collar while in training. It will not hurt him but it will give you more control.

I know that this is long but really most of this stuff works.

With my other shephard it was always me who feed her and who took her faithfully to training school etc... but she would always nip at my feet whenever she got half the chance and never my husband who really only spoke to her when he was telling her to do something. One day I got really upset with her and i pinned her up to the wall yelling at her and giving her a little shake. It never ever happened again. From that day on she respected me and I never again had any problems with her. In other words show him who is boss. By all means play with your puppy but simply stopping the game before he does shows him that you are in control.

Good luck

Just found another site for you

http://www.sonic.net/~cdlcruz/GPCC/library/alpha.htm


I hope these work for you.

I also thought of something else. I think that as smart as your dog is he may not even know the word come yet. He probably comes to you because of the tone of voice your using and you could probably say bananna and he would come running lol. I think that once you teach him with the leash what come means your boyfriend will have greater results.


This by the way is Aisha:

http://www.dogster.com/?69784

***Edited By: aisha on 3/30/2005 3:03:39 PM***
Reason: opps

Thank you Aisha, the thing is that i do take away his food, i give Logan 30 minutes to eat and then i pick up the plate. we made a rule, we eat, then the dog eats.

But Logan is surely but slowly attempting to change this. I put his food down, at 8am, so i have time to walk him, so that he will go to the bathroom. I need to be at work at 10 so my fiance and I eat breakfast at like at 830. just turns out this way. So Logan will not eat, he just lies down next to his bowl. or runs off to play with with his toys. I took all the toys out of the kitchen area at feeding time, so not to distract him. So when me and my fiance sit down to eat, we dont look at him or talk to him. But we look to see what he does...he sits and looks at us for a few minutes, then goes to lie down and watches us, then he gets up and eats a little and then back down. 30 minutes passed, i picked up his dish and walked him. then i left for work and threw some carrots, all his toys and hid some biscuits around for him to find, in his designated area (with a baby gate).

As per the playmate thing, yes, now that i think of it you are correct. But how do I play with him, so that he thinks that i am the leader? I try not to paly tug of war, but when i do, I make sure that I win.
There were times that he nipped and nipped and nipped some more, even after i told him to stop. So finally i shake him by the scruff of his neck, and he stops. Is that what you mean by "show him who is boss" because as soon as I walk away ignoring him, he chases me again and does the same thing. Now what?
I don't know whether I am being too tough on him, or not tough enough. he is deffinitely a dominant dog that will rule the house, given the chance.

oh she is beautiful!!!!! so cute!! she looks like my pups mom.

Mine is balck, with tan paws. I registered with Dogstar.com but they will not let me upload any pix...i dotn know why but as soon as i get to i will post them.

Using a certain tone of voice with him will help him realize who is boss. Think about it. Your boyfriend probably has a deep man voice and when he hears yours it is sweet and you probably can't help but let him sit on your lap and cuddle him and use baby talk. I mean really i know you can't help yourself you have a puppy!

Just change your voice when you mean business and when your training him. When you use your baby talk voice he will know it is time to play.

Playing tug of war with him is probably not the best idea no matter who wins at this point because he will see it as a challenge. I always make my kids stop playing that with Aisha the min. I catch them in the act. It will become a power play no matter who wins right now because let me tell you eventually he will win especially when he is older and weighs just about as much as you do.

Playing fetch is better. But like I said make sure it is you who decides who stops the game. Playing with your dog is 100% okay. They need it.

You can also try replacing your feet or hands with a chew toy every time he tries to bite you. Aisha just recently stopped with me and it was a work out and a half let me tell you. They are afterall puppies who like to explore everything by tasting them. He just needs to learn that your not a chew toy.

German Shepherds are very high energy dogs and very smart who like to be working most part of the day. When you do not tire them out enough they will eventually start to rip your house apart because they are bored. So even if you do not have a leash on him all the time and your washing dishes you can still make him work by making him follow your instructions of sitting or staying and giving a treat.

Taking the dog to puppy school may help especially with the social part. That is my problem with Aisha right now. She was fine socially until winter hit and we did not go out as much and now I see a problem which I need to start fixing. Getting your pup out as much as possible helps.

Last week I took Aisha to superpets to get her fitted for a new collar and OMG talk about being embarresed. She saw a cage full of rabbits that she just about knocked over and the second she walked in the store she barked her head off and no matter how hard i tried I could not control her. They had toys on the shelves that go off when a dog barks so imagine a whole shelve full of toys going off at the same time lol. After about 10 min she calmed down enough that she wasn't ready to pass out but I was so tired after that. I need to start taking her out again and getting her used to all sights and sounds which may take work but it needs to be done because she loves going out in the car with us.

Also, your dog will not fully calm down until he is at least 3 years of age. So, do not get upset it does get better lol

thanks again, Aisha, i printed the entire article, the second link that you sent me. I think thats my problem is the baby talk, i cant help it...but i guess i have to. also now that i think of it i do pet him too much.

But one good thing he did learn is that only quiet dogs that are sitting down get petted. i am going to try to teach him to stay now.

See the thing is that, growing up my family had a male GSD, he was 120 lbs of aggression. The reason for the aggression was that when he was a pup, he would bark at people and growl, and my grandfather would go "good dog, thats right protect us". So the result was when Karo was grown, my grandfather had to walk him at 3am, or at 7am when there were no people around because otherwise he would growl at people passing by, and even bit a few people in his lifetime. He would only go outside with a muzzle on during the day. But with me, I was a baby, he was the most gentle thing in the world, i would climb on him, pull his ears, etc... and he would just sleep, or clean me. But as soon as someone approached me, he would go into attack mode, even if it was my mother!

Now I am petrified that I will somehow make my dog aggressive, or somehow he will not listen to me. So I am desperately trying to stop him from barking at people and dogs, even though i understand that he does it due to the fact that he is 9 weelss old and jsut doesnt know what to do. And the fact that he does this with me only, devastates me.

I dont know, maybe I am being too paranoid.

I see what you mean. Thats why socializing him is so important.

When I had my other shephard I had the boys after I got her. I was really scared but she took on the role of protecting them. Sometimes my mom would not be allowed to take them for a walk in the stroller because she would not allow it.

With this one here, she see's the kids as her litter mates and listens to them only if she feels like it because she see's herself as part of the pact and when it comes to them she is simply higher up so I have to watch them all the time. Not that she would hurt them on purpose but she gets out of hand when they are playing. She will get it one day but for now I have to watch her.

An aggressive dog will become just that if you allow it. That is why showing them who is boss is really important right now while it is still a pup. I know its hard. We got Aisha at 6 weeks and you can't help yourself because they are sooooo cute but in a year or two when your still having problems you will be kicking yourself you know where lol.