I Got my 1st GS Puppy, Finally! - Page 3

Great puppy.  As far as crate training, we put ours in the crate the first night, we picked him up from the airport and got home very late.  He whined for about an hour and then stopped.  The next day, I had some treats and put it in the crate and it seemed like he got the idea that it was ok place to be in.  By the third day, he was going in by himself.  Potty training was also pretty easy, we took him out almost every 2 hours and when we saw him sniffing around the house.  We gave him a treat every time he went outside.  He had 2 accidents, pee and poop but after each accident, we gave him a firm no and took him outside and it was as if he understood after each that he wasn't supposed to do that in the house.  He was house broken in about 3 days also.  This was our first Shepherd and he is by far the easiest dog to be around and train.

What a pretty puppy congratulations!

If you might need it there is a really good puppy housebreaking schedule on page 117 in the book The Art of Raising a Puppy, by the Monks of New Skete.

Terri

Your first GS? Now your life begins! You wont consider any other breed from this point on,  now you have a proper dog, such a cute pup, enjoy, and Merry Xmas.

Jane

Thank you all for your kind and sweet comments. After all, this is a great messageboard community.

Merry Christmas

I did the same Maverick, in they go on the first night.   LOL   I just can't be bothered with the whole wee wee pad thing.  It's just a step that I'd rather skip!  Crate next to the bed, so I can hear the first stir.  But usually after a night or two they sleep through the night.  They do get to eat in the crate and I teach them to go in the crate with cookies.  First by tossing the cooking in, then they learn to go in, turn around, then they get the cookie.  It's quite the routine around here at meal time.  They get sent to their crates for their dinner and they all dive right in and wait patiently, well sort of!  Even though they don't really need crates, I have them out still anyway.  It's good for when the "non dog" people come over.  :)  Plus, if you have anyone doing any work on your house it's handy too.  Then half the time they go in the crates to sleep with the doors open!   So obviously they think that a crate is the cruelest thing on earth

Good luck with your new puppy!  She's very cute.  Looks like she's getting used to the crate already. 

Lol, when we were first doing the research we thought about the doggies diaper but crate training really does make house breaking simple.  Key is to make the crate not a place for punishment.  Kinda funny but ours is addicted to ice cubes so we use that as his treat : )

BTW, you may want to look at the large crates with the dividers.  They grow very fast and it gets expensive trying to match the crate to their size so the dividers make it a one size fits all solution.

 She's very cute. I trust she had a wonderful Christmas.

She is so sweet curled up with her moose and her rubber ducky.

It just doesn't get any cuter than that.

Soooooo damn cute, lol.  I can't wait until I get my boy on Jan. 31st : - }  Have fun with the pup, I know I will.....