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GERMAN SHEPHERD PUPS
Here is the second article on caring for your new puppy.
In Article No 1, I
outlined some of the principles for looking after your puppy and while this
information may not be complete, it will give you some of the issue that you
need to cover. If you have not read Article 1, go to
this link or use the link in the right hand side column. Feel free to
drop me a line if you have any questions or require advice and while I do not
profess to be an expert, I will provide what advice I can, but if in doubt on
anything, go see your Veterinarian for more advice. In this article I
will attempt to provide more information as your Puppy grows older.
A few
points to remember:
-
Don't
forget your puppy is not to go outside of the house or your garden until he/she
has completed her injections up to and including the 16 weeks and add a week on
for good measure.
-
Praise
your mate every time he/she does something correct
-
Chastise
by word with a loud and stern voice when they do something wrong - 'NO'. Never, never hit
your puppy or dog, as this will cause long and far reaching effects, which I
will relate to in later articles. Your puppy will if looked after give you years
of enjoyment and obedience, but remember if you ill treat him or her, be
prepared to take the consequences, as then tend to be like elephants they never
forget.
-
One
member of the family is to be the main Handler or Trainer, as the German
Shepherd will respond to other family members, but it must only have one master
or mistress and if this is a female member of the family, they must be prepared
to be forceful or stern when required and be able to control 40kg+ of muscle
when the puppy is fully grown. You can take it from me that when my JAZ
(44kg) sees a cat before me, I have my work cut out for me until he is under control.
Okay here are some more guidelines in looking after your puppy:
-
Toilet
Training - Be responsible and make sure that you clean up after your best
friend, nothing is more annoying when you see people out with their pooches and
they let them do their business and just walk off. Every time I see this I
catch up with the person and let them know in no uncertain terms what I think of
this behaviour, not only does it decimate the walk ways or parklands, but
children play or walk in these areas. Hence, when you go out for a walk,
take some plastic bags with you so that you can pick up your puppies business if
it does some. Sorry I rambled on a bit as I am a
little annoyed when people act irresponsibly. Anyway back to Toilet
Training normally some tell tale signs during exercise, puppy starts
circling and sniffing. After meals normally 45mins to an hour, your pet
will want to go to the toilet, again watch for the signs as described
before.
-
Toilet
Accidents - These will occur, but if as soon as you take your new Puppy or dog
home if you start off from day one in the right frame of mind, I believe these
accidents will be a non event after the first one or two. My rule of thumb
is as above after meals watch for the signs and if there is an accident, take
your puppy to the site, show him/her the business and ensure that they have a
good sniff and if not place their nose very close, they will not like this and
may fight, but be firm and then as above Loud stern Voice 'NO' and
take them out side onto the lawn. Usually for German Shepherds I have only had to do
this once or twice and with some puppies or dogs I have not had to at all.
There will be times when you pooch like you will not be well and while you
should still tell your mate off, if he or she has at least made it to the door
praise them and not tell them off. JAZ, now will come up to me or my boss
(the wife)
and tell us he wants to go out, by nudging us with his nose and asking us to
follow him to the door. Additionally last thing at night before going to
bed I take him out the back garden and tell him to go to Wee and 99% of the time
he will go or I wait until he does. Then I have a full nights sleep and he
waits until the morning before going again. If he needs to go during the
night and it does happen I am woken with a big kiss or him licking my face and
yes 2:00am in the morning I get up and take him out. Well he has come and
woken me up so I am prepared to get up with him instead of having to clean a
mess up in the morning.
-
Weight
-
Remember to check your pets weight once a week around the same time and day and
he/she should gain around 1-2lbs (1/2-1 kg) a day until fully grown.
Generally the Shepherd stops growing between 16-18months so if you giving him or
her calcium this must continue until they are 18 months old. Once
your pup stops growing, he or she should fill out a little, but be sure to not
let your pup get too fat and don't over feed. A good rule of thumb is to
run your hands along side their rib cage and while you should be able to feel
the dogs ribs there should be a little fat there. If you cannot feel the
ribs, them your pooch is too fat!
-
Exercise
- After all injections complete and it is time to take your puppy out, please
realise this will be their first introduction to the big wide world and they
need to be introduced slowly. Do not be too adventurous on your first
outing, a short walk up and down your street to introduce him/her to the
neighbourhood will suffice and then build on this. Gradually increase
exercise, not too quickly, but when fully grown you puppy will require around
8-10km of exercise a day.
-
Socialise - Many problems are encountered by owners not socialising their
pooches, Dogs like us, like to meet different dogs and say hallo and yes the
sniffing of the rear parts is their way of identifying and greeting each other.
I always, take my pets to the local park and currently we mix with many
different breeds and ages of pets (approximately 12), German Shepherds, Rottweiller, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Sheep dogs, Cocker Spaniel, St Bernard, cattle
dog, and a few bitsers. Initially, one should take their pet to the other
dogs and introduce, let the dogs sniff yours and you will be surprised the
reactions that will eventuate. Puppies are generally understood to be just
that and you will see that the older dogs will just sniff and then leave them
alone. With adult dogs, this is a different story, if your dog and the
other dog is on a lead, then there may be some initial disruption, so I tend to
hold my pet and get the other owner to do likewise and then bring them together,
if they are okay, I then let them both off their leads and watch as they play
and if they do not put mine back on his lead. A big No No is when meeting
another dog Do Not I repeat DO NOT pick your dog up. this occurs quite often
with the smaller breeds and it is annoying as it teaches the smaller dog to be
scared of the others. I take a ball with me up the park and gain a lot of
pleasure watching my pooch chase and retrieve the ball and yes very early I
start to get him to come back to me with the ball and praise him when he does.
-
Training - I will approach in the next article as this is a very important
aspect to address and I will use a whole article on this aspect.
-
Registration - Not sure of the requirements in your neck of the woods, but
where I live all pets must be registered with their local council or borough and
then renew every year.
-
Biting/Nipping - This is a definite No no, while your puppy like any growing
child, needs something for his teeth, you should ensure that he has suitable
toys for this purpose. If he chews or attempts to chew your hands or
fingers or anyone else you must stop him/her immediately, because if you don't
your pup will think this is normal and as he or she gets older the teeth get
bigger and so does the jaw and power behind it, get my meaning?
-
Toys
- I normally, gets various pieces of hard wood for my puppy to chew on and when
he is good I give him a 4 x 2 biscuit, a very very hard biscuit containing
oatmeal, charcoal and cod liver oil, that while he is growing up will take him
time to eat, gnaw on and now he demolishes one in a couple of minutes.
Other toys are rubber rings, hard Kong balls that up to now have lasted four
German Shepherds and while scuffed are still as good as new, a rope I use to
play tug with him to strengthen his teeth and jaw muscles and various other
things.
-
Collar - Get pet used to a collar early, I do not use hard collars but I use
a choker chains and the first one should be small enough to go over the pets
head without causing any problems. A lot of people have the impression
that choker chains hurt your pet, this is not true as long as you put it on the
correct way. If you are not sure which way this is contact me and I will
assist. I only put my pets chain on when I take him out for his walks, and
this is the way I have introduced him to the chain, so now when I get his lead
and chain he jumps for joy because he knows that it is walk time.
Initially when training or taking your dog for a walk he or she will pull, a
quick tug on the lead will check that pul and eventually your pet will no longer
pull. I will go into more detail in the next article. I do not leave
the chian on when I return home as soon as I arrive at the house I take his
chain off and he runs free. Oh please consider that as your pep grows you
will have to increase the size of your choker chain a very light one for pups, a
medium one for 12months up and then when fully grown a large chain. I find that
the German made chains are stronger and better.
-
Lead
- I use a strong cotton lead with a hook clasp which connects to the choker
chain and normally a short one for the puppy and a longer one for a grown dog.
Leads should always be held in the right hand and the dog trained to walk on
your left and I will explain further in the next article under training.
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Tom Maloney has been active on the Internet for a number of years,
is open, honest and a platinum member of Prosper With Integrity,
come and visit the Internet’s Premier Small Business Home for
entrepreneurs! http://mpamads.com/?u=188327&l=3561 or mail to
tom@makeadamoney.com
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