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Maggie’s Man's Best Friend Thread

Working with our new pup and trying to reign in the biting. He might be 10 weeks-ish now. When he first comes out of the kennel in the morning he needs little corrections. Usually just a ‘tssst’. Sometimes accompanied with an extremely light fingers touch to his side. My wife and I are the only ones giving him the bigger scruff of the neck holds until he submits. After one of those he is usually good to go for a while. But often with my 5 and 3 year old he likes to play bite bite litter mate dominance games when we aren’t paying rapt attention. I have resorted to pretending like I’m not watching so I can catch him in the act and correct him immediately. If he bites them and either my wife or I walk up he reverts to perfect angel status. ”What, who me?!”

Does he just need more time or is there something else I can do? I figure after enough corrections he’ll figure it out and quit. But I just want to make sure there isn’t some simple thing I’m missing.

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He should be teething at that age, and as Haney said, he will somewhat grow out of it. When Lisl would do that I would stop her and firmly say NO BITING, while pushing her back. Sometimes pushing her face/head back. Many times a re-direct works better depending on their mood. While saying NO BITING, give him a toy to divert his attention from you.

I used positive re-inforcement for 90% of my training of German Shepherd Dogs. I have found over the years, that bitches are easier to train than the males. Their attention spans seem better, and they submit to second banana much easier than alpha males do.
 
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I have read most of the posts about losing a dog. It rips my heart out. My Bronson doesn't have long to live. What an awesome dog. I'm sorry I am am losing it.
We are here for you brother. Bronson can play with all of our dogs on the other side when it is his time. They will help him out and he will have friends.
 
This was Lisl von Schlaf. She passed away on 05JAN24 in her sleep at 11 years, 3 months, and 9 days. I miss her dearly. She was my fifth German Shepherd Dog I raised and trained from a pup. She was the most intelligent of the lot, and I think a lot smarter than I knew. She was so easy to train she would have a command learned in less than an hour and never forget it. Excellent personal protection dog, knew basic and advanced obedience, agility exercises, and tracking.

Her ashes are sitting beside me.

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What a beautiful girl.
My condolences on your loss.
 
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I have read most of the posts about losing a dog. It rips my heart out. My Bronson doesn't have long to live. What an awesome dog. I'm sorry I am am losing it.
I wish I had better words for you at this time.

Watching out best friend decline is one of the hardest things there is.

My prayers are that, when the time comes, it is peaceful and you are able to be with him.

They give us their all and ask for so little in return.

My thoughts are with you.
 
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Thanks for posting this. My time was RVN '68, '69 and '70. Our teams stayed in the same AO as combat units moved in and out. Our job entailed working with indigenous people. The entire time I was there the combat unit was the 173rd. I lived on two different LZs. One Bigade size and one Battalion size. There were a number of names spoken with reverence. Three were soldiers and one was a scout dog of the 39th Scout Dog Platoon attached to the 173rd. His name was Budda.

https://www.members.tripod.com/39th_scout_dogs/id20.htm

The indigenous that we worked with were, I'm sure, treated in the same manner.

Edit: I suggest you grab a couple of Kleenex if you take the time to read Budda's story. I had no idea the dogs were treated in this manner until several years after I left.
 
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He started out really light weight but tall compared to the German Shepherd puppy growth charts I can find. But he seems to be doing just fine. He has a ton of fluff going on, but when I wash him and can see what his body really looks like he seems lean, but nowhere near scary lean. He’s happy and has energy and drive so <shrugs>
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At 8 weeks he was 9” but only 8lbs
10 weeks about 11” and 12lbs
12 weeks about 14” and almost 19lbs

They were so fluffy they didn’t notice that the Dam had stopped feeding them and 2 of the pups died. He seems to be making a rebound from his low weight. But most places I look people seem to say those charts don’t always jive.

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Jolly Roger the Pirate Dog had a close encounter with a skunk last night. I let him out about 10:30 for his last potty trip. As soon as I opened the door he took off chasing and barking at something. I stepped out to see what it was and it was a skunk! I hollered for him to come back, but he chased the skunk till he got to the radio fence boundary.

Jolly came running back to me and started rubbing his face in the grass so I knew he got sprayed. The skunk didn't get a full dump on him, but did get him in the face, chin, and neck. Jolly ran past me back into the house (I hadn't closed the door) and rubbed his face on the dining room and bedroom carpet before I could catch him. I caught him and headed for the bath tub.

The wife got the dog shampoo and I started washing him. Dogs usually don't like their face rinsed but he kept sticking his face under the spray nozzle and he was licking the water spray trying to get the taste out of his mouth. The wife mixed up some vinegar & water and I poured that over him then rinsed him good. The mix worked and he didn't smell like skunk after we got him dried off.

The house still smelled this morning and its from where Jolly rubbed his face on the carpet. We aired out the house and sprayed the carpet. It will probably be a day or two before the stink is all gone. We've had dogs for 38 years and this was our first skunk encounter.


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Jolly Roger the Pirate Dog had a close encounter with a skunk last night. I let him out about 10:30 for his last potty trip. As soon as I opened the door he took off chasing and barking at something. I stepped out to see what it was and it was a skunk! I hollered for him to come back, but he chased the skunk till he got to the radio fence boundary.

Jolly came running back to me and started rubbing his face in the grass so I knew he got sprayed. The skunk didn't get a full dump on him, but did get him in the face, chin, and neck. Jolly ran past me back into the house (I hadn't closed the door) and rubbed his face on the dining room and bedroom carpet before I could catch him. I caught him and headed for the bath tub.

The wife got the dog shampoo and I started washing him. Dogs usually don't like their face rinsed but he kept sticking his face under the spray nozzle and he was licking the water spray trying to get the taste out of his mouth. The wife mixed up some vinegar & water and I poured that over him then rinsed him good. The mix worked and he didn't smell like skunk after we got him dried off.

The house still smelled this morning and its from where Jolly rubbed his face on the carpet. We aired out the house and sprayed the carpet. It will probably be a day or two before the stink is all gone. We've had dogs for 38 years and this was our first skunk encounter.


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Not a bad idea to keep some Thornell Skunk-Off shampoo around; luckily Jolly only got a partial shot!
 
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