I have a gsd bitch 3 months old. She sleeps in her crate at night under the stairs and I take her for walks in the park twice a day each of them about 45mins. My problem is that I can't get any housework done. Her day is spent chewing and biting me with short naps in between. She falls asleep laying on my feet and if I move she wakes up and wants me to play. Can anyone out there give me a timetable of an average day that would enable me to get my housework done, my house has never been so dirty. My husband has thought of putting her in her crate during the day but I don't know how long this would be acceptable for.

45 mins is far too long to exercise a dog or 12 weeks old, 15 would be about right. No, whilst you have a pup doing anything is difficult they require full time attention, they will go to sleep for half an hour at a time every now an again to let you attend to the really important things apart from that you wait till your pup grows up a bit and learns to amuse herself. It would be Ok to pop her in a cage for half an hour at a time but make sure the cage is large enough for her to stand without her head touching the top.

I think that 2 walks of 45 mins each is a little on the excessive side for a puppy of this age.  If you spend several sessions of day playing and interacting with her in the house and garden with short trips to the outside world in order to get her used to all sorts of people, sights, sounds, animals in order for her to grow up into a competent and confident adult this would tire her out mentally and be far better for her physical health than all this walking IMHO.

When you need to get something done make sure she has emptied herself, eaten and has been mentally stimulated and then leave her with a stuffed kong etc.

HTH

I was told that it was ok to exercise 15mins per month of pups age and therefore 45mins would be right. I must add that I am 60years of age and so do not walk very fast. My park is only 10mins walk away and she is then on an extending lead to play at will. My pup is very exuberant and does not show any signs of being tired after her walks.

I think its more 5mins per month of the dog - therefore 15 minutes walk.  I don't think its got so much to do with tiring the puppy out but to do with the damage that could be caused to growing bones - especially in breed that suffers from such things.

It isn't about tiring out the puppy but abut damaging the growth plates in her legs

Giving her a filled kong will keep her busy & sorry but puppies are wonderful timewaters

The general consensus is I believe 5 mins per month of age.  Your dog may not appear tired but still be overstimulated like some young children who play until the point of exhaustion and sometimes get crabby and the danger is more to the joints which, in a susceptible breed such as the GSD, is the main risk.

Sounds to me like you will end up with a spoilt demanding dog!

You cannot live your life like this, and the dog needs to learn that it can't have you at its beck and call.  Once she has been exercised and had some play time I would certainly put her in cage, or puppy proof room for a while, say 20 mins to begin with and build up.

She needs to get used to time alone if she is to grow up into a well adjusted and secure dog

I brought a stair gate and  put it up,so my dog could see me but did'nt get under my feet .also a ball that you filled with treats works well too good luck.

Our 6-month lab is fine on his own if he doesn't know you're in the house but howls if he can hear you or see you, even though we ignore him when he does, so the stairgate idea doesn't work for us. The only solution for us with the housework issue was for one person to be with the dog in the kitchen while the other is cleaning; what you do if you're on your own I don't know :-)

Excellent excuse not to do the house-work! :D :D :D.
Incidentally, I'm very glad it's 5 minutes per month, not 15 - which if taken to its logical conclusion would mean 3 hours' exercise at 12 months.......then the owner would be too exhausted to do any house-work - lol.
Cathy.

I agree, Timhere, Have had a lot of GSD experience in my life, knowing the breed and just how demanding they can be, you are making a rod for your own back! The more you give, the more they demand, until you can give no more, they are very intelligent and soon cotton on to the fact that they can dominate you, it can become a vicious circle, good luck.

Tohme,  we take our 11 month English Pointer to a woods for an hour at a time.  She runs/sprints freely there, and there are many hills.  She also gets about a 30 minute leash walk in the evening and once in while in the morning another 20-25 minute leash walk.  In your opinion are we overdoing it?  I know no-one wants to causes joint problems with their pups.  We have done this for a couple of months.

I got another pup to keep my dog company. I know its extreme but I felt exactly the same as you and my life stopped because of the dog. Kongs are great but they only keep them occupied until the food runs out.

Crating her is another option. Its awful these dogs make you feel so guilty when you don't give them undevoted attention. Good luck!

Gaby,  Hang in there.  I have posted the same frustrations!  It is tough for a while.  I am seeing improvement with our 11 month pup, but we had increased exercise.  After reading the posts, I wonder if we are doing too much exercise.  But, hang in there.  It will be like this for a little while.  We have a crate, but I find gating often helps.  My pup used to turn into a wild girl when I would get out the vacuum.

Good thing I asked the question. So 15mins seems to be the general opinion. Pity we were both so enjoying our walks but I guess plenty of time for that in the future. I have a baby gate accross the hall which prevents her from going upstairs or flying at the front door every time anyone comes (always the danger of her running in the road and getting run over). She sits and cries at the gate when she wants to go out but she will have to get used to it. She has a very large crate 42" and will put up with very short periods in there. My husband works away from home 5 days a week and I am very thankfull for the respite at the weekends. From day 1 I have had to put her water bowl up on the work surface in my kitchen as her idea of fun is to put her paws into the bowl and move it about the kitchen with the resulting slopping all over the floor, not satisfied with that she wants to turn it over. I tried to stop her from doing this but with no success. This results in her having to tell me when she wants a drink. She manages to do this very well. I wonder who is training who. I  have had gsd many years ago but cannot recall having as many problems as this. One by one she has destroyed all my plants both in and out of the house. No is a word to be ignored. Once she has found something she is not supposed to do, she does it all the more. I have been trying to stop her from jumping up on my leather suite but I think she sees it as a way of getting my full attention. I give a firm no but she just wags her tail and stays put. I have tried just getting one of her toys to distract her but then her actions have just had the desired effect. I tried grabbing her by the scruff of the neck but this just results in her barking at me and trying to bite my hand. If I was reading this from someone else I would think that the person was not playing enough with the pup but believe me that apart from eating and sleeping most of my day is spent playing with her. What am I doing wrong?      

What are you feeding her?  Additives etc etc in some commercial foods can be extremely antagonistic to some dogs.  I would feed as natural a product as possible eg Burns dry  or Naturediet wet to avoid the problems that some foods can cause.

Hi Gaby
I don't think you are doing any thing wrong. I remember when my lab was a young puppy, she drove me up the wall some days, I work from home and for about the first 6 months my productivity was at an all time low! I found a "routine" was the only way to cope, as long as she had been exercised,been to the toilet, fed and watered I would leave her in the kitchen (all chewable items out of the way, except for her chews and toys) for about an hour at a time. Then I'd go down, take her out in the garden to play and toilet, spend about 20mins wth her, and then back to work I would go and she would be put back in the kitchen. She would cry and cry at first, but soon she settled down and it it is now are normal routine. She is 18 months now and is as good as gold. She has the run of the house but prefers to sleep in my office with me. We still have our tea breaks together which involve a run around the garden, but she is not so demanding any more. It sounds like your pup is a lively little one, but hold on to the fact that often the higher energy puppies can turn into wonderfully trained companions. My trainer said to me once that the naughtier your pup may seem, the easier they are to train, it's a matter of channeling their energies. I totaly agree with this now, although when Emmy was a youngster I had days when I thought I'd taken on more than I could cope with.
Good luck.

Joules your posting could have been describing my experience, word for word! Just really to back up what you say - our lab is now 6 months old and after feeling at the end of our tethers quite often for the first few months he is gradually becoming a pleasure to be with. So stick with it Gaby - you WILL get there and have a beautiful companion...

The food she is on is Royal Canin. This was the food she was on with the Breeder. She is on 135grams 3 times a day and 6 small bonios for supper in her Kong. Her bowel movements are super and she seems to be very healthy. I have been steadily increasing this amount as she seems to be hungry all the time, although this is not unusual in pups. Good job she is so beautiful to compensate for the bad behaviour. Can the type of food realy make a difference to behaviour. 

Yes, it can. There are so many rubbish foods out there with colourings in and more. i was on a list the other day where a trainer was discussing a puppy who was very OTT . She recommended a diet change and over a period of 4 days the wild behavour lessened to normal proportions ;) Not saying it will always help but it is worth giving something as "natural" as possible i feel.

Lindsay

sounds like Puppy needs to learn the hard way what is appropriate behaviour, before she gets too big to discipline easily. Are you taking her to socialisation classes yet?

Our trainer recommends that when they get out of control, to pick them up and put them in the quiet room- she recommended a downstairs bathroom or utility room- where they can't do too much damage. You leave them in there for about 5 minutes, until they are quiet. this should be reserved for bad/unacceptable behaviour.

I have tried this and found it does work- you are depriving them of your attention as a punshment and they quickly learn the cause and affect. As always expect behaviour to worsen before it gets better.

Gabby, don't worry about feeding her on Royal Canine.  I use it and consider it a very good quality food. As others have said, you are doing nothing wrong and lots of things right, she is just being a puppy. 

As for jumping on the sofa, I haven't tried it but have heard some good results with putting tin foil over the seats, they don't like the noise and feel of it when they jump on it. Worth a try.

Mine are only allowed in the lounge if they behave, they know it is a no playing, no toy zone, takes a while with a pup but you can get there. 

Good Luck
Sandra

I find sometimes that a short training session is more exhausting for a pup (or a dog for that matter) than a long walk. Mental exercise can really tire out a pup, so perhaps until you can increase the length of the walks you can set aside a couple of 5 minutes training inbetween. At 3 months they are so willing to learn so you can get cracking with sit, down, stay, heel, paw, anything really. Obviously a GSD will become big and strong very quickly so the more training that takes place at such a young age the better. Then pup will learn that you have short training/play sessions and then it is settle down/ amuse yourself time, perhaps in a crate, whist you get on with the housework. (Hopefully!!) Also if you can try to vary the walks so that you can socialise as well as exercise. Something else you could consider, is that you could give 3 short walks a day instead of two long walks.

Thank you all for your advice. I have been looking for a puppy class in the Anfield area as I don't drive it needs to be local. Does anyone out there know of one? My pup is growing at a rapid rate of knots and her paws already reach the top of my work surfaces in the kitchen, and I need the obedience thing sorted sooner rather than later.  

Ha Ha, I'm with you on the water thing!  Have you tried one of the metal bowls with the rubber grip at the bottom that they can't move around?  It worked for us (until little miss poser worked out she could see her reflection in the bottom, and has now become fascinated with it!  Her latest thing is pawing the water to try and get at 'the dog' at the bottom of the bowl.  During more vigourous attempts we still end up with water all over the kitchen floor but I like to see this as an excuse not to have to mop it, hurrah!)  Anyway, I doubt this is a common trait, and you might find using a bowl like this useful as they (generally) can't move it.

Gaby
I would suggest your pup gets used to being on her own NOW...to be at her constant beck and call is likely to encourage seperation anxiety in the future.
We all have lives to lead aswell as spending time with our pets so when I need to do something I either use a gate to keep the pup out of harrms way ot his crate.I learnt the hard way...I had a GSD who was with me every minute ..including in my room at night.In the end when he had to be left on his own he 'ate the house'...including walls,floorboards etc...and he was only left for short periods while I took the children to school,did the shopping etc
Archer