Heya, I bought myself a gorgeous german shepherd bitch pup. She's brilliant, she's already learned sit, stay, heel, bed all that but due to one of my cats attacking her as was gradually introducing (flying fuzzball with teeth) she sleeps in our front room. she still has to pee on newspaper cause of the cat (kitchen is freezin) now thats not the problem ...the problem is that when its time for bed..she gets 2 one and a half hour walks and one 30minute walk before bedtime but when you are settling her down and i go away [ she has my fav hoody with a hot water bottle in and we have the radio on upstairs plus the scent blankey we got from the breeder] shes ok for an hour dozey and then after that she starts crying out.

Now what do i do?
I Atm i am changing her hot water bottle refreshing her water then leave and it seems to work. at least i pray it does!

Can i have any more tips on how i can prevent the crying out?
and to top that off the crate i ordered her due to a mess up at the shop won't arrive till several weeks now! >=@

would really appreciate the help!

Thanks Allyce (first time dog owner! yeh it shows! =] heehee)

Hi,
I would have thought that 2 one and a half hour walks and a 30 min walk before bedtime was far too much daily walking for a GSD pup of this age (12 weeks) and is asking for trouble a little later in her life, also GSDs tend to be very clean, could she be worried about using newspaper to wee, and she is being forced to mess indoors? If the cat didn't attack her, where would she sleep, also how long have you had her. Sorry so many questions but she could just be lonely and need reassurance, as said before, she could be worried about messing indoors, a pup of this age may not get all the way through the night without needing a wee especially if stressed, I know I have been outside in the night (nighty, wellies and torch ) until a pup was settled enough to go all night. The blanket gives her comfort for a little while, but then a strange sound could frighten her. So many reasons for the crying, is there any way you could use a gate so she could hear you but not reach you, this way she may not feel so alone, she is a baby after all.
Once you are sure there is nothing wrong and she is just demanding attention, then she will get over it, but she is still young, taken away from her litter mates and left on her own in a strange place, I think I would cry too. Maybe I'm just a softy !!!

Allyce, the general rule with exercise is about 5 minutes per month of their life as you have to be careful with growing joints, so our 10 month old gets 50 mins to an hour. I'm surprised the breeder never told you! They get exercise in other ways rather than just walking.

You can either use a crate so they have a special safe place, make it in to a den, or have them in the room with you and gradually move them out over a few weeks, or ignore the fuss. There is no right way to do things and it depends on what works for you with your circumstances, good luck, it's only a baby still.   

I feel it's essential to repeat the importance of limiting exercise for growing puppies in breeds that are prone to joint problems, such as GSDs. At this young age walks are for socialisation and training purposes rather than exercise (a young puppy gets a lot of exercise playing at home and in the garden) and 5 minutes per month of age is good rule of thumb. At 3 months your puppy's walks shouldn't be more than 15 minutes (20 minutes at most) with plenty of time to rest between them, to try to avoid painful (and costly) medical problems when she's grown up.

Just to back up Roxylady here, thank goodness you have come on the site so soon, un-beknowingly you have been making a terrible mistake.  Your poor pup is being walked as an adult GSD not a pup. The thumb rule is 5 mins walk per month of age this pup should be having 2 x 15 min walks per day. that is 7.5 mins there 7.5 mins back, no more.  To give her more may well damage her growth plates cause HD and irreparable damage. So cease the over walking now. Also no running up and down stairs or jumping up. Be very careful with her, I don't understand why the breeder told you none of this, it is so important. I hope that her parents had good hip scores too.

Re: The night time crying, pups come from a litter so firstly miss their littermates, the hot water bottle will offer her some comfort there, though they do turn cold, so not great for her to cuddle up to later on. Just make sure she has a nice warm bed, if the kitchen is cold maybe an old coat too.   Once she has got over the fact of no longer having her siblings she then has to get used to you leaving her too, so it can be a stressful time for many pups.  But it is easy to erradicate, once you have tucked her in and said night then you must leave her, not go back to her no matter how much she cries, if you go back once you will ruin everything she will cry and whimper until you return. Dogs adapt, they are great at adapting, so if you are consistant she will soon learn that night and you going upstairs is the last time you see her until you get up.

Once she has stopped crying, then you can speed up her toilet training by weeks by getting up to let her out at 4am, (if you are up to this, I know some people just can't get up, so if you can't, you can't but it really does speed the process up if you can)  quick let out to toilet, then back to bed, at 5 months then get up at 5-5.30am and then at 6 months 6am, then progress to 7am after 8 months.

Good luck and stop that over walking pronto.

As I said before, I am a softy. I tend to have my pups at the side of my bed so if they cry I can just put my hand out to reassure them. This is sufficient for them to know they are not alone and they settle down again. We both get more sleep this way. Once they become more sure of their home and surroundings then they do not need this comforting so much. I know having dogs in the bedroom will not be acceptable to many people, but it is my way and it works for me.

> Once you are sure there is nothing wrong and she is just demanding attention, then she will get over it, but she is still young, taken away from her litter mates and left on her own in a strange place, I think I would cry too. Maybe I'm just a softy

Yes she is very young and insecure yet, she will settle, our 1st GSD took a week to settle, the breeder never told us he had left lights on for the litter,

> I would have thought that 2 one and a half hour walks and a 30 min walk before bedtime was far too much daily walking for a GSD pup of this age (12 weeks) and is asking for trouble a little later in her life,

I agree, i had to read the post back to check the age of the puppy.

> I tend to have my pups at the side of my bed so if they cry I can just put my hand out to reassure them. This is sufficient for them to know they are not alone and they settle down again

My thoughts too.  And it's what I always advise my new puppy owners to do.  I don't go with this "let them get on with it" thing.  They are so lonely and confused - and we abandon them in an environment that they aren't used to, with scarey noises and really odd smells.

It never hurt anyone to take the "go softly" approach.  And I would advise the OP to at least read The Perfect Puppy, as it seems little research has been done on owning a dog in the first place.

And I couldn't get my head round
She's brilliant, she's already learned sit, stay, heel,
Getting her settled in before wanting to have an obedience champion would have been my priority at this age.

She's brilliant, she's already learned sit, stay, heel

Missed this bit, walking to heel at 12 weeks, very impressed. Must admit my pups are learning sit and stay from 8 weeks onwards, with continual recall training from that age too. I get stuck in quickly. When you spend a lot of time with a pup it is quite easy to teach the very basics at a young age, as long as the pup is eager and enjoying themselves it is as much fun as anything else, pups love the praise they get when doing something we want, you've obviously made her feel loved to wish to please.

As you have done so very well already I am wondering just a niggle here, if the pup is constantly with you all the time, as well as bonding and training and playing of course you do also need to have the pup get used to being away from you to avoid seperation anxiety, it will also help with the night-time crying. Througout times of the day are you going upstairs or into other parts of the house for approx 10 mins without the pup in tow? If not you also need to start doing this approx 5 times a day, when you return don't fuss the pup just walk in and ignore her and then once she stops fussing you give her a stroke and acknowledge her. All these little things gradually build up to make a well balanced dog, not too clingy, independant, loyal and obediant.

She sounds an absolute darling of a pup.

First please, please stop all the walking.  We have owned GSD's for over 25 years and as with all other breeds you really should stick to the 5 minute per month rule.  My 6 mth old Rottie pup is only out for 30 minute walks and this has been gradually built up to.  Over exercising not only damages their joints it also gives you an overtired puppy - very similar to an over tired toddler!

When mine are put in their bed to sleep that is where they stay until the morning.  I do not return to them if they wimper because they soon settle back down and go to sleep.  Although with a new pup i put them to bed later than normal and get up earlier than I normally would.  my 6 mth old pup now actually takes herself off to her puppy crate at 9pm every night as she is ready for bed!

You could always cancel your order and just pick up another crate from elsewhere, best to start crate training early.

Sorry just editing to say about the sleeping at night, depending on the pup I do alter where they are put at night.  My Akita slept in a crate in my room, my male Rottie stayed in a crate downstairs with another dog in the same room...he soon settled to sleeping in the front room with no problems and my new Rottie bitch was used to being in a pen/crate so went straight in that and from 9 weeks onwards I never heard a peep.

> and to top that off the crate i ordered her due to a mess up at the shop won't arrive till several weeks now! >=@

I have always found crates from pet shops to be very overpriced.  could you cancel the order and geet one from ebay?  There are some great bargains to be had on there, I have found the dog health ones to be great and very cheap.  Good luck with the pup and like the others have said please cut down on the exercise. 

Hi
I just wanted to be sure that your baby has had her puppy vaccinations first of all.
Twelve weeks is awfully early for a big walk like you have been doing at this age she should be eating sleeping and playing , if you have a garden she should be getting all the exercise she needs at home for now but will need lots of socialization as well.
I usually sit in the front garden with my babies and let them see what is going on in the big wide world , they get to see traffic passing from a safe distance as well I,m very lucky that all the children pass by my house on the way to the local playgroup and primary school so they become accustomed to children from a very early age.
Then as soon as they are old enough its of to training class we go.
As everyone else has mentioned please do not over exercise your baby at this very important stage in her life her bones need to develop and she needs plenty of time to grow and rest in between if you just start gradually you will be able to build up the exercise as she develops and you will soon get a feel for how much she needs.
best of luck with her
Sharon

If you think the problem is her water bottle cooling you could get her a snugglesafe heat pad, I use one for my ferret son very cold nights and there is still some heat left in it when I take it out in the morning, its very easy to use and the heat lasts for ages.
Just wanted to reinforce what the others have said regarding exercise for a pup; I nearly wrecked my youngest dogs joints by taking him out with the older dog too soon but luckily found out after a week that I was doing wrong, however he has weak cruciate ligaments now and I'll always have that niggle that I did that to him

A 12 week old pup should only be getting 15 minutes of formal walks once or twice a day, the rest is playing in your own garden,a nd watching the world go round from your arms or from a vantage point outside your house or trips in the car.

A pup of this age is growing at an extraordinary rate and damage can easily be done to joints ligaments and muscles from over exercise, especially in larger breeds. Your dealing with a canine infant, who needs lots off rest and proper feedign and socialisation, not lots of excersise.

the rule of thumb re lead walking is 5 minutes per month of life.

so 15 minutes at 3 months, 20 minutes at 4 months, 30 minutes at 6 months 45 minutes at 9 months, and hour at a year.  with your breed I would probably stick to this rule until around 18 months, at which time they could do 1.5 hours, after that as much as you both like, within reason.

RoxyLady,
the breeder told me to walk her those times so yeh! =/ wow aint i taken for a mup!
she's got my hoody at all times & the hot water bottle gets changed 1) to settle her and calm and the 2nd just before i go to sleep and all that time includes play times as well! sorry forgot to mention that! I made sure i saw the hip scores and they are excellent. I was surprised when they said long walks cause it seemed a bit too extreme. Sadly I can't have her upstairs but if i hear her cry (as living room is underneath my room) i go down and comfort her. I know she is unsettled at times obv she is a baby, shes now loving weeing outside (we have a cemetery  across the road) so overall she's doing a lot better but its nice to know that there is support as i thought i might be a bad owner! =,[ i am a big softy with her but don't let her become too cheeky. Have now taken to putting my hoody over a cushion and the hot water bottle inside it to in a way re enact someone being there and it seems to have really worked.

Thanks everyone for the advice

Responses to all!! my cat when i tried to move her out of one room full on attacker her (thankfully no damage) have tried the garden but happened again called an advice line and i have to keep her away till the cat is settled again so the walk else where is the only outside she can sadly get!

>>shes now loving weeing outside (we have a cemetery  across the road)>>

Sorry but I think taking her into a cemetry to wee is totally inappropriate!!

> Sorry but I think taking her into a cemetery to wee is totally inappropriate!!

Some cemeteries allow it.... We have one here that has poo-bins!

Hi, as you are a new owner and doing great so far, have you checked out info about socialisation and that sort of thing? with GSds especially, you need to socialise them proactively and ensure they have experience of both humans and other animals and dogs from an early age, but at the same time not over doing it so that they are scared.

This may be of some help:
http://www.apbc.org.uk/articles/socialising_a_litter  it's actually written more for breeders, but gives a good idea of what is useful

also http://www.puppyschool.co.uk/advice_information/socialisation.html very good one.

Good training classes, http://www.apdt.co.uk/  http://www.puppyschool.co.uk/#

Hope that helps and doesn't overload you with information!

Lindsay
x

Just a thought can you keep the cat in side when you take the pup into the garden ? I have both cats and a gsd
not the first time either but each cat and dog relationship is deifferent. It will work given time but I think your pup needs to use your garden as much as possible it will make things easier all round.
As for crates if its possible to cancel the order I would you need to start using a crate as early as possible. I have got all mine off ebay (4 of them different sizes as I have a toy breed too)and paid anything from 1p !! to £20.00 for a 48in. If you cant get one really soon I would try and do without.

Lots of really good advice given to you here but definately get to a good training class asap as with most dogs early training and socialisation down frequently and gently is a must

that! I made sure i saw the hip scores and they are excellent

Who's hip scores did you see!

3 1/2 hrs of walking is far far to much  for such a very young puppy.