Bad Boy!

I am really disappointed after puppy class tonight.  Bodie was a baaaad boy!  He wasn't listening to us at all.  He has been really doing well with obedience, well, at least until this evening.  He refused to sit much less do any downs, and then he was a bully again in play period.  Corrections with the collar or with the spray bottle did not work either.  Training treats only worked for a quick sit but not for a down.  I don't understand what was up with him this evening.

Well, the only thing to do is to really work hard on training this coming week.

No More Detention!

Remedial recess went well yesterday.  The trainer had several dogs to test/train Bodie - a fully grown German Shepherd Dog, a fully grown Belgian Malinois, a young Malinois and a puppy Poodle mix (who is the class bully in his puppy class).  And Bodie was a good boy!  He played really nicely.  The two trainers there said that Bodie showed no signs of dog aggression - he is just too rambunctious.  We will just need to shadow him during play session.  But the other puppy in class who was acting up last week will not be returning.  :(  She was already in private training for being too aggressive and should not have been in the puppy class.

Growing Up

Two months old

I can't believe that we have had Bodie for a little more than two months now!  He has certainly become part of the family - I can't imagine life without him.  I think my sweetie is surprised at how much Bodie has ingrained himself into her affections.  She is becoming a real dog person.

The puppy is growing up so quickly!  All puppies, especially young puppies, look rather similar.  It is only as they get a bit older that you can tell what breed they are.  Bodie is around four months old and he is definitely looking like a German Shepherd Dog now.

Bodie's daddy weighs around 95 pounds but his mommy weighs only around 75 pounds.  I think Bodie will be somewhere is the middle.  He is rather stocky but he is not a real big eater.  He usually only finishes his food if RB hand feeds him.

Four months old

Bodie might not be much of an eater but he is certainly fixated on his toys.  Especially the ones that he can play tug of war with - he hangs on for dear life!  Daddy is SchH 3, mommy is SchH 1, and I think Bodie might be good for Schutzhund too.  We really need to get him evaluated for that.

The Class Bully

Oh, Bodie, Bodie, Bodie.  His second puppy class was last night and he flunked!  He flunked recess!!!  The trainer had to stop play period because a couple of puppies were too rough (Bodie was not the only one).  It is hard to see your baby be the bully.  *sigh*   He has detention on Monday.  Okay, it really isn't detention but an extra training session to try and teach him not to be so rough while playing but still.

But he was doing well otherwise; he is good at obedience.  The trainer tried to use him as a demo dog but had to get another puppy to use because Bodie wasn't acting up enough.  So I have mixed feelings about last night's puppy class. 

The Worrywart

That's me - the worrywart.  I can worry easily about anything but especially about pets.  They can't tell you when they don't feel well or are hurt.

Bodie was in the backyard this morning when he started yelping.  It was pitiful and loud!  I rushed outside and he was sitting there holding his paw up.  He didn't come to me so I went to get him and carried him into the house.  We checked him out but could not determine what was wrong.  He was limping just a bit and it wasn't obvious what might be injured.  I called the vet's office immediately and made an appointment.  It was just a little after 9:00am and an appointment slot wasn't available until 2:00pm.  Of course I took it, and they said they would call if an opening came up.  We kept him quiet and RB checked him out again after about an hour.  Bodie seemed fine.  She even took him for a walk, so we canceled the appointment.

And he is feeling as rambunctious as ever!  Right now Bodie is again in the backyard, standing on the deck and barking his head off (he already has his big boy bark - doesn't sound like a 4 month old puppy).  We are hoping he will burn off a little energy before our second puppy class this evening.

What a good boy!

Oh, Bodie was such a good boy yesterday!  RB is usually home while I go to work but yesterday she met me for lunch and then had an appointment.  So, of course, she put Bodie in his puppy pen as she was going to be gone for about four hours.  But I had a computer crisis at work (nasty malware!) and RB is a computer tech so she came straight from her appointment to try and rescue me.  She worked for hours trying to fix the problem until we finally had to get home to the puppy.  He was penned for eight hours and there was no problems at all!  Bodie was so good!!!  Of course, he had to pee and pee and pee as soon as we let him out.  He got bored, it was taking so long so he started walking while he was still peeing and had a good bark at the neighbor to boot.  Then he was extremely active all evening long and that is another story.  :D

One Handsome German Shepherd Puppy!

Bodie is turning out to be a good looking boy!

His ears have been up for awhile but one does flop a little bit for short periods of time. 
Floppy eared German Shepherd Dogs might look cute but... they just don't look right.  :)

German Shepherd Puppy Nipping

Bodie has been a bit difficult lately.  He is still doing that puppy nipping thing but now that he is bigger it is much more bothersome.  I certainly hopes he grows out of it quickly.

But I don't think that I am being fair to the puppy.  I can't help comparing him to my previous German Shepherd, Willie.  Willie was such a good boy.  He did not nip like Bodie does.  *sigh*  I can't keep thinking of how Bodie compares to Willie.  I need to work on that.

It's All Good

I don’t know how many obedience classes I have attended but between my own dogs and my sister's dogs, it has been quite a few.  Bodie’s first puppy class was this past Thursday.  I was looking forward to the play session but I thought that I would be rather bored with the class part.  Was I wrong!  I guess because Bodie is a bit more, hmm, how shall I say it?  Bodie is more challenging than my previous dogs, there were some techniques discussed in class that I never had to use before.  Bodie pays very little attention to “No” and a yank on the leash is an invitation to a play session, but a squirt of water definitely gets his attention!  We have made more progress with the puppy nipping in the last two days than we have in the last two weeks with a squirt from a spray bottle.  Yay!

This week we are supposed to use ten times more “Good’s” than “No’s”.  Whenever Bodie does any behavior that we like, we are supposed to “Good” him.  For example, he sits while we are watching : “Good sit!”  He lies down while we are : “Good down!”  So far it seems to be working well, especially for the “Give” command.  Bodie really wants to chase his toy but he won’t drop it so we can throw it again.  So lately when he shoves his giraffe in my lap, I ignore him.  As soon as he drops it, I say “Good give!” and I can see a look in his eyes that tells me he is starting to get it.

It was so nice to see Bodie playing with other puppies his same age!  There was another German Shepherd puppy, a Lab, an American Staffordshire Terrier, an Australian Kelpie and a Boston Terrier.  He was so excited to play with something that plays back.  (We dogsat my sisters two Shelties a few weeks back and they refused to play with him.)  We are trying to make sure that Bodie is well-socialized.  I did find it interesting that the trainer (she owns GSDs) was reassuring all the other puppy owners that the German Shepherd puppies were not being aggressive.  I guess their barking and posturing was a bit intimidating.

Why this German Shepherd Blog

As I mentioned yesterday, I miss Willie greatly. As Bodie grows up, I regret that I don't have a chronicle of Willie's puppy days and only have a couple of pictures.  So I decided that I would do it differently this time.   I want to keep journal about Bodie and try and get a picture throughout all the stages of his life.

Also, I love German Shepherd Dogs.  I have always loved German Shepherd Dogs. I have always wanted a German Shepherd Dog but growing up, my family never had one.  The closest we ever got was a Belgian Sheepdog.  He was a really good dog but I couldn't help but think "close but... ".  I entered the military after high school and being gone so much, it wasn't right to have a dog.  When I got out of the military, one of the first things I did was get a pet.  However, the job I had required extremely long hours and once again I passed on having a dog.  I got a cat instead.  Not quite the same but she was pretty amazing.  One of these days I will tell the story of my attack cat.  :D

Heather, Kaki, Kumu, Willie and Georgie

I got sick and tired of a job that required so many hours (no weekends and only three Sundays off in eleven months) with no real reward so I quit that job and moved back to the Pacific Northwest.  It was finally time to get a dog!  I looked around at local breeders for a German Shepherd but I ended up rescuing a Shetland Sheepdog.  She was a very timid Sheltie.  Well, actually she was extremely timid and submissive, and had a huge problem with submissive peeing.  I couldn't call her name or even look at her without her peeing all over.  I worked really hard with her, building her confidence and she ended up being a very good dog.

But because of her, I ended up being involved with Shelties for quite a while.  The most I ever had at one time was seven Shelties and two cats.  I did mainly obedience and a little agility. But I always felt that something wasn't right. The turning point for me was when I was out walking the trails with my dogs when I was accosted by some homeless guy.  What did my Shelties do?  Bark, like they did at everything?  No - they turned tail and ran away!  I took care of the situation by grabbing a branch and brandishing it around.  The Shelties ended up running all the way back home!  It was time to get a German Shepherd.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I loved my Shelties and I still think Shelties are wonderful dogs but there was something missing.  I wanted a German Shepherd Dog!  And I finally got one: Willie.  I thought he was perfect!!!  He was a great obedience dog, he was good at tracking, and we even did agility.  We tried schutzhund but he didn’t have the right personality for that.

Willie and Georgie

A few years after getting Willie, a got a Pembroke Corgi, Georgie.  He and Willie were great buddies.  They did everything together.  Unfortunately, Georgie had cancer and did not even make it to his second birthday.

As time passed, I had to put down my pets one at a time.  My last cat made it until she was 17 years old.  Willie made it to almost 16 years.  I was without a pet until Bodie.  I am amazed how right it feels to have a dog in the family again.

The Bodie Blog - The German Shepherd Puppy!

Here is the latest picture of our newest puppy, Bodie.  I think he is turning out to be a beautiful German Shepherd Dog.

I am not good at writing. I can be a bit pedantic and rather terse. But... I will try. I will try to write a couple times a week and write more than just a sentence or two. I am not too sure of that but I will see how it goes. My partner, RB is much better at it than I am. She is a really good writer, and she writes with such humor that it is a joy to read her stuff. However, for some reason, she doesn't want to write about our German Shepherd puppy.  :(   In spite of nagging her for weeks!  :D

I have owned several dogs in the past. I hate to say it but I had a favorite - my German Shepherd, Willie. He was the best dog! I had to put him down about a year and a half ago and I still miss him. It took until just about six weeks ago to finally get another dog. I wanted another German Shepherd but I was worried about constantly comparing the new dog to Willie.  Then RB moved in about a year ago and she had never had a dog before. She had heard quite a few stories about Willie and thought we should get a German Shepherd. But for someone who had never had a pet, who really hadn't ever been around dogs before, German Shepherds ccould be quite intimidating.

So we went to the breeder where I got Willie and made RB be with the adult dogs only, even the big boys! And she fell in love! She wanted to get a puppy right then and there. I wasn't planning that but agreed, and that is how we got Bodie!  RB picked him out herself, a nice quiet, calm puppy.

But  it turned out that he was sick, and he isn't quite as calm as we expected.  Don't they say you don't get the dog you want, but the dog you need?  :)