Dutch Shepherd Forum

Hello all,

Well- I am happy to say that I now officially own a beautiful, 12-week old little girl named Cleopatra. A few questions about getting her adjusted to her new environment.

Shes already developing a really strong attachment to me, perhaps a little too strong. She starts howling every time I "disappear." I have been trying to leave her alone for about 5 minutes at a time, and will slowly increase that time as she gets better at being alone. However, I was wondering- are there any good methods for reducing the dogs seperation anxiety besides the usual chew toys and length increase? I left her in the crate so I could sleep and she howled all night long. Any suggestions would be very helpful..

Also- I understand that she has been in my home less than 24-hours, but I was wondering if it is unusual that she is seemingly scared of everything? I tried to take her for a walk, but she wouldnt move. Am I being impatient? Do I need to give her more time to adjust to her surroundings, or is it possible that I chose a dog that has some serious anxiety issues?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Ive had a dutch shepherd before and they are amazing dogs, but Ive never dealt with a puppy as my last one was about 8-months old when I had gotten him.

Thank you for your help!

zxs107020 wrote: ↑Sat May 13, 2017 2:16 pm Hello all,

Well- I am happy to say that I now officially own a beautiful, 12-week old little girl named Cleopatra. A few questions about getting her adjusted to her new environment.

Shes already developing a really strong attachment to me, perhaps a little too strong.

Nope, that's normal. they will get very bonded to their human and are like velcro

zxs107020 wrote: ↑Sat May 13, 2017 2:16 pm
She starts howling every time I "disappear." I have been trying to leave her alone for about 5 minutes at a time, and will slowly increase that time as she gets better at being alone. However, I was wondering- are there any good methods for reducing the dogs seperation anxiety besides the usual chew toys and length increase? I left her in the crate so I could sleep and she howled all night long. Any suggestions would be very helpful..

keep doing that, make sure she has something of yours in her crate and let her get used to the crate. put her in while you are in the house so the crate has no meaning. pups need to go in there for quiet time too, so they can chill and you can get stuff done. the crate is always positive, never eve negative.

she is young so it will take some time, don't rush her.

zxs107020 wrote: ↑Sat May 13, 2017 2:16 pm
Also- I understand that she has been in my home less than 24-hours, but I was wondering if it is unusual that she is seemingly scared of everything? I tried to take her for a walk, but she wouldnt move. Am I being impatient? Do I need to give her more time to adjust to her surroundings, or is it possible that I chose a dog that has some serious anxiety issues?

she is in a new place, it will take a few weeks to get used to her new home. you be positive, but no baby talking, no " aww cleo, it will be fine" don't do that. just be quite but do not show any fear or worry that she is scared. you ignore it and let her work through it herself, when she does, then its party time.

there is a possibility that she is anxious and is more scared of the world than another pup. Sadie is like that. I got her at 12 weeks from the NADSR and she is a wonderful dog, but scared of everything and very insecure. I have socialized her ( not to other dogs) to the world and it takes time but she is just by nature scared and wary of everything, and I mean everything. that is who she is

you wont know until she grows up some more

zxs107020 wrote: ↑Sat May 13, 2017 2:16 pm Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Ive had a dutch shepherd before and they are amazing dogs, but Ive never dealt with a puppy as my last one was about 8-months old when I had gotten him.

Thank you for your help!

Are you the only human that lives with her?

^ what Lisa said.
It's been ten years since I crate trained Aurora as a pup, but I started way shorter than five minutes.

Hi Lisa,

Thank you for your response. I am not the only human who lives with her, my parents are here too.

My house has a balcony which is about 5 ft by 8ft and is naturally enclosed, so I have an outdoor kennel for Cleo out there as well as her crate in my room. So, I have been leaving her outside during the day for about 30 minutes - hour at a time. She still howls out there too- and has already chewed up the door frame trying to get back inside (she has plenty of chew toys). She howls to be let inside, only to go to sleep at my feet lol. Anyway, I bought some granny apple bitter spray to use on the door frame.

I was nervous about the anxious behavior because when I brought my 8 mo old male home he had adjusted immediately. I thought the nervous behavior was a warning sign of bad temperament, but I guess lets keep our fingers crossed that shell snap out of it in no time. I will take your advice and not give in to her whining with excessive concern.

However, this crate training business is also new to me. Any advice would be great. I didnt use a crate on my last dog and I dont plan on using the crate after Cleo is potty-trained, she saw the crate as comforting and secure for all of about 5 minutes. After the second time I closed the door on her, now she hates it. I have my clicker and am feeding her exclusively by hand (for at least a couple days), so I guess I will just throw bits of food inside and click when she goes in to get them? Other than that, Im kind of at a loss as to how I can quickly acclimate her to the crate- I want to be able to leave the door open and at least have her use it as a bed but right now she wont go in.

" bad " is a human term. "bad" does not exist in dog language. There is only communication. he does not know chewing the door frame is bad, he is trying to tell you something, that he does not want to be out.

There is a book, or a video called "crate games" I have never heard or seen it but its been talked about on here. I have never had problems crate training any of my dogs, so I have never used it. I make sure there is something of mine in there for the smell. then if they cry , ignore it. Its not easy but if you answer every cry or bark, you just trained it and it will be that much harder to untrain.

the click comes first, its "Mark" then " treat" you have 3 seconds to mark and treat together to have them understand what they did was what you want

the treat is the reward, have a toy or something.. One thing is the " go in and get it" and the other is the reward.

You cant set the time to acclimate her to the crate, that is up to her, she will let you know when she is learning. you must watch her and take cues from her as to when you can move on to longer times.

always leave the crate door open, keep stuff in there, allow her to check it out on her own.

I didn't crate Riddick when he was a pup, in fact didn't buy a crate until he was around eighteen months old and only because the trainer at the time flipped out when he learned I had a young dog left alone in the home. I didn't have many issues but it was definitely a training of this is mine and this is yours- he had his own toys and couldn't touch anything of mine. Now Asia was already crate trained when I got her as she was older. Zoe, my Malinois learned very fast in fact I was impressed with how fast she learned. She was crate trained up to eight hours a day by about eleven to twelve weeks old. I mean she was a very young pup and was already house broken and crate trained which was amazing. Partly because when I was at work, she was crated next to Asia so I didn't have a choice in leaving them alone. No food or water in the morning before I left of course. They still howl even now when I leave- all three howl, then they settle down after a little bit. Now all have their dog beds and they stay on those primarily- all three have full reign of the house when I'm gone. I also have pet birds- which the dogs leave alone.

My new dog has begun eating her own poop. I think this is a new habit because I watched her poop at the breeder's house and she didnt do it then. Im not sure why she has started, but I think it may be that I have not been giving her enough food. For the first three days, my plan is to only feed her one cup a day, by hand, during training time. Beginning tomorrow she will also be getting one can of wet food a day to supplement her dry food. (I am using Orijen puppy formula dry and Wellness choice puppy wet). I have bought a bitter-spray and my plan is to try also start spraying the poop before Cleo gets a chance to bite down.

As far as crate training goes- its hard to say how shes doing in terms of accidents because there is a darkly-colored pet bed inside and she has been eating her poop. lol- but I have been trying to take her out every hour or two to enforce the habit of using an outdoor potty spot. The problem is that I have had her for about 48-hours and I havent seen her pee yet. She has learned the command "crate" but hates it and is continuing to howl non-stop when left in it for more than 10 minutes.

mmmmm eating poop yum !!

check this out for some reasons
http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/16 ... -about-it/

Orajen is a great food. I feed at to my crew.

make sure she has something of yours in the crate and just let her howl.

Well, Cleo is slowly opening up. She has stopped eating her poop and wailing at night. She doesnt like her crate, but goes in on command. I havent taken her for a walk yet because she refuses to move when I try- I am going to use her food to try and lure her to Starbucks today. Id like to upload some pictures but Im not quite sure how too. When I tried to "add files" it says they are too large.

Instructions for photo uploads here

Mark77 wrote: ↑Sun May 14, 2017 1:48 pm I didn't crate Riddick when he was a pup, in fact didn't buy a crate until he was around eighteen months old and only because the trainer at the time flipped out when he learned I had a young dog left alone in the home. I didn't have many issues but it was definitely a training of this is mine and this is yours- he had his own toys and couldn't touch anything of mine. Now Asia was already crate trained when I got her as she was older. Zoe, my Malinois learned very fast in fact I was impressed with how fast she learned. She was crate trained up to eight hours a day by about eleven to twelve weeks old. I mean she was a very young pup and was already house broken and crate trained which was amazing. Partly because when I was at work, she was crated next to Asia so I didn't have a choice in leaving them alone. No food or water in the morning before I left of course. They still howl even now when I leave- all three howl, then they settle down after a little bit. Now all have their dog beds and they stay on those primarily- all three have full reign of the house when I'm gone. I also have pet birds- which the dogs leave alone.

I didnt want to crate her, but I figure it will be useful to simply have her crate-trained so that if she ever needs to go in for some random reason shes not terrified of it. If I werent living with my parents, she too would have free reign. My plan is to begin leaving the door open at night as soon as I feel that shes reliably potty trained. So far she has only peed in the house twice, both times it was only a tiny mess and entirely my fault.

Now my main concern is getting her to walk around the neighborhood and go out into the world. I havent even tried for the past 5 days because I could tell she was still adjusting to her new surroundings- but I think shes comfortable with me and the house and backyard now. She will hopefully become my psychological service dog so I am really focused on making sure she is well socialized and confident in public. So far, the only "fear" that Ive seen is that she refuses to cross roads.

Its a good idea to crate train even though you may never crate them. you never know when you may need to in an emergency or if they are hurt, or who knows what. Mine have free reign but I do need to crate them when I go out. Thalie gets separation anxiety and has wrecked some of my windows. When she does not need to be in, leave the door open with some toys, some of your stuff and maybe some kibble so she sees the crate as not all bad.

Don't rush her, stay in your yard until she is comfortable there, take her for walks there. don't push her, let her tell you when she is ready to go farther.

What do you mean by " well socialized"? sounds? people?

How is she on your driveway? Is the road hot? does it hurt her paws? is it noisy? the first time out of your house for a walk should be a quiet place so she can get used to being away from her home.

Dutchringgirl wrote: ↑Wed May 17, 2017 5:02 pm Don't rush her, stay in your yard until she is comfortable there, take her for walks there. don't push her, let her tell you when she is ready to go farther.

What do you mean by " well socialized"? sounds? people?

How is she on your driveway? Is the road hot? does it hurt her paws? is it noisy? the first time out of your house for a walk should be a quiet place so she can get used to being away from her home.

I live in Dallas, so it can get pretty hot here during the day- so I let her stay in the grass/shade as opposed to a strict heel. As far as "well socialized" I mean that she should not be afraid of anything, including: sounds, people, places. At the same time, she also needs to ignore other animals and also people as well. Basically- I should be able to take her anywhere and she should not make a fuss, so far she hasnt.

I just took her to Starbucks, trained her on the way there and gave her free reign on the way back. She did good all the way up to Starbucks but I think she got tired, although she was fine on the way back also after I "dragged" her out of the Starbucks.

OMG SO ADORABLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well...........sure , we can say that we want/need a dog that is fearless and can do anything and go anywhere. Much of that is training and much is personality. My Thalie, can walk through a crowd of anything and never leave my side , no leash or collar. She does not pay any attention to anything / anyone but me. That is hours upon hours of training 7 days a week for years.

Sadie, at 6.5 is afraid of her own shadow. Its breeding too, Thalie is from top blood lines and Sadie ...well... lets just leave it at that.

She may very well be that. A rock, super solid. It will take a LOT of time and a LOT of training.

You took her in starbucks? Great, take her in as many places that allow dogs. Just watch her and make sure you let her tell you when she is ready, or when she isn't, when she wants to leave and go to the quiet of her car.

Cleopatra is beautiful!

centrop67 wrote: ↑Wed May 17, 2017 9:35 pm Cleopatra is beautiful!

Thank you

Dutchringgirl wrote: ↑Wed May 17, 2017 9:32 pm OMG SO ADORABLE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well...........sure , we can say that we want/need a dog that is fearless and can do anything and go anywhere. Much of that is training and much is personality. My Thalie, can walk through a crowd of anything and never leave my side , no leash or collar. She does not pay any attention to anything / anyone but me. That is hours upon hours of training 7 days a week for years.

Sadie, at 6.5 is afraid of her own shadow. Its breeding too, Thalie is from top blood lines and Sadie ...well... lets just leave it at that.

She may very well be that. A rock, super solid. It will take a LOT of time and a LOT of training.

You took her in starbucks? Great, take her in as many places that allow dogs. Just watch her and make sure you let her tell you when she is ready, or when she isn't, when she wants to leave and go to the quiet of her car.

Thank you

Yea, I plan on taking her out in public to different places once a day, or at least every other day. Since it was her first time on the leash going for a walk, Id say she did pretty good. She is a little more brave and outgoing every day...so for now Im going to say the behaviors I was worried about at first were simply the product of being seperated from mom and in a new environment.

Im a little concerned about taking her out and in public. I intend for her to be my service dog but right now she is just a puppy and we need A LOT of training before shell be totally ready. Having said that, is she allowed to go inside at places where they allow service dogs? When I went to Starbucks, no one said anything- should I take that as a sign that it is OK for me to take her with me when I go?

OMG... that is one cute puppy!!! Feel free to post more puppy pics.

she sounds like she will be fine. Yes, it will be TONS and TONS of training. have you found a trainer? I believe she can only go in places that allow service dogs if she has a service dog vest, or collar or something that says she is a service dog. I am not sure about that, you may have to look into that. Hardware stores are good about dogs. pet co and pet stores are all fine . food places are usually strict as that is a health no no to have animals in there unless it is a service dog.