New pup, training help/ideas needed.

[Lauren]

Hi all! I picked up my new DS puppy on Thursday. She will be 8 weeks old tomorrow.

I asked the breeder for a very low drive, not dominant pup. I figured that the lowest drive pup of a working breed would be a really nice fit with our moderately active family (with indoor cats, free range chickens, and kids 11 and 15 yrs old). Xena seems to fit the bill! What a beautiful little sweetheart! She greets dogs and humans respectfully and even tried kissing the cats (until they ran then the drive was ON). She is sleeping in her crate pretty well, walking on the leash like a champ, sitting on command and when she is unsure, and taking corrections from our older standard poodle in stride (he likes her a lot).

My questions are these:

When I try to correct her (about not chasing cats, chickens, drinking my coffee) she just gets more wound up and determined. I have her on lead almost all of the time right now, so I can stop her, but if I touch her to get her to look at me or to break her concentration, she growls and goes at it harder. What can I do?

She is doing really well on her walks. 15-35 min. twice a day on sidewalks. Is this going to hurt her joints?

She desperately wants to play and neither the dog or cats or chickens are the least bit inclined!!!! Is it ok for me to play tug with her? I have read that this creates more challenging dominant dogs that know they are stronger than you. I tried it for a minute and she LOVED it. Then my standard walked up and growled at her to stop, so she did. Any games that I can play that will not encourage biting? This is the first dog my kids have ever liked and I want to keep it that way.

THANK YOU!!! Lauren and Xena

[icvanstra]

Congrats on your new puppy and welcome to the forum.

At this point in time I think playing some tug is okay but don't let it turn into a dominance issue. Start teaching the puppy to "out." When the puppy starts teething stop all the tug play!

My experiences with Cino was lots of scratched up arms and chew marks on me until I figured out how to keep him sufficiently entertained and such.

[Lauren]

Thanks, Eric. She will be so happy. Here is a picture of her....