Any fellow GSP (German Shorthaired Pointer) owners out there?

My GSP (Keith) used to be giddier than anything, but now at 2 yrs, he is quiet and confident around strangers and other dogs.  I raised him and  three of his seven siblings from 4 days, so we are very closely bonded.[]
 
We are required to "graduate" , or receive a qualifying score, to show at the local 4-H County Fair.  Keith gradutaed with 198 of 200.  But at the actual dog show, we had lightning, and pelting horoizontal rain on a tin roof.  eople were shuffling around and yelling, and there was a great deal of traffic suddenly leaving the rodeo nearby.  Even though we had practiced in this particular arena uncountable times, Keith was scared to death.  He would not stay on his long sits/downs (very un-characteristic) among other errors.  I felt so sorry for him.  We ended up with 140 some points.  I was really dissapointed, but I couldn't possibly blame him.  My other dog brought home three trophies, so I was consoled[].
 
We will probably stick with obedience, and add agility next year when classes start again.  His brother "Dirk" is already an agility nut.  They are best buddies 24/7, so I'm hoping Keith will follow suit.

Woohooo!  Shorthairs rock.  So what would you like to talk about?  Hard headnes? Whinning?  Perhaps the good points like good watch dog and loving to cuddle.   The most important thing to do is to make sure that he gets enough exercise both mental and phyiscally.  Otherwise they tend to make up ways to relieve their boredom like digging and chewing. 
 
Pics please

They do rock! Beau is 10 mos old now. I attached a pic here. He is the biggest sweetheart ever. He is handful. He is pretty good, loves to run around and wrestle and chase my two little terriers. They are all best buddies. He weighs about 54 lbs so not sure how much bigger he will get…when do GSP#%92s stop growing? Any ideas? We have our challenges with him though… ie. His ability to hold it in his kennel yet when he is playing he wants to go outside every five seconds and if you just ignore it he dribbles out of sight… we know its not a UTI as we went down that path a few months ago and the vet even gave him a big dose of meds just in case. He learns quickly but is stubborn as could be and just chooses not to listen half the time. We have to use a prong collar with him to go outside as he pulls like crazy!!! Graduated to a black kong yesterday as he has chewed the puppy and red strength to bits!
 
He is my big ‘ol baby though. Love him to bits! He is so sweet and nothing beats that grunting kissing thing he does…He licks our chins and makes the grunting noise like he just cant get enough!

 

ORIGINAL: rowdyval

Woohooo!  Shorthairs rock.  So what would you like to talk about?  Hard headnes? Whinning?  Perhaps the good points like good watch dog and loving to cuddle.   The most important thing to do is to make sure that he gets enough exercise both mental and phyiscally.  Otherwise they tend to make up ways to relieve their boredom like digging and chewing. 

Pics please

Lexi is part GSP, but I think she is from the shallow end of the gene pool - she's very flighty and soft.

She loves agility and obedience work, but not as much as sniffing and running. I love watching her move - those GSPs are so graceful and beautiful. She is also a crazy bird dog, and caught two pigeons while on lead. [8|]

Her biggest strength is that she is the sweetest, most loyal girl in the world. She lays in my office all day and would follow me to the end of the earth.

I was not a Pointer or GSP person before we adopted her, but she has stolen my heart.

Lovely dogs!

I have a 1 year, 8 month old Pointer. His name is Tucker. He's my first GSHP and we got him because of a friend's dog that we really liked and also because we have a springer and the breeds seemed pretty similar, and therefor, we hoped they would get a long well. And they do.

I love him to bits, he's a fantastic dog. He loves to play catch, whether it's a frisbee, ball, stick and so on and he could do so for hours. We have a smallish back yard so if we can't make it over to the dog park, it's still fairly easy for me to tire him out with a catch in the backyard.

 The only downside to the experience of owning a GSHP was the potty training. And after we got him I started to hear that that was an issue with the breed. But it literally took us up to about 1 year to get him completely trained. It was almost like he didn't ask to go pee until he actually had to absolutely pee...and what I mean by that is that he knew to go to the door and knew he was supposed to get outside, but if we were upstairs and he started signalling he had to go...by the time we let him downstairs and made it their ourselves...he would be peeing in front of the door.

 It was a bit frustrating and we worked on beating him to the door and just letting him out constantly, but we finally are at the point of being potty trained and all has been well since. Do any other of you GSHP owners have similar potty training stories?

But all in all, he's been a delight and he's such a good dog. Great temperment, smart and so on.

Anyway, it's great to meet other GSHP owners...it's a breed that's not overly common in my area at this point though I've met a couple others at the dog park.

~Erin

http://www.ladyabbies.com

BTW, Tucker is about 70 lbs now...he grew up to about 1 & 1/2 years old though sometimes we think he's still growing actually:) Some days he just looks like he's gotten bigger yet again. But those are probably the days when he's trying to be a lap dog and is smothering us beneath him!!

Great dogs. I have two Wiggles and Will. They are loads of fun, very smart also.

I love my lab to bits but Morrison is my little guy who has a firm hold on my heart-strings.  He drives me crazy with his energy level but his trainability, general smarts and his fantastic cuddles make up for it.  Here are some pics.  The chocolate lab is Monroe, he is 5.5 yrs and Morrison is 8.5 months now.

 

Well we can understand your frustration - we have two GSP, sisters, Hannah & Zoey.  We thought it would be so much fun to have two littermates as we always have had an old dog and a younger dog in the past (not GSPs).  We did our research (we thought) but these girls have more energy than we can even imagine having.  They just turned one year 9/23/07 and I wasn't sure I would make it!  What the books and people I spoke to didn't tell us was how difficult it is to train two puppies at the same time, how attached they get to each other and can't concentrate if the other one is anywhere nearby (or within hearing range because they whine for each other), and how much wrestling goes on during the day and night.  Our girls are housedogs, but every morning we have to walk (each one separately because they can't keep off each other to walk down the street) and then in the afternoon they go outside for a good hour or two to run and play.  But you are right, they are very affectionate, smart, alert dogs and they have our hearts too.  We can't believe how strong they are (and how stubborn they can be).  They are big girls - 75 lbs. and they have already gone through the sheetrock wall in the breezeway as they were charging through roughhousing.  It is like having young children in the home again.  I'll try again to post a picture.  We just found this website and we are glad to know we aren't alone, either.  P.S.  Your dogs are beautiful!

Austin Wrights

We had a great experience with housebreaking our two GSPs (sisters).  I actually think it was more training me than them, they learned to give me signals very quickly - I just had to notice them and it was usually never convenient.  I don't know how people housebreak a dog if they work all day, I was lucky enough to be home with mine all day and we worked on it 24/7.

Austin Wrights

We had a great experience with housebreaking our two GSPs (sisters).  I actually think it was more training me than them, they learned to give me signals very quickly - I just had to notice them and it was usually never convenient.  I don't know how people housebreak a dog if they work all day, I was lucky enough to be home with mine all day and we worked on it 24/7.

My oldest Wiggles is a 1 year & 6 Months. House training her was super easy it only took two days with her. Will is 7 Months and as big as she is now. The White & Liver is Kate, my brothers dog. Will & Kate are brother/sister. Those two took a good 4 weeks to housebreak, way longer than I thought it would take.

I have 3 gsp's.

I have the mother , her son who's 2 and her son who is 4 months. We bought her when she was 7 months old and boy oh boy was she a handful. She chewed up everything and anything she could get her teeth on but only outside in the yard. I don't think my son had a toy out there that she didn't mark w/ her teeth. She did finally mellow out but only after she had her first liter of pups. I thought I was gonna kill my husband before she stopped being awnry for bringing her home. LOL We got her fixed tho no more puppies for her. She was a horrible mother she gave her first liter up at 2 weeks old so I had to be  mommy to 8 puppies. The puppies were all awesome and heatlhy. We then had another liter thinking that she was 4 and was her first liter maybe next time she'd be better but I was wrong. She had 4 puppies and one died she did ok w/ the girls but the little boy came 36 hours after the 3rd puppy and that was after giving her 4 shots to put her back in labor. So, here's one for you all. Does anybody out here have or know anybody who has a miniture german shorthair?

My little guy who I bottle fed and fed him baby cereal and baby food the first almost 3 months of his life weighs 28 lbs is 4 months old and isn't even knee high. He's growing out not up. His name is also Wiggles. Cuz he was a wiggle butt when I was feeding him the bottle that was a difficult job w/ hardly any sleep.He's as smart as a whip he learned to sit, stay and shake all in a day but.... I can't get him to stop peeing in his kennel. Any ideas out there? I've tried different things and just don't always work. It's not an every day thing but he does do it like 3 or 4 times a week. I'm a night owl so I"m up late so he goes out to potty about 2 am for the last time and then he's outside by 8 or 9 at the latest. He don't get nothing to drink after 8 o'clock. I'm lost at what to do to break this. He's a cuddle bug and minds very well and even tho he's only 4 months old he hasn't yet chewed on anything that wasn't his toys. I hope that continues.

Her other son who I have his name is Benjamin and he's also a wonderful dog never chews on or up nothing. He loves to cuddle and still thinks he's a lap dog but he's a moose. WAY to big to be a lap dog and very strong. I took him in to get his shots yesteday and my mother n law went w/ me cuz I took both of them in we both tried to push his butt down and make him sit and he's stubborn and NEVER did sit. grrrrrrr lol   Yes, I just took wiggles in to get his first set of shots - was a little worried w/ all the problems he had in the beginning wanted to make sure he was strong and healthy before I gave him shots. I thought after I got his tail docked and dew claws done I was gonna lose him way to traumatic for him.

Anyways, just thought I'd join in this subject and see if anybody has ideas on how to kennel potty train a pup. He don't pee in my house or anywhere but outside and his kennel.

Hope to talk to u all soon,

Sherri

sherrijo

Anyways, just thought I'd join in this subject and see if anybody has ideas on how to kennel potty train a pup. He don't pee in my house or anywhere but outside and his kennel.

Sherri,

How big is his crate? If it is too big for him that may be the reason he is pee'n in it. Usually they don't do that if is is just big enough for them to lay down in.

When he was tiny we're talkin' like 5 lbs he was in a cat carrier. Then he was sweating in there so bad that I went and bought him the one that is 2 sizes up from that. It's not very big. He can lay out and touches from front to back that's it. He can stand up and don't quite touch the top yet. I thought about putting him in w/ his mom to see if that would help. Where there is 2 dogs together but hers is a big training wire type kennel. So, afraid to do that cuz then there's all kinds of room in there. But, yes I made sure not to get to big for that reason but it don't seem to work.