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Housebreaking:

Supervise your puppy

Don’t give your puppy an opportunity to soil in the house; keep an eye on them whenever they’re indoors.

Tether your puppy to you or a nearby piece of furniture with a six-foot leash if you are not actively potty training or playing. Watch for signs that your puppy needs to go out. Some signs are obvious, such as barking or scratching at the door, squatting, restlessness, sniffing around or circling. When you see these signs, immediately grab the leash and take them outside to their bathroom spot. If they eliminate, praise them and reward with a treat.

Keep your puppy on leash in the yard. During the housebreaking process, your yard should be treated like any other room in your house. Give your puppy some freedom in the house and yard only after they become reliably house trained.

When you can’t supervise, confine

When you’re unable to watch your puppy at all times, restrict them to an area small enough that they won’t want to eliminate there.

Browse Dog Crates on Amazon.com

• The space should be big enough to comfortably stand, lie down and turn around. You can use a portion of a bathroom or laundry room blocked off with baby gates.
• Or you may want to crate train your puppy. (Be sure to learn how to use a crate humanely as a method of confinement.) If your puppy has spent several hours in confinement, you’ll need to take them directly to their bathroom spot as soon as you return.

Mistakes happen

Expect your puppy to have a few accidents in the house—it’s a normal part of potty training. Here’s what to do when that happens:

• Without a lot of drama, immediately take them to their outside bathroom spot. Praise your pup and give a treat if they finish there.
• Don’t punish your puppy for eliminating in the house. If you find a soiled area, just clean it up. Rubbing your puppy’s nose in it, taking them to the spot and scolding them or any other punishment will only make them afraid of you or afraid to eliminate in your presence. Punishment will do more harm than good.
• Clean the soiled area thoroughly. Puppies are highly motivated to continue soiling in areas that smell like urine or feces.

It’s extremely important that you use these supervision and confinement procedures to minimize the number of accidents. If you allow your puppy to eliminate frequently in the house, they’ll get confused about where they’re supposed to go, which will prolong the house training process.

See Cleo on Comment gallery page for an excellent idea!

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Signs of Heat:

Pay Attention to the Signs

Paying attention to the symptoms when your dog goes in heat will allow you to prepare for puppies or prevent mating from taking place. Understanding and timing the cycle is imperative if you have a dog that hasn’t been spayed.

Look for swelling of the vulva. Your dog’s vulva is located directly below her anus. Before your dog goes into heat, her vulva will start to swell slightly. When she is in full heat, her vulva will swell to three times its normal size and will take on a reddish color.

Notice any vaginal bleeding. Vaginal bleeding is a sign that your dog will soon be going into heat. When your dog goes into heat, the amount of blood will decrease quite a bit and the blood will become brownish in color.

• If a dog is scrupulously clean and licks away the discharge, it can be tricky to know if a discharge is present or not. A useful tip is to cover her bed with a white sheet or pillowcase. That way when she is asleep you will see blood spots on the white cover.
• If you plan on breeding your dog, write down the day that the bleeding begins. Breeding is best done on the 10th or 11th day after the first day of bleeding and then every other day after that for three days.

Notice whether your dog continuously licks herself. Another sign that your dog is entering heat, or in its early stages, is if she constantly licks her vagina. While some female dogs won’t do this, most dogs will develop this behavior right around the time that they go into heat.

Take note if your dog starts acting strangely. dogs who are in the early stages of heat tend to develop behaviors that they do not typically display. In particular, female dogs who are about to go into heat are usually nervous, agitated, or easily irritated.^[4]

• Some dogs will also bark more or become more aggressive with people and dogs around them.

Pay attention to increased mating behaviors. If your female dog begins mounting male dogs or other dogs, she is more than likely in heat. Mounting is a common sign that a dog is in the full swing of heat. She may even try to mount your legs.

• However, dogs can mount legs or each other for behavioral reasons, such as masturbating, dominance, or bizarrely from submissive behavior, so this does not automatically mean a dog in heat.

Watch for changes in the way your dog positions her tail. When a female dog enters heat, she will curl her tail to one side, making it easier for mating to occur. This action is called ‘flagging’ and is a common behavior of dog in heat.^[5]

• You may also elicit this behavior by giving her a vigorous scratch on her rump. If she stiffens her back legs and diverts her tail to one side she is flagging.
• Never insert anything into the dog’s vulva or vagina to test out if she is ready. You can inadvertently cause harm to the delicate, inflamed tissues and cause huge distress to her.

Know that some female dogs are ‘silent heaters’. These dogs do not display any noticeable signs of being in heat. They produce reproductive hormones but don’t develop the more usual external signs such as a swollen vulva.

• The only way you can really confirm if a silent heater is in heat is by observing the interactions between male dogs and the female dog in question. Male dogs will detect even low levels of female reproductive hormones, which will arouse their intense interest and attention.
• Be aware that some dogs do “skip” a heat. If they are unwell or their health is below par, or if they have lost weight recently, their body may save its energy and she won’t come into heat when expected. This is nature’s way of saying her body needs all its reserves to look after number one, rather than being in a state of flourishing good health where she could care for puppies.

Pay attention to the levels of aggressiveness in male dogs. If you have a couple of male dogs, as well as your female dog who you think may be in heat, pay attention to how aggressive your male dogs are to one another. When more than one male dog is around a female in heat, they will begin to act very aggre ssively towards one another to prove who is dominant and should mate with the female dog.

Notice an increase in verbal communication and agitation. If you own one male dog and a female dog that you think may be in heat, pay attention to how the male dog reacts to being kept apart from the female dog. If he seems more agitated than normal and whines frequently, he is most likely verbalizing his irritation and not being allowed near the female dog. This is a good indicator that your dog is in heat.

• Although this is not foolproof and you need to interpret this in the context of the dog’s physical changes and the male dog’s usual behavior when kept apart from his female pal. Some dogs experience anxiety when separated from a close playmate and this is difficult to differentiate from sexual frustration.

Observe the interactions between your male dog and your female dog. If you let your dogs run around together all the time, then observe what happens when your male dog gets near your female dog. If your dog allows her vagina to be licked and sniffed for an extended period of time, she is most likely in heat. In particular, if she lets herself be mounted it is a sign that she is in heat.^[6]

• However, allowing another dog to mount her, can also be a sign of submissive behavior, so once again, you need to interpret the whole picture and ask questions such as is her heat due and how does she normally behave around dogs. Remember, sniffing bottoms is something dogs like to do a lot, at the best of times, just to work out who is who!
• If your male and female dogs don’t normally interact, keep your male dog on a leash when you bring him near your female dog. One or both dogs may become aggressive if they are not familiar with each other.

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Degenerative Myelopathy

(The dogs below, are not my dogs. I got these pictures off the internet for a visual explanation of Degenerative Myelopathy)
Degenerative Myelopathy: Below are pictures of dogs who have Degenerative Myelopathy. It is important to understand what this disease is and how to avoid it. My dogs are tested for this disease and will not produce puppies that will develop this horrible disorder.

Degenerative Myelopathy Information:

As a German Shepherd owner, you may have heard about a devastating disease called Degenerative Myelopathy. Often thought of as the canine equivalent of Multiple Sclerosis, this progressive neurological disease affects the spinal cord and ravages muscle coordination, starting in the hind legs and eventually affecting the front legs, as well. Over a few to several months, it progresses to the point where a dog can no longer walk. While it also appears in other large breeds, Degenerative Myelopathy (DM) is most prevalent in German Shepherds, and usually becomes apparent in dogs from 5-14 years old.
Watch for these symptoms
If your German Shepherd displays one or more of these symptoms, consult your veterinarian right away.
Progressive weakness of the hind limbs

• Dragging nails
• Difficulty rising
• Difficulty jumping
• Stumbling
• Knuckling of the toes
• Wearing of the inner toes of the rear paws
• Loss of muscle in the rear legs
• Tremors of the rear legs

Treatment for Degenerative Myelopathy
Sadly, there is no significantly effective treatment for DM, and the disease tends to disable within months. While the prognosis for a dog with this disease is grave, the quality of life of an affected dog can be improved by good care. Exercise and physical rehabilitation can be helpful in maintaining the dog’s well-being, maximizing muscle tone and strength, and maintaining good circulation and conditioning. Since many dogs have lost muscle tone prior to their diagnosis, it is important to gradually build up their level of activity, so gently and easily increase the affected dog’s exercise level.
The outlook
Hopefully, veterinary science will develop disease-modifying drugs similar to those used to treat Multiple Sclerosis to slow or halt the progression of the disease. In addition, the discovery of a gene that identifies dogs at risk for developing DM could pave the way for therapeutic trials of medications that will prevent the disease from developing. This discovery might also alert breeders about which dogs carry the genes, so they can choose not to breed them.
Degenerative Myelopathy (DM) is a progressive disease of the spinal cord in older dogs. The disease has an insidious onset typically between 8 and 14 years of age. It begins with a loss of coordination (ataxia) in the hind limbs. The affected dog will wobble when walking, knuckle over or drag the feet. This can first occur in one hind limb and then affect the other. As the disease progresses, the limbs become weak and the dog begins to buckle and has difficulty standing. The weakness gets progressively worse until the dog is unable to walk. The clinical course can range from 6 months to 1 year before dogs become paraplegic. If signs progress for a longer period of time, loss of urinary and fecal continence may occur and eventually weakness will develop in the front limbs. Another key feature of DM is that it is not a painful disease.  Although any dog can be tested for DM, it is possible that the genetic background that predominates in some breeds prevents the development of symptoms even in dogs testing affected (at risk).  At this time the required evidence of association between the genetic mutation and actual spinal cord evaluations has only been proven in the breeds listed.
Please see http://www.offa.org/dnatesting/dmexplanation.html and http://www.caninegeneticdiseases.net/DM/ancmntDM.htm for additional information on DM diagnosis.
C (AT RISK/AFFECTED): These dogs have two copies of the mutation and will likely develop DM during their lifetime. Although many dogs tested to date typed as ‘AT RISK/AFFECTED’ have been clinically confirmed DM, recent evidence suggest that there are other causes of DM in some breeds. In addition, not all dogs testing as ‘AT RISK/AFFECTED’ have shown clinical signs of DM. Research is ongoing to estimate what percentage of dogs testing as ‘AT RISK/AFFECTED’ will develop DM within their lifespan. At this point, the DM mutation can be interpreted as being ‘AT RISK’ of developing DM within the animal’s lifetime. For dogs showing clinical signs with a presumptive diagnosis of DM, ‘AT RISK/AFFECTED test results can be used as an additional tool to aid in the diagnosis of DM.


The 3 possible genotypes for degenerative myelopathy:

• CLEAR (those having 2 copies of the normal allele and appear to be normal).
• CARRIER (those having 1 copy of the normal allele and 1 copy of the mutation and most appear to be normal).
• AT RISK (those having 2 copies of the mutation and will likely show clinical signs.)

Check out Orthopedic Foundation for Animals to see more info regarding Degenerative Myelopathy (DM).