She is definitely being crate trained. She sleeps in there at night with me sleeping on the couch and about three feet away and makes it pretty much all night. We put her out for the last time at 11 and usually she has been sleeping until 5ish.

Now when I am making breakfast for the kids and goes back in so I can focus on getting breakfast ready she isn't all that excited about it and sounds like a wild racoon in there and when I leave to take the kids to school the same thing, but she is quiet when I get home.

Only had one potty training incident yesterday, but I feel good about it. She ran to the back door, but I couldn't get it open in time and we had a wet spot on the rug, but at least she is getting it and should be done soon.

She also finds the leaf blower pretty funny! She runs around and chases the leaves around. My german shepherds couldn't stand the noise and always wanted to go in the house when I was doing it.

Who do you think tires who out the most??? Also you can see the Mickey Mouse ears in this picture!

Welcome Elmo She and your children are sooo precious.  GSPs and children are great together as GSPs act like children their entire lives. Rocky and I are 70 miles south on HWY 41 from you in a little town of Berlin. I do envy you as you live in the Town of the Green and Gold Hope you are a Packer Fan.  Rocky and I both flunked crate training He has lived in our house un crated for the last 6 years and has not destroyed any furniture when we are gone. He is very good when we are gone. Rocky just does naughty stuff when we are here with him to get our attention  All GSPs are different. Well I got to go now and have a tennis ball session indoors in our big family room to wear Rocky out before I go to work  on this wet rainy day as I am a nurse on the PM shift

Yes I am quite familiar with the Gene Schroeder pheasant farm. That is the first game farm that my husband shot a pheasant on the other side of a pond. Rocky jumped in the pond , swam across , retrieved the bird, swam across again and dropped the bird 2 feet infront of him He was really proud of Rocky that day We also go to Rustling game farm in Berlin  We are 45 milles from Fond du lac and we have alot of family in Fond du lac too. So is such a small world.  I think the 70 miles comes from 50 miles south on HWY 41 then the 19 miles on HWY 91 going west to get to Berlin.   Best wishes with your new GSP pup. Nothing is more Adorable

Elmo,

Welcome from another cheesehead over here in Eau Claire.  Sounds like you have a lot going on with small kids and a great new dog.  All are as cute as can be.  It's great you can be home a lot while the dog is young. 

The crate is a great resource and tool.  Our Ranger has free range of the house even when we are gone and he hasn't hurt anything...much.  There were some incidents with garbage...

I know I've posted these before but like Daniel's couch, some images bear repeating!  I love his expression of denial.  "Who put all that garbage in my kennel.  Not me, nope, no sirree, uh-uh, couldn't have been me."

The fix to this situation was to buy one of those stainless steel garbage cans from WalMart, Target, etc. in which you step on the pedal to open it.  The lid closes tightly and is heavy enough with no lip that it's near impossible for a dog to use his nose to lift it.  Your results may vary, however

Welcome!