Hello this is my first post on these forums.

About 4 days ago I picked up my 8 week old GSP, I've decided to start with crate training and he's in the living room by the backdoor. I've been potty training him with great success and have only had a couple of indoor accidents but I do need a bit of advice in some subjects.

My first question is at night for the past three nights he's whined all night except for a couple of hours, I'll cut him off at 7p.m. from food and water, put him in his crate at about 10-11p.m. then around 3:00-3:30a.m. I'll get up to give him a potty break, at 6:00a.m. I'm up and hes out for the daily routine. Am I doing this right? I dont want his first days with a crate a nightmare should I keep him in the crate in my room for a week or so or should i just sitck with what I'm doing now.

My second queston is I have a year old cat that is very mellow but the puppy will follow her around and start barking at her so I want to squash this habit A.S.A.P., the cats lived around dogs before and has no problem around dogs.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated and by the way my GSP is all liver and pics will be on the way thanks! .

Hi and welcome to the forum.  With regard to the crate and your pup, you might want to move the crate into your bedroom  near you for the first week or so.  You have a baby who has been removed from his family and is getting used to a new home.  That takes some time and patience, but you can ease that transition a bit by moving him close to his new owner.

I have two inside cats and they have learned to live with both my girls and vice versa. I never saw the barking behavior, but my youngest was very interested in the cats and wanted to play with them.  I didn't intervene and the cats pretty much straightened her out.  She will still at 3 YO try to get them to play and sometimes they do.  The only thing I would watch for would be if the cat tries to hurt the puppy, but other than that I would let them figure it out now before the pup gets any bigger.  They should be able to sort it out.

Our cat will not stand up for herself, our pup totally pounces the cat when he can catch her, if he gives chase, he'll nock down anything in his way.  Our cat is being way to good of a sport about this, she needs to teach our pup a thing or 2.  So for now when pup has run of the house, we have to put the cat in the other room and keep the door closed.

Hey guys thanks for all of the tips, so far I decided to leave him where he was and since he's stoped howling at night I can get a full nights sleep

Now as for the cat and him they've kicked it up a notch. I've caught them play fighting where the cat will mess with the dog and stalk him and then they'll wrestle around but every time I catch them he's always on top of her biting at her and shes got her arms around him biting back but neither of them make any hissing or barking unless they cant get at eachother. The cats got him by 10lbs. and is bigger than him right now but that'll change soon. I'm sure they're gettin to know eachother and play but my girlfriends gets really worried and she suspects he's trying to eat her and soon he'll be big enough to, scary.

The cat really lays it to him also so should I let this continue or should I nip it in the butt now? if so then whats the best way he's only 8 weeks and I dont know what correction is best at this age. A big stern NO stops him but sometimes I'll clap as loud as I can and say no and it doesn't phase him.

P.S. He's 8 weeks and weights 8 lbs. is that too light for a pup at this age? I can see his ribs and his hips and I can feel his spine also so I'm worried he's underweight, I know these are lean dogs so is this weight acceptible?

A pic of the bad boy himself.

Lola was 10lbs at 8wks.  I too thought she was extremely skinny but as she has gotten older she has really started to fill out nicely.  I want to say the breed standard actually calls for the last couple of ribs to be visible.

auwallace -  Here is a link to the breed standard. 

www.gspca.org/Breed/standard.html