so, we got our boy socrates a couple weeks ago. important context: he's a german shepherd/mastiff mix, we live in a 4th floor apartment and my wife and i both work full time. also, when we picked him up, the people rehoming him dropped the bomb that he was not as old as we thought he was, which is why we got him so young!
all things considered, he is a very good boy. from zero, we have achieved – moderate potty training (he uses but then rips up his pee pad; he prefers to do his business outside, but will pee on any available carpet so we keep him out of carpeted rooms) – learning his name + almost-mastery of "sit" and "no" – mostly sleeping through the night!!
some troubles we have: – he has BIG separation anxiety. this is to be expected given his age, but seriously, someone HAS to be paying attention to him or he barks and barks and cries and cries – he's very bitey. also to be expected, but i have a harder time dealing with this one because i'm learning that my initial reaction to unexpected pain is to swat at it, which obviously is a no-no. he doesn't seem to care about his toys when someone's leg is available, so redirecting is proving challenging. but we're working on it!
i love taking him to the park, i can't wait for summer and for my boy to get bigger so we can start having some adventures. thanks to this reddit for all its puppy-rearing advice, y'all have saved my ass so many times 😭
submitted by /u/basil-leaf-boy
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