I just got an 8 week old German Shepherd/Lab Friday night. I think I've settled on the name Kota for him.
He's a total sweetheart. He's barked maybe one time since I got him - literally one yip, maybe two. He doesn't whine when I put him in his crate at night until he has to pee/poo at almost 7:00. I think he understands what it means when I take him out now, he doesn't fight as much anymore before he just says, "Fine, I'll poo".
He's cuddly and isn't mean to the cats although the 1 year old is still trying to work out what to do with him. You can tell he wants to play but he kind of just scampers away from Kota when he gets close. I think he's making a game out of it at this point.
Kota really surprised me this morning. He kept crying at about 8:30 so I thought maybe he was hungry. I put some food down for him but instead of eating, he went to my boots near the back door and just looked at me. I took him out and he did a pee and a poo. This is after less than 48 hours of being here. =)
I've been a bit stressed since I got him, mostly because I'm afraid he'll go on the floor... I ate once yesterday because I was continually on the go with him. I didn't even have time to actually get hungry let alone eat. I think that dog pooped 4 times and peed even more than that. No accidents though!
Although...he did poo in his crate when I went to the store. I don't really count that though because it wouldn't have happened had I been here. So now I'm worried about going to work because I know I'll come home to a mess. I figure I'll put a puppy pad in his cage because he's gonna go between 8:30 and 1:00 for sure. But do you think this will encourage him to go in his cage or just make clean-up easier until he catches onto my routine?
Also, when I give him food, he doesn't eat it all at once, he nibbles. But that makes him poop kind of like...all day... Do I just feed him, give him X time to eat it, and then take the food back? Because I can't leave it with him in his crate, that would be reeallly bad...
Any tips would be appreciated. I'm an anxious person so any kind of nervousness a new pet owner might feel is amplified by like 100 with me.