Hi, Now having lived with a Berner for 3 weeks, I am amazed at how smart they are and how quickly they change! Sit was a command she must have been born with. As long as we watch, she practically has no accidents in the house. Just trying to figure out how to teach her to let me know she has to go out instead of me asking her all the time! Her mouthing has been horrible..our fingers, hands, face, throat, etc...and all of a sudden, she has just practically stopped that and it is so great!! Come is impossible unless I rattle celophane with cheese inside...(smart?) and stay, well, she'd just rather not, at least not for more than two seconds. But, with a piece of that cheese in your hand, say shake and a paw will fly up. She just can't decide which one to put up! The leash loves to get buried in her mouth and we try to walk but all those sounds out there!! We have to stop very often, listen, and sometimes get very scared (cars & trucks). She has been babygated in the kitchen, me on the sofa, and we have worked on the crate at the end of the bed, but she does not like it!!! So we will keep trying. Anyone out there with berner pups around this age, and advice, I am listening!! We start formal Pup kindergarten first of April..........Hope all of you enjoy your baby as much as we are!!!!!!!!

Hello It's been awhile since since my female Berner was 11 weeks old! She is going to be 21 months. Mine also knew "sit" and we didn't even teach her, took not 5 min. for shake a paw and then shake the other paw. Mine never took to the crate so I gated her off in the kitchen at night and she did way better. She was also very mouthy and had to have hands in her mouth constantly and not much worked but time and patience and telling her "no bite" Mine still likes to have the leash in her mouth and prance ahead of me but she's getting better.
I find my girl is very manipulating when she wants her way. Right now we are working on her not being so dog reactive. EVERY dog she sees she thinks she has to meet and then the pulling starts. If yours starts pulling I suggest training, training, training while still so young because they only get bigger and stronger! Socialize alot around different things like bikes, downtown, skateboards, kids, women, men, dogs, well you get the picture. I socialized mine alot and there isn't much she shys away from except men and I have no idea why!

Hi there!
Wow, I would have thought you were describing our Berner Heidi (10months old) ..I never knew that BMDs were so alike!
Heidi too knew how to sit immediately, LOVES to take "us" for walks with her leash and prances all the way down our street. We crate trained her in our kitchen with no problems tho, as we gave her a treat EVERY time she went into it (we still do it actually )

For the going outside thing, we got our pup to use a bell. We placed a bear bell (the ones used for hiking) on a door handle and began by giving her treats any time she smelled it. Then we rang it & gave treats, and soon she began ringing the bell herself in order to get food We eventually had her ring the bell everytime we went outside and she caught on extremely fast....although she rings the bell just so she can go outisde and sit in the snow hehe

Puppy school worked really well for us. She loved going there and meeting the other dogs and people (she got excited just seeing the building). If one thing is important, its do training now that she's small. We always have treats with us on walks and reward her for loose leash walking and the "watch me" command. Our problem is with recall...she becomes an airhead when she is free and breaking that habit has been challenging.
Good luck, have fun & keep doing little training games (our Heidi just LOVED them!)

wow, almost storm. He had the sit command, I even had to use it instead of stay. If he was going to run somewhere instead of stay, I would say sit. worked every time.

Storm is still mouthy, but not hard. It was difficult for him to learn no bite. I ended up giving him something to replace my fingers.

I suggest you train, train, train now. storm didn't jump because he couldn't when he was a puppy. After surgery he started to jump, by that time he was 80 lbs. a whole lot of dog to be jumping on a kid. that was a challenge.

I never crated or gated storm. He was part of the family. And he did awesome. I remember mom complaining to me and telling me i "had" to. but things worked out.

you will enjoy and laugh at your puppy. I wish i could have another

Wow! So great to hear from other Berner parents! I feel so much better!And I will take all advice.Training early is a must I know, but to hear the exact same problems is so funny.Stubborn is definitely in their genes world wide!And love for this breed is undeniable!!I see that each week age makes a huge difference in the understanding level they attain and some things seem to get better while others can seem to slide. But that face, the depth of their soul is astounding...I just love this and look so forward to our growing relationship.Can anyone give advice on spaying age and has anyone had the tummy tacked to the abdominal wall to guard against bloat?Any special diet info. out there?Any probiotic info. or supplement's you might think are good?Any dangers to be aware of?Thanks for feedback.This is great.Beth

We spayed our female Berner (age 4) when she was 6 mo and neutered our male Berner (age 2) at 11 mo. Our vet, who keeps himself well educated on the latest doggy medical research, told us recently there is growing evidence that it is actually better to wait until the dogs are 9 - 12 mo before spay/neutering them to prevent possible health issues. This is in direct conflict with many other articles I've read where the author says to spay/neuter as soon as possible after 4 mo. But, it kind of makes sense to me to wait a bit, so their hormones have kicked in. In any case, we haven't regretted either decision. We waited until we saw Leo lift his leg before we neutered him (we heard this was the way to go) and it's quite funny, but he rarely lifted his leg again until just recently and he is now just over 2. Both dogs are loving, gentle with children and very obedient, but both are also still very "puppy" like, doing bratty little things that puppies do.
About the bloat issue, we feed our dogs twice a day and never heavily exercise them after eating. I've never heard of doing any kind of surgery to prevent bloat...I think surgery itself is dangerous and something to avoid at all costs. We feed them 2 glucosomine and 4 wild salmon oil pills a day for joints and it also gives them super glossy coats, and the dog food we use is super-high premium. They only take about 3 cups of food per day with a tiny bit of "extra" like a tablespoon or 2 of leftover chicken, rice, cottage cheese etc, a tiny bit of hot water to make the dinner tasty, and that's it. They are both supremely healthy dogs.