German Shepherd Puppy Training

Training Your German Shepherd Puppy - Getting Off on the Right Foot

Whether you adopted or purchased your puppy training should start the moment your German Shepherd puppy comes home. From eight weeks to sixteen and a half weeks of age you have several critical windows to make the biggest impression.

You will want to start training basic obedience behaviors like sit, down and coming when called as well as teaching your new puppy manners too.

Bite inhibition is the first thing you should start teaching.

Teaching your puppy how to use their mouth is the first thing you should focus on. Nipping and mouthing are part of puppyhood and the bite inhibition training they would have received from their litter mates ended the moment you brought them home so it is your job to teach them how to properly (and safely) use their mouth.

Your focus should not be to stop the biting but to teach your puppy how much pressure is okay. This involves allowing your puppy to bite you. When they bite your hard say, "ouch!" and act offended. Walk off and ignore the puppy for a moment. Then give them another try. Wait until the pressure is in fact painful before you say "ouch!"

Your puppy will start to learn how much pressure to use because if they bite you hard you get up and walk off. This is not going to be fun for the puppy. You should leave the room completely to remove the possibility of them chasing and biting your pant legs too.

While you may think letting your puppy bite you is crazy in the end you are helping your puppy learn from their mistakes. Something that most dog training methods discourage. Instead they have you set your puppy up to learn through punishment. You can avoid the negative side effects of punishing your puppy by using the method described above to teach bite inhibition.

Social Manners - Getting Out in the World

By four and a half months the critical socialization period is over. While their outside experience should be limited due to vaccinations and all the little nasties running around for them to pick up getting your puppy out into the world to meet new people is important.

In the beginning you should carry your puppy everywhere because they can pick up diseases from the ground. Feces and urine contain the parvo virus and this is your main concern during the first few weeks. However, once they are fully vaccinated you can start letting them walk with you from place to place.

In the opinion of Dr. Ian Dunbar socializing your pup with people is more important than socializing them with other dogs. Again, having to wait for vaccinations puts a short hold on dog to dog socialzation time so you can use this time to make sure your puppy is well socialized with all kinds of people.

Once your puppy has their second round of shots completed you should join a puppy class that focuses on dog to dog socialization. While obedience training is important the class should focus mainly on dog to dog interactions and how to help your puppy learn to behave around their own kind.

Obedience Training Happens at all times

While you're working on manners you should always be working on basic obedience training. Positive dog training methods work best especially for puppies because they are not mature enough to understand punishments using a training collar yet. They are also not mature enough to understand being squirted with water, shaker cans, and similar forms of punishment.

Teaching your puppy a marker word (or using a clicker) is a fast and effective way to bridge the communication gap and convey to your puppy what you are asking them to do.

German Shepherds are highly intelligent and you should keep this in mind when you are working with your puppy. Harsh methods, using force, leash punishments, these things are not required and should be avoided on young dogs.

Finally, you should be consistent with your commands and your rules for the most effective results. Over time your pup will learn and things will start to fall into place. Until that time, stick with it and try your very best not to give up.

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