You need to take into account your German Shepherd’s special characteristics when training your dog.

One of the most important things to think about with german shepherd training is to know your dog’s ‘personality’, along with other personal factors that make up your dog. Your German Shepherd has a background bred from being a guard dog as well as a herding dog. There are various factors that influence your german shepherd obedience.

German Shepherds are strong, handsome dogs and it’s important, as with any dog but in
particular with commanding, savvy animals, to ensure they are properly trained.

They are ready and willing to learn and will comply obediently to your requirements if they are properly communicated and effectively delivered. This means that you should be strong in your command of your dog – taking the ‘alpha’ role on the basis that this is a dog that will respect strong leadership.

Ensure you are not letting your dog dominate you and not the other way round. You need to command their respect and make it very clear that you are in charge. Having a properly trained dog will command its respect for you.

You need to ensure your dog can socialize properly. So too is demonstrating the boundaries that your dog can – and cannot – contravene. You must reward and reinforce your dog’s behaviour instead of being punishing and shouting at your dog.

To get the right behaviour you need to start early with your dog training and it will make things much easier to get the desired results.

Good commands and good leash training is important if you want to properly train your dog on the leash.

“Sit” training should be used by rewarding your dog and not punishing him or her.

German Shepherds of course are well known as guard dogs also and you should only embark on guard training after you have the basics, such as training your dog to ‘sit’, ‘stop’, ‘stay’ etc rather than

trying to move directly into more complex commands, such as guarding. Barking as a guard dog is fine but you must command your dog to bark appropriately rather than indiscriminately at anyone and everyone.

You need to stop your dog biting by holding her muzzle and giving the necessary firm eye contact and command to cease.

You will be rewarded by having a good dog that behaves well if you do the right training.