How To Train A 8 Month Old German Shepherd

How To Train A German Shepherd To Sit And Stay In 4 Steps

German shepherds are inherently smart dogs and can learn tricks and commands quickly. You can start training your puppy from litter age but the best time to teach is within 12 14 months of the dogs age. The most basic training that owners want their dogs to have is following the command to sit. It is advised to start to train a German shepherd to sit early as it will make the trick quicker for the dog to learn.

Ignore The Unnecessary Barking

German Shepherd puppies bark, but there are positive ways to help train them to bark and whine less.

Ignore your dogs barking until theyre quiet for 15 to 30 seconds if they are still a puppy. This means you dont give them any attention at all while theyre still barking.

Dont talk to him, touch him, or even look at him. When they finally quiet down, even if only for a few seconds, reward them with a treat or praise.

To have success, wait until they are quiet and stop barking, even if only for a few seconds in the beginning . If you yell at them to be quiet, they may learn they still get attention for you, even if its negative attention. Next time theyll bark for even longer because theyve learned that if they bark long enough, youll give him attention.

If they continue barking and whining despite your inattention, figure out why theyre barking and either remove the item , or place them in another area that is quieter .

For example:

Puppies bark for a number of reasons. One of the hardest parts of German Shepherd training is knowing whats natural and normal and whats a problem behavior.

But it does get easier to train your GSD over time as they learn what you expect.

Focus Four: Basic Commands

As weve already discussed, not only are puppies very quick learners that are able to pick up new skills as early as eight weeks, German Shepherds are also a particularly clever breed in general.

You can start teaching them some basic commands like sit, stay, lie down, and shake as soon as they come home!

Although every dog is different, the basic tenets of training are pretty straightforward, and as long as you follow them to the letter, you shouldnt have any trouble succeeding after a few weeks or months of training.

You can also find step by step guides on how to teach particular commands if youre having trouble working out a method for yourself.

Theres no shame in consulting YouTube for a visual tutorial or just making a quick search for the trick in question.

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Diet Of A German Shepherd Puppy

Is the diet of a nine months German shepherd puppy special? Well, No! Like every other dog breed, the diet you give your nine-month-old German shepherd will affect its physical and mental health.

Dont underfeed or overfeed your dog. Consequently, endeavor to feed a puppy according to its needs.

Give your German shepherd puppy food that will fulfill his nutritional needs and high energy levels.

That said, a German shepherd puppy of this age will require a diet comprising:

• Fats
• Amino acids and mineral acids

And most of all, plenty of water to keep the kidneys healthy.

Proteins should take 22% of the dogs food because of the high growth rate occurring during this phase.

Best protein sources for a nine-month German shepherd are beef and fish. Consequently, dont feed your dog too much chicken as it contains fewer protein levels.

Fats should take 8% of your dogs daily dietary requirement.

Also, ensure the amount of carbs is low as most dogs like the German shepherd find it hard to digest them.

Type of Food to Give Your Nine Months German shepherd

There are various diet plans that you can give a German shepherd.

• Dry food

So what about them? Lets have a close-up view of these types of diet.

• Dry food

This type of food is also known as kibble. Additionally, its often recommended for a dog like the German shepherd who requires many calories.

If your dog finds it hard to crack that kibble, you can add some Luke warm water to moisten and make it more palatable.

• Wet food

How To Teach Your German Shepherd Puppy To Not Bark

German Shepherds are known for liking the sound of their own voice. It makes a lot of sense though, its essentially because they want to guard and alert people for danger. What can they do, they just love you?

They also find barking self reinforcing, so once they start they can really rather enjoy it. While barking is a very natural and normal behaviour for dogs, it can be annoying for humans its not quite like music, is it.

Heres how you get them to stop barking:

First, find out why they are barking. Dogs can bark for a variety of reasons, but usually, its one of the following:

• Territorial reasons: Alerting you to a threat. Cant blame them, they just want to make sure no one comes and gets you.
• Fear or Anxiety: Barking or whining makes your puppy feel good and is often self soothing. Kind of when you sing in the shower.
• Attention: A German Shepherd bark is loud and hard to ignore. Again, like your shower-singing habits.
• Excitement: This happens most often when playing, theyre just letting you know how happy they are!
• At other dogs: Theres always time for a chat. Who knows what theyre really saying, it can really be anything from Where did your owner get your lead? to Your breath is disgusting, please stay away.
• Boredom: Barking makes dogs feel good when theyre bored. Strange, but true.

Although these are all good reasons to bark, barking can become a problem in the human world. Heres a couple steps to follow to help you out on this:

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Week 6 Training Your German Shepherd Puppy

• Have a treat pouch ready full of yummy treats.
• Make sure your puppy is relaxed, and not over excited.

How to do it

Easy peasy.

TIPS

· Looking inside your puppys mouth is quite difficult to handle for them so youll need to get them used to it slowly.

· If they struggle at all go back a step and stay there for a while. Work at touching around your puppys muzzle and chin before you go back to trying to check the inside of their mouth.

They Were Raised In A Poor Environment

In some cases, the excessive nipping may be an indication of a puppy raised in a very poor breeding environment, where the puppy didn’t get a chance to learn the ABCs of bite inhibition with his littermates and mom and the breeders did little about it.

Some of the worst cases of poor bite inhibition are often seen in puppies removed too early from the litter or singletons. In some cases, the biting may be genetic, due to a poor temperament and weak nerves.

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Be Consistent In Your Expectations And Actions

If your puppy barks for a meal one day and you say NO and withhold it till he is quiet, but you give it to them while barking on a different day, youll never achieve any good results with your training.

Let your NO always be NO, and your soft voice always so. Otherwise, your poor puppy will be confused about what you expect and will not know how you want them to behave.

How Do I Get Started Using Food Lure Training

Small pieces of food or a favored toy can be used to motivate your puppy to perform most tasks. Provided the reward is sufficiently appealing, the puppy can be prompted to give the desired response by showing the puppy the reward, giving a command, and moving the reward to get the desired response. For example, food held up over the puppy’s nose and moved slowly backwards should get a ‘sit’ response food drawn down to the floor should get a ‘down’ response food brought back up should get a ‘stand’ response food held out at a distance should get a ‘come’ response and food held at your thigh as you walk should get the puppy to ‘heel or ‘follow’. By pairing a command phrase or word with each action, and giving the reward for each appropriate response, the puppy should soon learn the meaning of each command.

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Why Is German Shepherd Training Important

It is critical to train a German Shepherd because their sheer size and strength can result in disastrous situations if they dont know how to behave properly. However, avoiding hospitalization or lawsuits isnt the only benefit of training a GSD.

Here are some of the most crucial reasons why you need to take the time and make the effort to train your German Shepherd:

Why Your German Shepherd Destroys Everything

German Shepherds are a very active breed that are known to be very destructive. There are a number of possible reasons for their destruction and there are a number of things that you can do about it.

So, why is your German Shepherd destroying everything? There are a number of possible reasons why it could be happening. The main ones are that its teething, boredom, separation anxiety, fear or it might be in its nature to be on the more destructive side. The best way to diagnose the cause of its destruction will be to consider the time that it happens, if youre around or not and the German Shepherds age.

How to stop your German Shepherd from destroying everything? There are a number of possible options that you can try and the best will depend on the cause of its destruction. Some options that you can try are giving it lots of exercise, doing lots of leave it training, crate training, doggy daycare and getting help from a certified dog behaviorist.

Stopping a destructive German Shepherd can be a difficult task especially when youre not around. But, for its safety and your own sanity, its important that you get it to stop.

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What Age Can I Start To Train My German Shepherd Puppy

As soon as you get them home. Puppies brains are a lot bigger than we think they soak up so much good information despite their young age.

Its no secret that German Shepherds are super clever. Besides being loved as pets by families, they are proud members of the police and loyal service dogs. Learning wont be a problem for them at all!

What Is Obedience Training And Why Your Dog Needs It

The sole purpose of obedience training is to teach your German Shepherd how to act at home and in social settings.

Socializing, house training, and basic sit, stay, and recall commands will fall into this category.

Obedience training is essential to avoid the development of behavior problems early on. It’s also the only way to fix bad habits and behavior that have already developed.

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Training Sessions To Help Train An Older Gsd

Training sessions are specific windows of time you set aside to work on particular commands with your dog. The sessions are usually short, with a structured plan to bring about a particular goal.

Training sessions are great when first starting to train a specific command but can also be used throughout your German Shepherds life to serve as a refresher and keep obedience training consistent.

Older German Shepherds can definitely benefit from training sessions, and they act as a commitment between you and your dog to work together.

They can be used not only to establish basic training commands, such as SIT and STAY, but also to impart more advanced techniques such as roll over or speak!

Training sessions are best when kept short. If a session drags on too long, your German Shepherd will become disinterested and be easily distracted, which will lead to mistakes and end up being a waste of your time.

Be efficient with your sessions and keep them as short, manageable segments of 10 minutes or less. This is usually best accomplished by teaching one command at a time.

When training an older German Shepherd in a session, its important to ensure that the time will be well spent and your dog wont get too overwhelmed. For this reason, try to practice somewhere quiet and with minimal distractions to start.

Remember that consistency is key, so you need to reinforce training even outside of training sessions. This will enable your dog to continue to learn.

At What Age Can I Start Training My New Puppy

You will be training your puppy from the moment you bring it home and start to house train. Puppies start learning from birth and good breeders begin handling and socialization right away. Some training can begin as soon as the puppy can open its eyes and walk. Young puppies have short attention spans but you can expect them to begin to learn simple obedience commands such as sit,down, and stay, as young as 7 to 8 weeks of age. Formal dog training has traditionally been delayed until 6 months of age. Actually, this juvenile stage is a very poor time to start. The dog is learning from every experience and delaying training means missed opportunities for the dog to learn how you would like him to behave. During the juvenile stage, the dog is beginning to solidify adult behavioral patterns and progresses through fear periods. Behaviors learned in puppyhood may need to be changed. In addition, anything that has already been learned or trained incorrectly will need to be undone and re-taught. Puppies are capable of learning much from an early age.

“Puppies can be taught the commands sit,down, and stand using a method called food-lure training.”

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Practice With Distance Duration And Distraction

Remember to include the 3 Ds of dog training in your obedience lessonsdistraction, distance, and duration.

The 3 Ds help reinforce your German Shepherds training and give you more reliability over your dog.

They familiarize your dog with the many ways in which they might get asked to perform their commands. These extra steps are invaluable to the quality of your German Shepherd obedience home training program.

Examples of the 3 Ds of Dog Training

• Increase the time your dog is one position by taking a long time to offer the treat.
• See how long you can have your dog stay while you move into different practice areas and work on increasing the time.
• Try to keep his attention on you during his training despite other distractions in your room, inside your house, or outdoors.

If your GSD seems to have forgotten their command, take them back to the last place they were successful and begin training from there.

Its not unusual for you to have gone too fast or expected too much.

Not all of your days are perfect, right?

So, its not fair if you expect your German Shepherd to be perfect every day, either.

Adjust your training as needed.

Continue building on your dogs knowledge and your desire for a responsive companion and youll see amazing improvements in their good behaviors and

in your ability to control your German Shepherd.

How To Stop Your German Shepherds Destruction

When training your German Shepherd its important to be active in stopping the destructive behavior and keep them in your presence when youre around. There are a number of different things that you can do and the most effective ones will depend on the cause of your German Shepherds destruction.

Train it to not be destructive

Training your German Shepherd to stop being destructive can be a difficult thing to do but with a lot of patience and persistence you can make a lot of progress.

The training to stop your German Shepherd being destructive will be quite spontaneous since youll usually be doing it when it starts to destroy things. To train it youll need to keep treats that it likes handy.

Then, when it starts to chew things, get its attention and then when it gives you its attention get it to sit or lay down then reward them with a treat. This teaches it to pay attention to you when its feeling impulsive rather than destroying things.

When it does start destroying things in your presence avoid physically pulling the German Shepherd away unless you have to. The goal is to get them to voluntarily stop chewing things that you dont want them to and to learn to direct their attention towards you instead.

The other type of training that you should do is lots and lots of leave it training sessions where you place things that it might want to chew in front of it and tell it to leave it then give it a treat. This teaches them what is ok to chew on and what is not.

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Introducing The Puppy Crate

A crate can be your best friend when it comes to caring for your 8-week-old puppy.

While some people think of crates as cruel, the reality is that with the right training, your puppy will think of her crate as a safe, quiet space where she can go to relax.

If you leave your puppy unsupervised at home, you may come back to find a whole lot of destruction.

Puppies can get into all kinds of trouble on their own, with their natural curiosity and desire to chomp down on just about everything in their path.

A crate can help you keep your German Shepherd puppy and your belongings! safe and sound when you cant be there.

Crate training also can help housetraining go more smoothly, since your puppy wont want to go potty where she sleeps.

But its very important to introduce the crate properly, and never use crate time as a punishment.

Lets look at a schedule now, to help smooth the way through those early days with your new friend