Doggy Mentor

Posts Tagged ‘Stop German Shepherd Biting’

I happen to really love German shepherds and have had lots of them as pets  over the last 35 years, but sometimes they can be a handful-especially if they become biters. I think all of my dogs were great, but I had 2 big males that were biters. It was funny, because while one liked people and hated other dogs, it was just the opposite with my other dog-that one hated people-and that was an even bigger problem. The dog that hated other dogs but loved people was adopted, so he brought his problem with him. I was able to end that problem by introducing my boy to a friend “girlfriend dog” that was totally submissive and no threat to him -she became his first dog friend. Eventually, he finally began to relax and later even enjoy hanging out with his doggy peers. . It did take a lot of time and effort, though, and it really made me happy to see my formerly crazy dog having fun with his friends. My second big and mean biting German shepherd presented an even worse problem-he was going for tasty human flesh, not just another dog. Although my family and I saw our six month old puppy as lovable and funny, the people he wanted to bite didn’t feel the same way. I first noticed him displaying aggressive body language when he was only about 8 weeks old. A UPS truck pulled up to the house while my puppy and I were doing some gardening in the front yard. The driver hopped out with a package and started up the walk to the house. My crazy young and aggressive eight week old pup chased the driver  (who was still holding the package as a shield and cringing) right off the curb and into his truck. I remember being amused and thinking what a great watchdog this puppy would grow up to be. I had no idea at the time that I needed to  immediately take some steps to control my young German shepherd pup, or I would later be facing biting problems.At 6 months of age, my now huge puppy attacked my mailman-knocking him down, but no bites, thank God.A humorous side note to this is that the poor mailman inadvertently missed my dog and instead sprayed his own face with pepper spray in the confusion-he didn’t find it so funny and I didn’t get any mail for awhile after that. If think your puppy may be aggressive like my crazy little guy, you’ll want to hear my advice about that. Owners of larger dog breeds that sometimes tend towards aggression will especially  benefit from this advice, although it is still very good advice for any size dog. If you don’t get ahead of this problem, it can become quite hard to correct later on.After I began to use this advice myself, I have never had another one of my dogs develop out of control aggression and biting problems.

I found some great advice on getting an early start with puppy training using group training in the book I use the most for reference about dog training.

With the group puppy training not only does your puppy begin learning basic obedience he is also getting social interaction with other people and puppies. The great thing aout the socializing is your puppy will not only learn good dog etiquette with this interaction, but he will also learn to enjoy the company of other dogs. This is a very important factor in not having to deal with aggression problems later on. It turns out that a dog that is kept confined and has no social interaction with other dogs is much more likely to become an aggressive anti-social type of dog.If your puppy is not displaying good social instincts, the other puppies will show him the ropes.  I also like the benefit of starting the puppy’s training at a very young age. They are ready by 6 weeks of age for their group class-they can already soak up new things like a sponge. If you have you seen the cool videos on uTube of little puppies doing tricks you know what I mean.

If you follow this one important tip and bring you puppy to a group training class you will be glad you did. You can find some group training classes for puppies in your neighborhood-be sure to check first to make sure they use only positive reinforcement techniques. After my bad experience with my German shepherd wanting to bite people I tried out the group training with my next puppy. In addition to the benefits of early obedience training and socializing, my puppy and I had a lot of fun going to the classes.

Read more about how to train your puppy.Secrets to Dog Training Review