Hey Guys, its James here and thanks for checking out my blog.
Dogs are meant to be man's best friend but sometimes it can just be a complete nightmare to train them... especially when nothing you try seems to work!
I was in the same situation just a few months back...My German Shepherd Brownie just didn't get any of the training methods that I was applying .....
Thankfully after much frustration I came across a solution (German Shepherd Handbook if you're wondering) that completely transformed my dog.
It shocked me and everyone around me!You know you’ve seen this before at the movies…… the growling German Shepherd growling aggressively at someone on the end of a tight leash. However thank goodness that most German Shepherds are never that aggressive, and its a situation that you would never want your own dog to be in. German Shepherds that tend to show aggressiveness even if it is on occasion can be extremely dangerous. As the German Shepherd Handbook tells us it’s important that if your dog has these issues that you work to solve them ASAP.
Why Do German Shepherds Show Aggression?
You might have this question lurking in the back of your mind trying to figure out what you may have done to cause your dog to show such aggression. A lot of the times the Dog that shows aggression is due to it suffering from some kind of aggressive and traumatic experience when it was a puppy such as having been attacked by a much larger dog. Or another common reason is that the Dog is trying to show its natural alpha authority over you. Thankfully there isn’t going to be a need to go to some expensive therapist to help you resolve these issues.
Training Your German Shepherd From a Puppy
You should understand that all dogs no matter what breed they may be learn a lot of their manners from other puppies that were born in their litter. Those puppies that tend to have aggressive tendencies will be ignored by their litter mates, a valuable lesson telling them that aggression is wrong. Its extremely important for you to make an extra effort to let your German Shepherd socialize with other dogs from the age of 6 weeks onwards. By socializing with other dogs your puppy will be able to understand what is acceptable behavior and what isn’t.
A great way to weed most of the aggressive attitude from your German Shepherd puppies is to let it mingle with its litter group until your Dog reaches at least the age of 8 weeks. A lot of dog owners want to get their puppy home as quick as possible, but for the sake of having peace later on just let them stay as long as possible. By leaving your puppy there that much longer you are going to take away all the work and hassle you will have to deal with later!
From the ages of 8 weeks all the way until he is at the age of 14 you should understand that you dog should spend a lot of time socializing with other people aside from you. This is extremely important that you do it at this young age so that they are used to hanging with and being surrounded by strangers. Now you should note that while your puppy is young he will be in the learning phase and make a lot of errors in judgement and cause a lot of accidents. This is normal, so please don’t yell, hit or torture your dog as it will yield no positive result and will most likely result your puppy growing up to be extremely unsocial and aggressive to people. Treat your puppy softly and with compassion.
Aggression in Adult German Shepherds
German Shepherds are either born aggressive or more likely are made to be aggressive. Yes like any other trait aggression is a quality that can be inherited. Environment is probably the biggest factor that brings out the aggression in these dogs. Examples of environments that may cause your German Shepherd to experience aggression is living in stressful environments, being treated bad, being left alone for long periods of time and of course it can be the result of being attacked by other dogs. Over time these forms of environments can turn even the best behaved.
Another reason for the aggression in adult dogs is because German Shepherds are territorial animals and as such are going to want to dominate everyone in their environment. That includes you. If you are in a situation where you dog is biting you and keeps on preventing you from moving past it, then all it is doing is testing to see if you are going to react. The important factor here is to never let this happen in the first place. Your job is to make sure that from the time the Dog is a puppy that you make sure that he understands that you are the alpha, you must keep on doing these until he is at least 14 months. If you don’t take this course of action you are going to find it extremely difficult to live in your home.
Stopping and Controlling Aggressive German Shepherd Dogs
If you feel that its impossible to change your German Shepherds aggressive attitude then check out the video below. Its proof that no matter how old the dog, you can teach it new tricks!
As soon as you find that your German Shepherd is displaying more and more signs of aggression, you know that you must act immediately if you want to see positive results.
The very first thing that you need to do is let the dog know that there is only room for one Alpha and that is you. Make you that you get him to understand that you are the dominant one. You should start if you haven’t already or continue if you have the obedience training you did with your dog one to one. This will help him understand the importance of being obedient to you. You should also have set meal times, The same goes for your walking schedule. If you don’t do this then his aggressive patterns are going to get worse as time wears on.