Protection Dogs Worldwide logo
Blog

Training the German Shepherd Dog

16 Jul 2021

The German Shepherd Dog is one of the best, most versatile, and popular working dog breeds. It has been utilised for farm duties, family and personal protection work, and as a service dog for the disabled. It has excelled in military and police settings, and is also a breed beloved as a pet by many families across the world. In our experience, they are one of the best protection dogs a family can have. We are often asked about how German Shepherd Dogs can be trained, and this blog will offer our top tips for doing so.

Our first tip for training any kind of dog, be it a pet rescued from a shelter or elite personal protection dog is to understand what drives it to work. While drive to work does vary between individual dogs, there will invariably be something it wants that it will work for. This might be Dog food, toys, or even just praise and affection. Once you have identified this drive, you can leverage it to help build and proof behaviours in your German Shepherd Dog.

We would also always recommend taking dedicated training classes with a professional dog behaviourist. Their deep understanding of, and expertise in dog psychology will help them identify any challenges your dog may be having and subsequently work around them. Working with a behaviourist will open your eyes about how to effectively train a dog yourself, and is always worth seriously considering.

German Shepherds are one of the most intelligent breeds, a common working definition of this being swiftly building associations between commands, performing specified actions, and consequences such as rewards. While generally very trainable, German Shepherds are much like humans in that they have a limited attention span. To this end, we would suggest numerous shorter sessions rather than one very long one for maximum efficiency. Dog protection training is no different, and we aim to keep our sessions short and sweet.

German Shepherds are sensitive, so harsh punishment-based training methods are best avoided as they can impact your dog’s ability and willingness to learn. In fact, as they bond so strongly with their owners, praise and affection supplemented by a favourite ball can be their highest form of reward. For more advice on how to best train a German Shepherd, do contact us and we will endeavour to help you.

Next Up

16 Jul 2021

Why Protection Dogs Worldwide?

With a large number of companies offering a similar service to us, prospective clients often ask us why they should choose Protection Dogs Worldwide. The answer to this, we believe, is that PDW is simply the best company offering protection dog training and trained family protection dogs in the UK…

Read More

Contact Us

We welcome any queries and are happy to provide further information, so please get in touch – we would love to hear from you!

Message Us