What kind of training should I give my German Shepherd?
I have a German Shepherd and heard they r very intelligent and enjoy the challenge of training.But I can't afford to take it training.So I would like to know some good tricks and ways to train a 4 year old German Shepherd.
Only people with so much experience that that they know to NOT ask questions here should have a dog of any breed if they can’t get to weekly training classes.
A training class is where YOU are coached to improve your techniques, and at the same time your dog learns to pay attention regardless of what other dogs & people are doing.
Videos, and posters on the Internet, can give you ideas, but they can’t SEE and HEAR what you are doing, and so cannot correct your bad habits and improve your good habits.
Find a way to afford to get into a club’s classes!
You SHOULD be in a class as of when your pup turned 18-22 weeks, not wait until he is 4 years old and has had time to pick up all sorts of bad habits.
Meantime, use ONLY reward-reinforcement techniques, which means that whenever your dog does something you like, you IMMEDIATELY praise him using an enthusiastically happy voice that includes his name and the word you want to eventually become a command, and then reward him.
Find out which of these your dog likes used as rewards:
• pats; rubs on croup or chest or ear-bases
• games such as ball-chase or tug-o-war (but an untrained 4-year old GSD is too strong to play tug-o-war with….)
• tidbits such as a salted peanut or a sliver of: baked liver, crisped bacon, cooked hot-dog
Tidbits are NOT to be big enough to supply more than a scent & the trace of a taste – they must leave the dog keen to earn more.
Les P, owner of GSD_Friendly: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSD_Friendly
"In GSDs" as of 1967
If you ever heard of animal planet, they have a show called It’s Me or the Dog. It’s about dogs with bad behaviors and all but, it has good training tips and how to do it. This is how I taught my German Shepherd.
Hope this helps.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/german-shepherd-training-secrets.html
Hope it helps