[MMMazing07]

well my GSD is a nut job. she is 7 months old now. i know that she is still young but her immaturity is just beyond me. I could tolerate it when she was a little younger but now its just annoying. i guess i just need some reassurance from experienced owners that she will be a obedient and loyal dog. right now she is such a knuckle head sometimes. also i was wondering when do their protective instincts kick in. i was under the impression that she would turn into a protective dog that listens to me all the time. (now she only listens 70% of the time) maybe i have too high expectations

FYI: she has had basic training. she can sit, stay, and come. she is just so.................. immature. ie. running around in circles.....picking up random crap..........

['Cane]

Dude. She's only 7 months old. She's a puppy. Just keep working with her. Positive re enforcement stuff.

[Joekerr]

She's seven months. That's your answer. Like the other guy said, keep training, you have to cement it now when she's young.

Do you bond with her (walks, etc) on a regular basis? She's going to need exercise. You need to be firm though too - they need to know your boss - so positive rewards only work to an extent - can't be afraid to smack them too.

Keep up the training and bonding and you'll have a loyal dog! But she's going to be energetic for a while.

[bmstyle71]

That's like wondering why a 4 year old is always running around the place....it's normal.

[MMMazing07]

i walk her, play with her and everything. she gets daily exercise since she is living at my parents gigantic house with lots of land. she likes to challenge my authority sometimes which really pisses me off but i keep my cool. she does responds to my yelling and change in tone. guess ill wait it out. thanks for the input

[BMW F22]

Originally Posted by MMMazing07

i walk her, play with her and everything. she gets daily exercise since she is living at my parents gigantic house with lots of land. she likes to challenge my authority sometimes which really pisses me off but i keep my cool. she does responds to my yelling and change in tone. guess ill wait it out. thanks for the input

Don't yell at the dog because it doesn't work. Training takes a lot of patience as well as positive reinforcement. So just keep at it and you'll be fine.

[Year's_End]

just don't take your dog to china town

[kabalm18]

German Shepherds are one of the smartest breeds, you'll be fine. One of my mom's friends breeds and trains her dogs for police and for Schutzhund. Great dogs!

[Joekerr]

Originally Posted by BMW E90

Don't yell at the dog because it doesn't work. Training takes a lot of patience as well as positive reinforcement. So just keep at it and you'll be fine.

+1 on the no yelling, because right now, she probably doesn't know what it means, and dogs react to our emotions.

Patience is a virtue, but, I'd say much like kids, there needs to be physical discipline as well (not just 'positive' reinforcement). I'm not talking about going nuts here, but a firm slap on the nose occasionally where she disobeys will work. She's got to know you're in charge.

Good luck mmazing - love the pics you've shown! I love shepherds, had two of them at different times, currently no dogs right now, but they were amazing (and extremely loyal). Good things will come - just wait (and train her properly as I said above).

[Joekerr]

Oh....and btw, I think that the least mmazing can do for all the free advice we've provided is post up a few more pics of his dog, yeah? Let's see some of the latest!

[MMMazing07]

for the training we use a "choke" chain. it works really well in discipline.
heres a pic i took with my phone today with all the new snow.

[BillLee]

why would you use a choke chain?

[MMMazing07]

Originally Posted by BillLee

why would you use a choke chain?

why not

it works really well in training. thats how we trained her to sit, stay, and come. if it wasnt for that then she wouldnt listen to me at all.

[Romeo21779]

We used a choke chain for a while for training. It worked pretty well and taught him not to pull when he's on a leash. Our dog is a little over 4 years old now.

Most of the time, we don't keep him on a leash for walks.

It took him about 1.5 years to calm down and stop running around like a maniac all the time. Keep in mind he's not fixed.

[Glacked]

She's a pup. Enjoy it while it lasts. You also need to continually establish yourself as the pack leader with a smart, high drive dog. How you do that is always up for debate. I do it with vocal tone. My dogs know if I drop down low with my voice I mean business and if I am high pitched that it is play time or praise. My wife had a GSD who was hell on wheels. It took me a few months of working with her dog to get her to mind. Once I gave her a mission in life, she was great. Remember, these are working dogs. They like to do something for you.





Just spend lots of time with her. Teach her when it is time to play and when it is time to chill. She is a living creature, so she will most likely let you know when she wants to do stuff, too.

[im spencer]

We have a 5-month GSD living with us at our house. I highly recommend that you get obedience training for this dog as soon as possible. You do not want little kids getting bit in the face and a fat lawsuit running up your leg. We paid like 100 some bucks for a full six week obedience program. Look for one around your area

[mpimping]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe...ogs/index.html

[jaiman]

There's a Puppies for Dummies book that is pretty good. My wife and I are using it for our Cane Corso / Neopolitan puppy and it’s helped a bunch (but we also got him at 9 weeks and the book is biased more towards young puppies). By 7 months, she should be listening fairly well. Does she get walked regularly or is she thrown outside alone? Is someone home with her during the day? There could be a ton of reasons why she is acting immature (or more accurately why she is behaving in a way that you believe is immature). I'd say get a couple of books and start reading.

As for the protective thing, you may be confusing aggressive with protective. An aggressive dog growls when there is no real threat, a protective dog growls only at a real threat. If you don’t think she’s protective, maybe she hasn’t felt the need to be yet.