Training Your German Shepard Dog

After my wife and I had bought our first female German Shepard, we were invited by our breeder to join the training classes held every weekend at a local fair ground. After our dog had settled down a bit after about seven or eight months old, we started taking her to the classes. It was about a two and a half hour drive from our home, so we decided to just work on the basics of walking, sitting, and laying down. At the request of our breeder, we bought a pinch collar, and were told to only use it when training, and that it wasn't to be worn all the time.

Walking was a bit challenging at first, as the trainer was not only training me, but also the dog. We were told that the dog doesn't like to be nagged at, so the more we nag in correcting something, the quicker the dog will learn. While walking, I was told to keep a short leash to keep the dog's front shoulders at my left side. Whenever the dog would walk too far ahead putting tension on the leash and pulling the walker, I was told to give a quick pop of the leash and say "Foos". German for "heal". The important thing was to stay consistent and not allow a tight leash to go uncorrected. Every time I changed my walking speed, I would say the word "foos" telling the dog that, hey, I'm changing speed so stay with me. When I stopped, the dog was to sit immediately facing forward. To teach this, if the dog didn't sit immediately, a firm pulling up on the leash and a pulling down on the rear end will force the dog to sit. Praise the dog when he/she sits down.

The next step was to teach the dog to lay down. My trainer chewed me out for spending a lot of time teaching the dog to lay down using hand signals along with the verbal command. His reasoning was that if the dog ever got out of my control and took off after a cat or another animal, the idea was to yell out "Plotz" and the dog should lay down where he/she was at. Makes sense. The dog can't see you running away, but can still hear you.