Sounds easy doesn't it? When very young, my GSD loved everyone... even the shady bums that hung out in the alley bordering our place. But, I realized she was young and protection comes naturally with GSD's with maturity. She just took a long time to mature, but not with GSD's. They're not adults at a year old.....
During her first year, she was just happy go lucky. At about 16mos, she started to change. I made it a priority to start training her for basic yard/house guarding then. This as a pet dog only, no training. Because of that, I had to train her when to bark/alert when not to.... and with great patience and routine drills and rewards.
As she matured more rapidly, she became fence aggressive to dogs, she barked at people just walking by and didn't bark at night when I let her out and wished she would have sometimes....
Took a year. Yea, they have natural guard instincts that eventually kick in- but that doesn't mean judgement or control.... that's where the work is.... I had to put together so many small components into her training to get the big picture (goal) for her and that took a year.
We had something happen tonight (Summers here and the crazies are out). Heard a noise in my front yard. My dog was in the other room asleep (testing our brand new bed). I quietly said her name once and she flew to my side for further instruction (taught "Focus'). We heard another noise in the front yard. I reminded her "silent running" and led her to the back door. Opened the door and gave her the "who's that" command. She flew around the yard checking every perimeter barking her biggest rapid fire bark.
Immediately, I heard something or someone hit the front yard fence and they were gone, gone. The biggest part of the test. I said pssst! to my dog and then quietly said come and she quit and flew back into the house. I put her in a sit stay and she planted herself.
Awesome! We had a praise party and I put her back to bed. She was ywolling and yawning for a few minutes wondering what the heck had just happened - but it was all training and she responded automatically. I know this will need constant training and drills - but she did awesome. just saying, it doesn't automatically happen because they're GSD's. It will happen to some degree with the pup's maturity but the key is to have CONTROL over it.
There were probably 10 different small training steps that needed to be put together to get this auto response and recall.....just a reminder for the pet folks that need to train on their own - takes work and you need that degree of control... if you only train to a point and think that's "good enough" - that's exactly how accidental bites happen and your dog ends up getting put down. You have to have your dog properly confined and under control.... You are responsible and you have to train.
It is a great feeling when the first real test happens and you see the focus, performance and recall is on the money. Worth it? HECK YEA!
During her first year, she was just happy go lucky. At about 16mos, she started to change. I made it a priority to start training her for basic yard/house guarding then. This as a pet dog only, no training. Because of that, I had to train her when to bark/alert when not to.... and with great patience and routine drills and rewards.
As she matured more rapidly, she became fence aggressive to dogs, she barked at people just walking by and didn't bark at night when I let her out and wished she would have sometimes....
Took a year. Yea, they have natural guard instincts that eventually kick in- but that doesn't mean judgement or control.... that's where the work is.... I had to put together so many small components into her training to get the big picture (goal) for her and that took a year.
We had something happen tonight (Summers here and the crazies are out). Heard a noise in my front yard. My dog was in the other room asleep (testing our brand new bed). I quietly said her name once and she flew to my side for further instruction (taught "Focus'). We heard another noise in the front yard. I reminded her "silent running" and led her to the back door. Opened the door and gave her the "who's that" command. She flew around the yard checking every perimeter barking her biggest rapid fire bark.
Immediately, I heard something or someone hit the front yard fence and they were gone, gone. The biggest part of the test. I said pssst! to my dog and then quietly said come and she quit and flew back into the house. I put her in a sit stay and she planted herself.
Awesome! We had a praise party and I put her back to bed. She was ywolling and yawning for a few minutes wondering what the heck had just happened - but it was all training and she responded automatically. I know this will need constant training and drills - but she did awesome. just saying, it doesn't automatically happen because they're GSD's. It will happen to some degree with the pup's maturity but the key is to have CONTROL over it.
There were probably 10 different small training steps that needed to be put together to get this auto response and recall.....just a reminder for the pet folks that need to train on their own - takes work and you need that degree of control... if you only train to a point and think that's "good enough" - that's exactly how accidental bites happen and your dog ends up getting put down. You have to have your dog properly confined and under control.... You are responsible and you have to train.
It is a great feeling when the first real test happens and you see the focus, performance and recall is on the money. Worth it? HECK YEA!