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What age did your GSD calm down (I have 7 m old)

56K views 47 replies 34 participants last post by  car2ner 
#1 ·
Just curious, I have a 7 and a half month old female. She has calmed down slightly after being spayed, but she is still wild. Haha anyways, let me know the age yours calmed down, and be sure to include their gender.
 
#29 · (Edited)
I can't tell you for sure....but with ours....they are now 15 months old...they don't calm completely. We have different stages....and of course at different times...:)
They will calm for a few days, be balls to the walls for a couple of weeks, be extremely mellow for a couple of days, then can't wear them our again for a few weeks...from our personal experience it seems like a shepherd thing....high energy which is exactly what we needed...:)

Good luck....there are tons of games and stuff that help take the edge off in the house if the weather is rainy outside....that is the days we are most tired as humans....if they can't run and fetch....they need to work their brains to exhaust themselves!


As far as manners and laying down when we tell them to....that was just part of training....they know when it is play time and they know when it is time to chill. Ours are so routined now, that I know what time of day it is by watching them. When my alarm goes off at 4:45...they are sitting by my bedroom door, at 5:15 they are sitting by the kitchen entry waiting for food bowls, 5:20 outside of our daughters rooms to wake them with slobber, 7:20 waiting by the door to be allowed to ride for school drop off, 8:00 they are on their "place" so I can clean and do chores, 9:00 waiting by the door for playtime and training, 1:30 by the door looking and rushing me to the car, 7:30 on their "place" in our bedroom waiting to be kissed and tucked in by our daughters....:) they have been doing this routine since puppyhood but PERFECTED the chilled out mode about 9 months old....:) we always make sure they get lots of running!!! That helps them perfect the chill mode....

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#32 ·
When you say "calm down" in what regards?? Settling in the house calm?

Mine have always been able to settle, probably when they hit 2.. As for being active and wanting to do stuff, that's a different story.. I've got a 2 yo male, 9 yo female and 10 yo male.. The 10 yo old is still as active as the 2 yo and my 9 yo would be the same but do to a back injury she is limited on what she can do and what I will allow her to do.
 
#34 ·
Praise and reward based training is awesome for teaching new skills, but you need to balance it with punishment to stop behaviors that are unacceptable. By punishment I don't mean beating the dog. Sometimes it can be as little as a NONO and a stern look ( If you've taught them what No means ). Sometimes it means taking something away. Sometimes it can mean an unable to move because you are holding the leash tight until they settle down. So use the carrot and the stick, and the right tools for the job.

That being said, impulse control comes with maturity and practicing good behaviors. By the time you have a mature dog that is quiet in the house and playful outdoors, you may actually miss those crazy puppy times when everything was brand new and needed to be explored and tested.
 
#43 ·
Individual dogs are different, even within the breed, or subsets of the breed, like working lines.
We have two dogs, a male and female, close to the same age.

The female is not a low drive dog, but developed a chill switch inside the house fairly early, by somewhere between 9 months and 1 1/2 years.

The male is the younger of the two, and he constantly wants to play if we are at home, whether in or outside.

Both can be left alone, and have been, for up to 4-6 hours, without destroying things. When we are not there, they do not amuse themselves by getting into things. You do have to be smart about putting the trash out, not leaving god smelling foods on the counter, but we don't come back to evidence of a dog kegger party, so to speak.

But if the male has humans present, he doesn't really understand why they don't want to play. If you tell him knock it off, or platz! he will, but after a while he thinks its time to play again.

Out in the yard, the female really comes alive, and will play ball until your arm is tired. But she does not need constant play and interaction while in the house. More content to snuggle beside you or lie at your feet.

However, both will light up like junkyard dogs on crystal meth if someone comes up the drive. I do not believe they will ever calm down in that respect. We live on a farm, so I am OK with that. We don't have a lot of unexpected visitors drop in. The mail box is almost 1/4 mile away, so they don't really bark at the postal carrier. At some point, for me--you do you, by all means-- if I did not want a dog that had guarding tendencies and barked at strangers, I probably would not have a GSD. So I am aware of "bark collars," and I could probably correct the alarm barking out of them, but then why not just get a Basenji, or a Goldendoodle, or whatever.
 
#45 ·
I only read the title😅. You can teach any dog to calm down by practicing down time from early puppy stage on. To be fair, there needs to be a balance between activity and rest time. Working line doesn't equal 16 hrs of activity. I fell in that trap and missed many years of having one. Deja is 100% working line and has a great off-button. Two gears: on and off.
 
#48 ·
also at 6.5 months, training is like 3 steps forward, 2 steps back. Maturity is still lacking but the desire to please can be very strong. You and your hubby need to find a system that you can both work with. My hubby and I are in sync but when my mom lived with us, she expected a pup to behave like our older dog that just passed away. It took awhile to "train" her, too. But in the end it all worked out wonderfully. Don't give up.
You will hear, "train the dog in front of you". What works for one dog might not work for another. For jumping up, what worked for my ridgie mix ( I held her paws up near my chest until she got uncomfortable. That stopped her jumping up ) didn't work with my little beagle / whippet mix ( she liked me holding her paws up ). For her I had to insist that she waited until I sat down to be greeted. If she jumped up we bopped her with a paper tube from wrapping paper. It didn't hurt but it got through to her little over excited brain. And for my GSD pup it took utterly ignoring him, arms crossed, no eye contact, turning slightly away, no talking, etc, until he plunked his little furry hiney onto the floor. Then we told him hello. So try something and see if it works. And find a mentor or trainer that can see what you do face to face. Often just a small change, that we don't see, can make a big difference. Or video yourself, not to share online but so you can see if you are holding the reward in a good spot, or if you are giving confusing signals.
 
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