The German shepherd dog is a very popular breed and widespread throughout the world. The reason is due to his extraordinary intelligence, the affection that he professes to his owner and his family, and the innate courage that he treasures in his character. However, the German Shepherd suffers from two problems that many people are unaware of:
The first is that it is the breed with which many inexperienced breeders make real botches, using disastrous ways and means of breeding, or using very close parental lines. The second problem is that many people who own high-quality German Shepherds are not trained to train them properly, failing to exploit all the enormous qualities of such a formidable breed. Consequently, if both problems come together and we are not lucky enough that the dog manages to overcome these vicissitudes on its own, we will not be able to enjoy a harmonious dog.
If you continue reading our site we will advise you on the precise phases of the exercise of a German shepherd, and some explanations of why it is convenient of these exercises.
The German shepherd as a sheepdog
All sheepdogs are or have been to a lesser or greater extent service dogs There are some breeds that have some limitations, but the German shepherd dog no, or very few of these limitations: one of them is the grazing of birds such as chickens, geese, geese, etc.
The ancient wolf instinct in their genetics finds such creatures as atavistic prey, responding entirely differently than they would with sheep or goats.
Leaving aside this small inconvenience, it is clear that the German shepherd is well suited for many more functions than those related to herding, as everyone recognizes.
Training and exercising the German Shepherd puppy
When a German shepherd puppy is adopted, from the first dayhe must be initiated in his education and training. Necessarily, this training entails a load of exercise that we must dose, being generous in the dose, so that our puppy grows and develops happy and balanced. Excessive exercise could lead to muscle or bone problems.
As we have pointed out before, the German Shepherd Dog is a very intelligent service dog. But we must be the ones who train him in the indicated functions. If we want a German shepherd as a lap dog, we will be making a very serious mistake that in the future may cause us trouble or inconvenience; and it will undoubtedly unbalance our dog causing him unhappiness. The German shepherd is a very intelligent dog and we must stimulate this ability so that it does not suffer from stress in its adult stage.
That does not mean that our dog will not be sociable with people if we dedicate time and effort to the socialization process, however, it is necessary to understand that the German Shepherd is a special dog with great needs for physical and mental stimulation. To prevent this from happening, we must provide the daily dose of exercise that the dog needs.
Basic exercises
The German shepherd puppy needs to exercise body and mind in parallel The simple exercise of learning to pick up and return a stick or a ball that let's throw away, it will give you joy to notice that you communicate with us by understanding the function of the game; whose collateral effect will be the continuous races that said game will cause.
Another good training will be to train them to automatically obey the orders that we request. Sitting down, pawing, stretching, running, stopping, circling, or jumping higher and higher obstacles will be very beneficial exercises for the dog's mind and body. Find out how to put some of the basic obedience commands into practice.
You have to start with the simplest exercises and progress towards the most demanding ones. We must be patient, repetitive and understand or accept the individual idiosyncrasy of our German Shepherd. Using positive reinforcement and avoiding punishment will be essential. Due to what was said above about mediocre genetic lines, we must value and accept, if that is the case, that our German shepherd is not a cinematographic "Rex". We're probably not the smartest in our family either, right? but, without a doubt, we have the same right to try to be happy and live a full life as the wisest of our relatives could.
However, if our German shepherd is ordinary, with a good dose of exercise and proper training we will be able to get the best out of him
German Shepherd Walks
From what has been explained above, it can be seen that most of the recommended exercises should be done outside. A garden, a park, the beach, the forest; any place will be ideal for our German Shepherd to exercise.
If we live in a city we should restrict the races to the spaces adapted for these uses. From home to the playground the dog will go on a leash; or in the way that the regulations of our municipality mark. Obviously, vaccinations, veterinary monitoring, chip, and if possible civil liability insurance, will be essential.
It is estimated that a German shepherd dog needs about 90 minutes of daily walks, divided between 2 or 3 outings. If we exceed the minutes, much better. I must insist that it is convenient for our German shepherd to learn "things", apart from exercising physically. Bring us the slippers, the newspaper; teaching him to look for keys or glasses is not an impossible task for most German Shepherds, even if they are just "average".
Repetition, patience and positive reinforcement, rewarding with a treat when our German Shepherd achieves success in training him, will be incentives for the good mental he alth and happiness of our pet.
The walk should be a pleasant moment for the dog, for this reason, do not hesitate to review the most common errors of the walk and try avoid them.
Exceptional German Shepherds
If we are lucky enough that our German shepherd has an intelligence far above the rest, we should consider the possibility that it is trained by a professional. It will be money well spent.
Police dogs, firefighter dogs, helping disabled people or as assistants for work with children who require special needs are, among many others, different capacities that some German shepherds are amply trained to exercise. The company of such a dog will be a continuous source of satisfaction and pride. Although if the dog is so smart, maybe we'll be the ones to finally bring the shoes to him.
Unbalanced German Shepherd
A German shepherd without training and without any service awarded by us can become dangerous in some aspects: he can get bored, think, and self -assign a self-imposed function or service.
The fact that such a dog could think, at first glance, would seem like good news. But let's imagine a hooligan without studies, lazy, short-sighted and envious who started to think of some comfortable formula to achieve "pasta" without having to study or "work". All adult readers know the sorts of ideas such listless, bloated minds can produce.
If the pools or the lottery do not solve the root problem, the alternatives will not be very promising. The guy could decide to steal, or worse, he could be tempted by politics! An untrained sheepdog is a bad deal for a number of reasons which we will describe below.
Unbalance symptoms:
Untrained and lacking in exercise German Shepherds usually show some clear symptoms of unhappiness One very common is that the dog accompanies us until when we go to the toilet; This could indicate that the dog is very affectionate, but it is not always true. It is a clear symptom of dependency and unhappiness. When we go out for ten minutes to get bread, this dog feels abandoned and suffers from our absence. Imagine what the poor animal suffers when we are absent to go to work: separation anxiety. When our dog starts destroying objects, urinating uncontrollably at home or barking non-stop, we are clearly facing a serious problem. Using the kong to treat separation anxiety is a great way to ease your stress.
Another problem is the issue of hierarchy. A trained dog knows the place and rolehe occupies within the family, and does not aspire to more because he has well-defined tasks and takes care of fulfill them all, being happy when performing their task. He feels useful within his family. In packs all his components know his hierarchical place
A bored shepherd dog without any obligation, either he is dedicated to destroying furniture and clothes, or he takes to calibrating the possibility of prospering in the family social scale. He may do this by urinating in the younger child's room or bed, or by being aggressive to demonstrate to the family group his obvious prevalence over the weaker human specimen. Faced with this type of behavior, it would be appropriate to go to a professional, be it a canine educator or an ethologist.
True Story of an Unbalanced German Shepherd Dog
This story that I am going to narrate is completely authentic. A client of mine told me about it a few years ago:
They had a beautiful German shepherd dog. They were we althy people who lived in a mansion with a small fenced garden. The dog had an outside wooden shed and lived in it; The lady didn't want him at home because she covered the very expensive furniture with hair
The dog was in good physical shape because he ran around the garden for hours. He was also excellently fed.
As time passed, the dog tried to sneak into the family home whenever he had a chance. According to his owners they had the dog as a guard dog, but without any type of trainingby anyone. They assumed that it would be innate in the dog to guard the house.
At a certain moment that family began to find dead bodies of mice and birds on the threshold of the door of their house. And the dog shuddering with pride at his repeated hunting exploits that perhaps would allow him to enter the home and in this way manage to live with the human "pack", becoming one of them.
As that didn't let him in, he began to kill cats, small and medium-sized dogs that at first walked in front of the house; but then he went for them to the houses of the neighbors of the luxurious urbanization, or snatched them from people who walked their pets on the street. He always left the corpses in front of the barred door and howled like a wolf in a terrifying way. That dog was trying to show that he was capable of collaborating in feeding the family to make a hole for himself in it, it was a self-imposed service
Given the multitude of neighborhood problems caused, the dog was put down.
This is the sad story of a dog that very likely, with good training and more human warmth, would have managed to maintain mental balance. And he wouldn't have become a real danger, even to passing humans, if his hunting progression hadn't been stopped.
Ideas to exercise with your German Shepherd
In our article on exercise for adult dogs you can find a wide variety of different proposals to practice with your dog. Most will not be difficult for your German Shepherd to carry out. Start practicing jogging, canicross, agility or cycling with your best friend so that they are mentally he althy and very happy by your side. Remember that, apart from the exercise, what the dog really enjoys is that you accompany him
On the other hand, if your German Shepherd is already an elderly dog , you should consider that he may suffer from hip dysplasia, a disease degenerative and hereditary that usually affects this breed. To do this, consult our complete article about physical exercise for dogs with hip dysplasia.
