Need any advice from GERMAN SHEPHERD owners

[1GirlTwinBoys]

We just brought our new family member home Thursday night.:) He's 4 1/2 months old and really sweet. I have a few questions that I wanted to ask from those experienced GS owners.

 

He's very easy going and not easily spooked at all. BUT, I've noticed that he HATES the broom and rake. Any time I try to use those he gets upset and starts trying to bark/attack them. Is this normal puppy behavior? How do I get him to not get so worked up when I do these tasks? Other things like the leaf blower, etc... don't bother him at all.:001_huh: He has seen our cats outside and didn't mind when they walked right past him. I think he has a very good temperament. Don't know what his issue with the rake and broom is.

 

Also, he's started trying to hump on my twin boys. After researching last night, I read that he's trying to determine his place in the pack and showing dominance over them. When he tried to do it again this morning, I immediately gave his pincher collar a jerk and yelled "NO". The boys have been told to not let him act this way with them and to immediately push him off and say "NO" as well. Is this the proper way to handle it? Any other suggestions? After I corrected him, he seemed distant from us and went and laid off to himself. I'm assuming this is good and it helped reinforce his place in the pack???? I really want him to be a good family pet, but this is the first time I've had a dog with children. It's been 10 years since I had experience with Dobermans.

 

Any suggestions or advice would be really appreciated.:)

[bzymom]

Congrats on your puppy! I do not have shepherds, but can share what we do with the silly barking at brooms, mops, etc.

 

I grab some tiny treats and as I sweep I drop them behind me occasionally. I only have to do it a couple of times and the broom or mop or vacuum becomes something the puppy looks forward to seeing!. Thereafter I will grab a single treat and drop it at some point during my cleaning as long as pup is quiet. I do this for a couple of weeks, and my dogs are over it so I can sweep, etc., without the nuisance barking.

 

Hope this helps a bit.

[AimeeM]

I have a German Shepherd. Wonderful family dog but you DO need to firmly establish yourself as the Alpha (as do your children). Even now, at almost 3 years old) our Luke tries to get one over on the kiddos (and me!). He is playful, bouncy, protective, and gentle with the youngest two but tends to get wild and too playful with the 11 year old girl.

I know I may get reamed for it, but we had to resort to using a shock collar on ours. His protective tendencies got so out of hand for a while that he became "unwelcome" at puppy training class, started chasing down anybody in the neighborhood he felt was an immediate threat (like the little old lady across the street, random moms walking with babies in strollers, etc - super threatening, let me tell ya :glare:) and was very dog aggressive. Because we live in a subdivision, we didn't want to risk him running after the wrong person (something about a 90 lb GSD growling and chasing you that rubs people the wrong way) and having the doggy police come after him; also, we weren't convinced he wouldn't bite if he felt it was an immediate threat. Now he behaves beautifully (most of the time - he's still rather homicidal towards UPS men for some reason, lol). We brought him home to be both companion and protection, so we do want to keep some of his protective tendencies - they just needed to be reigned in a bit :D.

 

His favorite activities are frisbee and tennis ball throwing; he's a bit absent minded and also loves to just run back and forth in circles in the yard. Lol.

 

As for your broom and rake issue - our Luke is terrified of the mop, for some reason. No clue why but he sure does scoot quickly out of the way when he sees me with the mop in the kitchen. Lol. When he was younger I do vaguely remember him chasing and barking at anything I floated across the ground - not in a way that indicated fear really, more in a "cat -vs- tail" kind of way (chase, play, bark, growl).