The Importance Of Early GSD Socialization And Training

I can’t stress enough how important it is to perform GSD socialization and training
activities early, and often, in your German Shepherd’s life. Go to the park, to as
many dog-friendly stores as possible, on errands, etc. Take your GSD puppy with
you wherever and whenever you can. And when I say take the GSD puppy with you, I
mean take it with you, not leave it in the car while you’re in the store.

GSD socialization will occur whenever your puppy is introduced to new situations,
new people and animals, and new places. They need to actively participate in
socialization for it to really work – that means you must let them safely interact with
new people, places and things.

This is definitely a great step in building the GSD puppies confidence and building a
more stable temperament – more capable of coping with new and unusual
experiences. German Shepherds are highly intelligent and these early GSD
socilization lessons, being around new and different stimuli, will make your adult
German Shepherd much more stable and confident – and this is exactly what you
want.

Your new GSD puppy has spent the first few weeks of it’s life with his mother, litter
mates and breeders family. Your new GSD puppy may have gone on rides to many
new places such as the veterinarian, short shopping errands, and on short training
rides. It has probably heard many different kinds of noises: people, horns of cars,
birds chirping, children, sounds of traffic, etc. If your German Shepherd puppy was
raised in a farm type locale the puppy has probably seen, heard and smelled many
different types of animals, larger farm equipment, etc. Other interesting things to
introduce your puppy to are: slick floors (tile / linoleum), elevators, stairs and
carpeting.

One of your new jobs as the GSD puppy’s new owner is to add to all of those past
experiences with many other new ones. Ask the breeder what kind of socialization
has been done with your puppy and take it from there. The more new and exciting
experiences that your make your GSD a part of, the better. I can’t stress enough how
important it is that you continue to socialize your GSD puppy during the first several
months of its life. Discovery of new experiences and teaching the puppy to deal with
them positively and confidently is highly important.

Many studies have been done that show the critical socialization period for a puppy
is from eight to sixteen weeks of life. During this period it is essential that the
German Shepherd puppy safely and positively experience as many new things as
possible. Some of these experiences will be a little stressful, but you must support
your puppy during these times and encourage them throughout the entire
socialization process.

Here’s a short example of how simple this process can be: Several years ago I was
walking my 10 wk old GSD puppy, Cera, around our block on one windy day. Out of
nowhere a small piece of trash paper blew by both of us, quietly startling her. She
watched the trash as it continued to blow up against the curb, changed direction
and blew closer toward us. Curious, she wanted to check out the new object that
was moving around on the curb in front of us and now moving toward us but unsure
as how exactly to react to the new object.

It was obvious to me that she was curious enough to want to check it out, but also
fearful enough that she wanted to run away from it. I waited to see what she would
do. She watched the object as it moved around, sometimes backing up slightly,
sometimes moving toward it. I allowed her the time to observe the paper and waited
to see exactly what she was going to do about it.

It seemed longer, but I’m sure that it was only a few minutes until she decided to
slowly approach that piece of trash paper. What a brave girl. Eventually she pounced
on the paper and give it a good shake and chewing before I finally took it away from
her! I praised her profusely. Not for tearing up the paper but more importantly for
approaching it after her initial fear response. She met her fear of this new and
strange object face to face and overcame it. In future experiences with new and
strange objects she would now be more confident. Over time and with more and
more positive experiences like this one, Cera grew up to be a very emotionally
strong, good-tempered and confident GSD. As the owner you play a major role in
providing this confidence for your new GSD puppy.

It is extremely important to socialize your German Shepherd starting at as young an
age as possible to make them more comfortable with other people and dogs and
able to feel comfortable and confident in strange environments. Puppy obedience
classes, also referred to as “Puppy Kindergarten”, are an incredible means to
introduce your puppy to the world outside of your home. This is both a prime GSD
socialization experience as well as a wonderful training and bonding opportunity.

Puppy obedience training classes are set up in such a way as to teach the German
Shepherd puppy the actual commands, but also to teach you, the owner, how to
train the puppy specific behaviors and manners, now and in the future. Your dog
will discover the link between your commands and the desired behavior. It is
entirely possible that you can train GSD puppy at home as well but compared to all
the great socialization lessons your GSD puppy can gain from the puppy classes,
there really is no comparison. In fact, I highly recommend it.

The author, a lifelong dog lover and German Shepherd owner, has been a
German Shepherd breeder for over to 15 years. For more information and
articles covering other German Shepherd related topics, feel free to visit:
total-german-shepherd.com

Interested in other purebred dog breeds? Visit: pedigreedpups.com