German Shepherds are often said to be intelligent, loyal and hard working. And that’s all true. But they’re often believed to be that way on the basis of temperament, which some claim is all inbred. That’s where the controversy begins.

For more insight into your German shepherd, come and take a look at the German Shepherd Handbook

It’s undoubtedly true that certain features of a dog’s personality, as with humans, derives from genetics. But, as with humans, where to draw the line between nature and nurture is a difficult task.

When you see a behavior repeated across generations, it’s a sign that something genetic is at work. That behavior is frequently (at least partly) the result of an inborn temperament. But characteristics like intelligence are notoriously difficult to measure objectively. Attributes like ‘loyal’ are difficult to define at all.

Certainly an individual dog and by extension the German Shepherd breed has to have a certain basic potential in order to do the sometimes amazing things it does. The ability to navigate complex environments to sniff out a bomb containing a certain compound is such a task. Opening a door and guiding a blind person through it, or delivering a tray of food to a wheelchair-bound person have to be learned. Without some raw intelligence, those things couldn’t be taught.

But in each of those examples, the dog has been trained. The result is a combination of nature and nurture.

With simpler behaviors it’s more difficult to judge how much is due to temperament and how much to training. If a Shepherd spontaneously grasps your hand in its mouth, then tugs you forward, that’s probably temperament, to a large extent. When you see an untrained German Shepherd pacing back and forth behind a chain link fence, ‘patrolling’ its border, there’s likely a certain amount of basic nature at work.

But even here, the dog had to learn for itself how to grasp a hand without doing harm. It had to observe the fence and make a decision to patrol in a certain area. There is some learning involved even in these situations.

Some things are very clearly not taught. German Shepherds will bark at the approach of strangers, even when there has been no other dog in their lives to ’show them how’. That behavior is an instance of separating those inside the home from those outside. The home dwellers are ‘part of the pack’. Those outside are a potential threat. That display of ‘loyalty’ can most logically be interpreted as protectiveness and is probably innate.

Some traits are likely inherent. Others are brought out only with training. Still others are probably due to a kind of free will, similar to that possessed by humans. But whichever the case, one thing is certain: German Shepherds are excellent combinations of many fine qualities, whatever their source.

German Shepherd Handbook

Very Important…Please Read

One of the most potentially serious conditions a German Shepherd can suffer from is something called Bloat. In scientific terms, it’s more commonly referred to as GDV, or Gastric Dilatation Volvulus. The stomach becomes bloated with air or fluid, often accompanied by a twist (volvulus), as it rotates around the esophagus and the duodenum.

The condition is painful, unhealthy and potentially life-threatening. Why it occurs isn’t completely understood, but the condition and treatment are well known, provided it can be caught in time.

One sign to look for is any ‘unproductive’ vomiting or inability to belch. If your Shepherd is unable to regurgitate after trying for a few minutes, don’t panic. It may be that they simply don’t have anything to bring up. But if it occurs when they’ve just had a meal, proving they have stomach contents, a call to the vet is in order. Sometimes they will be able to produce some material, but if it appears foamy then make that call.

Though the causes are still murky, there are several factors that may be involved. Genetics is clearly one of them, but diet and eating habits may be more relevant. Peas, onions, beans and other foods can cause an excess of gas to build up. If the stomach twists that gas can get trapped. Feed only high quality dog food always, and reduce the size of meals if you suspect GDV.

Hyperventilation may produce an excessive intake of air which can become trapped. This can lead to breathing difficulties, especially for older dogs. Avoiding stressful situations when possible is called for. Shepherds aren’t particularly fearful dogs, but some react badly in the face of thunderstorms and other loud noises. Try to provide a quiet room and a calming voice.

An extended stomach is a possible sign of Bloat. By the time this stage is reached, the problem is serious and you should seek a vet’s attention. Feel the dog’s stomach when he is in a standing position. It should feel relatively soft and aligned with the body. If it’s hard, extended or sounds hollow when tapped gently, you may be dealing with a case of Bloat.

GDV can cause a disruption of proper blood flow, as the vessels become constricted from pressure and twisting. This can interfere with a number of important body systems. Oxygen levels in the blood may become reduced, stomach cells may begin to die, and toxins and bacteria can be released into the bloodstream. Kidney failure is a possibility. Cardiac Arrhythmia or irregular heartbeat can occur. All of these require professional medical treatment as soon as possible.

If you suspect your German Shepherd has GDV or Bloat, stay calm. Look for the signs and get on the phone with your vet. He or she can best decide whether drug treatment or surgery is warranted.

Check out the German Shepherd Handbook

The German Shepherd Dog also known as an Alsatian comes literally from the German Deutscher Schäferhund. They are a relatively new breed of large-sized dog originating in the late 19th century. They are part of the Herding group that was originally developed as a working dog for herding sheep.

The Alsatians strength, intelligence and obedience they are often employed in police and military roles. They are also one of the most popular breeds around the world.
The breed originates from a dog called Hektor Linksrhein. Hecktor so impressed Von Stephanitz that he bought it and renamed him to Horand von Grafrath and founded the Society for the Alsatian Dogs.

Horand became the centre-point of the society’s breeding programs and was mated with many other society member dogs.
The German Shepherds popularity has increased quickly throughout the 20th Century, though it had some problems in popularity in the early days due to health problems from poor breeding and after the world wars with anti German sentiment. To such an extent that the UK Kennel Club renamed it to “Alsatian Wolf Dog”, a while later the wolf dog addition was dropped and in 1977, the Alsatian Dog was back as the official name, though it is still often known as the Alsatian. The German Shepherd popularity was fuelled by animal actors such as Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart. Now days it is globally the third most popular dog breed.

They are a large dog of between 55 and 65 centimetres (around 24 in) at the top of the back and weigh between 22 and 40 kilograms (60 lb).

The German Shepherd’s face has a long square cut muzzle, a doomed forehead, a long neck, strong jaws, big erect ears (that are often pulled back when on the move), black nose and brown, medium-sized eyes. With a bushy tail.

German Shepherds come in a variety of colours, the normal versions are the tan/black and red/black versions with black masks and saddles. Less common types include the sable, all-black, all-white, liver and blue varieties, which may not fit country breed standards. German Shepherds have a double coat. A thick close dense outer coat, which sheds continually and a thick undercoat. The long-hair variety is rarer.
Like many working dogs, Alsatians were bred for their intelligence, and are considered to be the third most intelligent breed of dog (Border Collies is deemed to be number one by Stanley Coren in his book The Intelligence of Dogs). This intelligence combined with their power makes the breed sought after as guard, police, search and rescue dogs, being able to quickly learn various tasks and interpret instructions better than other large breeds.
Alsatians are known for aggression and have been restricted in areas as a result. Statistically, in the States, the Alsatian is responsible for more unprovoked indiscriminate bites than any other breed, and have a known tendency to attack smaller dog breeds.

Additionally studies have shown that German Shepherds are the breed third most likely to attack someone and in a different study, German Shepherds were responsible for nearly half of the dog bites that required medical attention, compared to a more typical twenty of bites requiring medical treatment, not a surprise with their powerful jaws and scissor teeth.

There is no problem with the German Shepherd breed, it is the fault of the owners. As with any clever active dog (or person), if they are not regularly active and kept occupied, they can become difficult. The German Shepherd needs to have puppy socialisation and good education from an early stage. The Alsatian is different from the collie, which a lot of its aggressiveness has been removed by breeding for shows, the German Shepherd does not seem to have lost this character.

They can bond very well with their family, however they can become over-protective of their family and territory. Due to this they may appear a bit aloof.

Alsatians are rapid learners and are very obedient and not easily distracted, but due to their strong character, you must be very forceful with them.
The Alsatian will need to have two good walks a day. They are not a dog for a busy family who cannot give them the time and attention. For this reason, busy couples often ask professional dog walkers such as London dog walking to help out by walking them for several hours a day.
Poor breeding has led to common health issues, hip and elbow joint problems (dysplasia) which often causes the dog pain and often causes arthritis. The Alsatian also is susceptible from monorchidism (one testicle), weakness of temperament, and missing teeth, as well as folded or bent ears which never fully turn up when reaching adulthood. The Alsatian is often has ear problems due to his large and open ears.

Alsatians, like many deep chested dogs are prone to bloat, this is often fatal, so if you think this may be a problem, go straight to the vet. Bloat is a gas build up in the stomach, caused by a number of different causes. The symptoms of distress for no apparent reason, a firm distension of the abdomen, general weakness, depression, problems breathing, hypersalivation, and retching without vomiting. A large percentage of dogs with bloat have cardiac arrhythmias (around forty percent), loss of appetite, vomiting and weight loss.

The German Shepherd often suffers from Degenerative Myelopathy, or DM is a neurological disease and are predisposed to Von Willebrand Disease, a common generic bleeding disorder, which shows in differing degrees of bleeding tendency, usually in the form of easy bruising, nosebleeds and bleeding gums. .

In spite of these problems, the German Shepherd is robust with simple dog care and the average lifespan of a Alsatian is around nine years, which is typical for a large dog breed.

The Alsatian has a great nose so is one of the most widely-used breeds in a wide variety of scent-work roles, including cadaver searching, search and rescue, explosives detection, narcotics detection and mine detection.

So the Alsatian is a great clever breed that will love you, if you have the time and dedication for him. Not advised for busy working families.

Dogs are surprisingly complex creatures.

Some official estimates of the number of breeds reaches as high as 800 in Western countries alone. Even given that distinguishing one breed from another can be carried to absurd extremes, the variety is astonishing from a human perspective, who have, perhaps, a dozen ‘breeds’.

Complicating the picture still further is the well-known fact that dogs have descended from wolves but began domestic interaction with humans over 10,000 years ago. As a consequence, there are behaviors that develop regardless of circumstances and some that are as unique as the human the dog is paired with. Still, some common traits stand out.

Dogs are predators.

That doesn’t mean they necessarily hunt and attack every passing cat or rat, but the capacity is always in them. With acute hearing and head muscles that allow precise orientation of their ears, dogs can pick up a range of sounds and locate the source quickly and with high accuracy.

A dog’s field of vision is higher than that of humans. Their field of view has been estimated from 180-270 degrees, by comparison to a human’s 100-150 degrees, allowing them to track events better.

And, of course, there’s that famous sense of smell. Citing figures such as having 25 times as many scent-receptor cells or being able to sense concentrations 100 million times smaller than humans conveys the fact one way.

Another is to report behavior. Golden Retrievers, for example, can smell gophers through two feet of packed snow and a foot of frozen earth. And, they’ll dig through it to get to the gopher. That’s predatory behavior.

Dogs are social animals.

That’s common knowledge, of course. But, though known, it’s often ignored. Individuals will often lock a lone dog away in a garage or pen, or on a rope in the yard for long periods. This isolation from contact with humans and other animals invariably leads to fear and/or aggression and other forms of maladjustment. Dogs need companionship in order to develop healthy behavior.

Isolating a dog for brief periods can be a useful training technique. Fear of expulsion from the pack can incent overly assertive, alpha-status seeking dogs into alignment with the trainer’s goals. In any human-dog pair, the human must be the alpha (leader). The alternative is property destruction, human frustration and unsafe conditions for people and dogs.

But excessive time devoid of social interaction with another dog, the human, or even a friendly cat harms the dog’s psychology and leads to unwanted behavior. Even guard dogs have to be able to distinguish between external ‘threats’ and members of its own ‘pack’.

Dogs are exploratory.

Like the two-year-old humans at roughly their same mental level, dogs learn by exploring their environment. And like those humans, they can engage in destructive behavior. Dogs are no respecters of property. Training and an appropriately selected set of objects and suitable area can channel that behavior into something acceptable to humans and healthy for the dog.

Providing toys with characteristics very distinct from human property, such as rawhide bones rather than rubber balls that are hard to tell from children’s, leads to less confusion and misbehavior. In many cases, however, the problem is solved by scent. The dog’s toys may look like the child’s, but smell very different.

Some amount of digging may be inevitable as part of the dog’s exploration. Be prepared to patch holes in lawn if the dog is unsupervised for very long. Plants can usually be protected with cayenne pepper paste, bitter apple and other preparations.

Dogs are scavengers

Dogs will eat deer droppings, even when they have perfectly sound and ample diets. They’ll chew on dead rats, eat grass and ingest a wide variety of things that their own experience shows causes upset stomachs. And they’ll repeat the behavior day after day.

Acknowledging their limited ability to connect cause and effect when those are separated in time is a must in order to keep them healthy and safe.

Recognizing a dog’s nature, and working within in it rather than against it leads to less frustration for both human and dog. Enjoying the beneficial aspects, such as spontaneous dog hugs (leaning into a leg), paw offering and a head laid on the lap are just a few of the rewards.

photo credit: DaneKhy

This is so important with German Shepherds…Check out the German Shepherd Handbook. What is Schutzhund?

In every pack there is an “alpha” dog, who is the pack’s leader. If you have brought home a dog or puppy, your home has become their new den, and your family is the new pack. So, it becomes up to you to assume the role of pack leader-the Alpha dog-and teach your dog the rules and guidelines he must follow to get along with his new “pack”. Your pet needs to know that he is below your family in the pecking order, to avoid any confusion that could lead to displays of aggression.

Puppies are easier to teach to become submissive, but you certainly can teach your older dog that you are indeed the alpha dog, not him. You’ll find that just by being consistent with some basic obedience training exercises you can establish yourself as the alpha dog.

Becoming the Alpha dog doesn’t mean you will need to act threateningly or intimidating to your dog. Being the alpha dog is more a matter of communicating the right attitude to your dog. You can take charge and be the alpha dog without resorting to any  negative yelling and hitting. Negative training ends up hurting your relationship with your dog, and creates confusion. Be consistent with your training, staying positive, and earn his respect and trust-this will make you the alpha dog much better than any negative actions will.

Obedience training your dog on a regular basis is the way to get started becoming the alpha dog. Every time you interact with your dog you can give him a few basic commands-sit, stay, down-just to keep him sharp and get him used to listening to you. Due to your consistent and persistent training your dog will look to you for guidance and give you the deserved alpha status. Try these useful positive training techniques that help you become the alpha dog, without any need to ever act unfriendly towards your dog.

• Tell your dog to sit down and make him wait a little bit in that position, perhaps 30 seconds, before giving him his dinner bowl. By doing this you are showing your dog that you have control of the food-this is a pretty clear way to tell him who the Alpha dog really is. Make him wait until he is calm before offering him the food as positive reinforcement that he has behaved properly. If you do this each time you feed your dog, you are really reinforcing who is the alpha dog, and also helping him develop good manners at dinnertime.
• Every time you walk through the door to go outside, make your dog sit and wait until you invite him to pass through the door. By reminding him often of your alpha status,  he will learn to look toward you for guidance as a matter of course.
• A similar exercise can be done when you are on a walk with your dog and want to cross the street. Stop your dog from entering the street by making him sit and wait for your command. Besides reinforcing your alpha position, this training also serves to teach your dog not to run out into traffic.

If you are staying consistent and fair with your training, using positive training techniques, it shouldn’t take too long to gain your dog’s respect confidence and trust and be seen as the pack leader-the alpha dog.

For more reading about becoming the Alpha dog and training your dog using positive training methods, please click here to visit http://www.BehaveDoggy.com.

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Many German Shepherds are into  Dog Training. They are a natural for this type of “work”.
Secrets of Dog Training – For German Shepherds

Most of the Schutzhund dogs historically have been German shepherd dogs, but now there are clubs that allow the entry of other breeds. To qualify the breed must be sufficiently athletic, courageous and intelligent enough to compete in this rigorous training. To qualify as a good candidate for the Schutzhund training, you dog should have the following characteristics:

Your dog must enjoy working very much.
Your dog must be courageous.
Your dog needs to be easily trainable
Your dog must have a very strong bond with his handler (you).
Your dog must have a very strong protective instinct.
Your dog must be able to persevere.

The Schutzhund dog trials are based on three different tests: tracking, obedience and protection. There are 3 levels of Schutzhund training, Levels Schutzhund I, Schutzhund II, and Schutzhund III, and each level is more challenging. There are no better trained dogs in any field than the Schutzhund III dogs.

Tracking: Your dogs sense of smell, his mental sharpness and his stamina will be tested during the tracking ability competition on a trail that contains dropped items for him to locate. While performing the tracking trial the handler puts his his dog on a 33 foot leash and follows him around the course. Your dog will need to located these dropped items, and mark their location, by lying down with the items between his front legs. Your dog will be judged using a 100 point scale, depending on how well he performed on the course.

Obedience: The obedience trials are held in a large open field. Each dog works in a pair with another dog-one dog will wait on the side of the field while the other dog performs the obedience trial with the handler. After the first dog performs his obedience trial, he switches places with the other dog. To do well during these obedience trails your dog is going to need complete focus. Among the many types of exercises, your dog will need to heel while walking through crowd of people, not loose his focus when gunshots are fired, or even to ignore a female dog in heat . There are many other exercises including a variety of jumps, climbing, retrieving, etc. The judges will score your dog depending on his enthusiasm on his abilities to perform the trial’s exercises.

Protection: The protection part of the competition tests your dogs courage and ability to protect both himself and his handler. A decoy will be hiding somewhere on the course behind a blind. The handler will command the dog to search and find the decoy who is hiding behind a blind-he announces his discovery by barking at the decoy. The dog now is required to guard the decoy until your arrival. This is where the police work side of the Schutzhund training is put to use. the handler now comes up to the decoy, and will search him prior to escorting him to where the judge is waiting. The decoy will attempt to escape from the handler during the search or while being escorted.During the escape attempt your dog must be able to stop the escape by biting and holding onto the decoy’s padded sleeve. When the decoy stops his struggling, your dog must know to release the sleeve as soon as you command him to stop. The dogs are judged according to his enthusiasm, courage and also ability to control his aggression at your command.

If you would like to learn more about Schutzhund dog training see if you can find a local Schutzhund club. You may have a little difficulty finding a Schutzhund club near you, as they are not that common in the U.S. as of yet. The Schutzhund dog training requires more than one person-for the tracking and the protection phases of the competition-so you will need the help of someone with your training. You need the benefit of someone with experience to help you learn the tricks of Schutzhund training and to perform the exercises as well, so a club is the best way to achieve that. If there are no clubs near you, check out a Schutzhund training video or DVD to learn more and also get an idea of just how incredibly well trained Schutzhund dogs really are.

For more helpful articles about dog obedience training and solving your dog’s behavior problems, please click here to visit http://BehaveDoggy.com.

Please click here to read my full review of the best dog obedience training program on the Internet.