German Shepherd Dogs

German Shepherd Dogs
By Kathy Diamond Davis
Author and Trainer


One of the world’s foremost working breeds, the German Shepherd Dog deserves its many fans. Max von Stephaniz founded the breed in the 1890s from sheep-herding dogs that met his criteria for working ability and conformation.
The breed gained rapid popularity due to prestigious dog shows and enthusiastic police and military handlers who highly prized the dogs’ working abilities. After World War I, Germany had many blinded war veterans and well-trained German Shepherds. Not surprisingly, German Shepherds began working as guide dogs.

The sport of Schutzhund was designed as a testing program to help select breeding dogs with the correct genetics for police and military work. It still serves this purpose, but has become a contest of sophisticated training.
Other breeds have joined the German Shepherd Dog in the jobs the breed formerly dominated. Though a great many German Shepherds are produced in the United States, the dogs working in police departments and other vital functions are often imports from Germany.

Several types of German Shepherd Dogs are bred. Types include long-coated dogs, conformation show dogs, bloodlines specialized for guide work, dogs bred for police and military work, and at least two groups registered as completely different breeds. These are the United Kennel Club registered White German Shepherd and the Shiloh Shepherd (bred for larger size).

There are also problem dogs being produced under the German Shepherd Dog (GSD) breed name. As with any popular breed, some people produce dogs for no other reason than quick profit. There are plenty of people who think of a dog breed as equivalent to a “name brand product.” They buy the commercially-bred puppies, not realizing that temperament and health in dogs are largely genetic. These qualities are dependent on the ethics and knowledge of the breeder.

In a breed with a temperament as complex as the GSD, sloppy breeding can make the temperament go wrong. Bad breeding has also produced huge numbers of dogs crippled by hip dysplasia and afflicted with other genetic health problems. Such dogs fail as working dogs, and can be heartbreaking for people who adopt them as companions.
Great German Shepherd Dogs are still being bred, being properly trained and succeeding brilliantly in working roles as well as companion lifestyles. Let’s examine what these dogs need in order to thrive in your home.

Temperament and Training

As is characteristic of a sheep-herding breed, the GSD needs a job. The dog will keep busy, and if you don’t teach a job and make it accessible for the dog to perform, the GSD will devise one. Due to the breed’s guarding trait, too often the dog’s self-created job will take the form of excessive protectiveness. This can result in inappropriate aggression toward people who approach your real estate, your vehicle, people in your family, or—in the case of poor temperament—the dog’s self.

A good temperament in a GSD requires the right balance of watchfulness (not paranoid fear), steady nerves, trainability that includes a desire to do as you say without hesitation, discrimination to stand down when the person is harmless, and other working qualities. The temperament is fulfilled through diligent training. If you’re not going to formally and thoroughly train with your dog, the GSD is the wrong choice.

For a protective family dog, your liability status and safety will be better if you do not train to bite. This is an extremely loyal breed with high protection ability that is best channeled into healthy bonding with your family, good social skills with other friendly people, and solid control training. Then you will have a dog who is formidable in deterring and if necessary chasing away criminals, but unlikely to get you into a lawsuit or hurt a child.

The bite training is appropriate for trained peace officers who can arrest and control the prisoner after the dog has helped apprehend that person. Even police K-9 handlers try to apprehend suspects without the dog biting whenever possible, because they get sued too.

Don’t send your GSD out for someone else to train. You need a lot of training WITH the dog in order to handle this breed responsibly. Whether or not you engage the services of a private trainer to teach you how to train your dog, you also need to work with your dog in a class. This breed needs a minimum of several months of weekly class experience working side-by-side with other handlers who have their dogs under control. This is essential for building the correct habits and belief system in the dog. It broadens your relationship with your dog from family members into working partners. A GSD must have this.

The minimal skills a GSD and handler need to reliably master include down-stay, loose-leash walking, come-when-called, retrieve, sit/down/stand changes of position if the dog is physically sound to perform them without pain, and focused attention. In addition, the dog needs to be taught not to jump up on a person unless directed to do so by the handler, and not to put teeth on humans.

Dog training was practically invented for this breed. There is something wrong when a German Shepherd Dog is not trained.

GSDs need to believe they can trust you. They need to view the training as fair and they need it to make sense. They do wonderfully well training in realistic situations where they can see the logic of the task.

Management

Anxiety whining in common in GSDs, and the best way to handle it is to give the dog something to do that pleases you. Success in work is the key to a safe and happy dog. Never punish the dog for whining because that increases anxiety and will make the whining worse in the future.

An unstable dog should never be alone with children. No child under school age should be left with any dog even for a moment without the presence of an adult who knows how to handle that dog.

Keeping in mind that this breed is large enough to inflict a serious bite or even kill, the best supervision is one adult controlling the dog while another adult governs the preschool child. Dog bites to children are preventable, and doing so is part of the responsibility of owning a dog, especially a large and protective one.

Never leave your GSD unattended where unreliable people can get at the dog. This includes being left around rowdy children, unsupervised in a back yard, or alone with a visitor who is inhumane or intoxicated.

GSDs shed a lot. For a long coat, a good comb such as the original Belgian-made Greyhound comb or a Chris Christensen comb serves well when used daily. The same comb will remove dead hair from the hackles areas of a short coat during heavy shedding.

Both long and short coats go through shedding seasons more smoothly with daily use of a rubber curry groomer used in a circular motion. A short coat stays shiny and pleasant smelling with a daily rubdown using either a curry groomer or your bare hands. The grooming time also directly benefits the dog’s training, bonding to you, and safe response to human touch.

Health Concerns

With the careless breeding some people have done, it’s not surprising that the GSD shows up on lists of breeds susceptible to a number of inherited diseases. The best known is hip dysplasia.

This condition makes a dog unsuited for a number of working roles, and can cause varying degrees of pain, disability, and behavior problems (especially fear and aggression). Sometimes the condition can be improved by expensive hip replacement. Since we never know just how much pain a dog is experiencing, inadequate pain control is common for dysplastic dogs. Dogs can have elbow dysplasia, too. These joint abnormalities increase the risk of other injuries when the dog throws too much weight onto a different joint to compensate. Dogs who tear one knee ligament are high risk to tear the other one, too.

A dog’s risk of hip dysplasia is greatly reduced by careful breeding. Don’t finance the operation of a breeder who neglects the testing precautions that reduce this suffering for dogs in the bloodline. Don’t get a puppy from such a breeder.

Another thing breeders need to breed away from is allergies. Walk away from a puppy with skin problems or parents who have such problems.

Panosteitis seems to hit growing German Shepherd Dogs frequently. It may require pain medication, and a dog should not be worked until it resolves. This is bone pain, and can be so severe that the dog will not eat. You don’t want a dog’s working potential to be spoiled by associating work with pain. Pushing a dog to work through pain can also have detrimental effects on temperament, too. Panosteitis risk may increase from spaying/neutering young puppies because it causes pups to keep growing longer and to grow taller.

Separation anxiety is common in German Shepherd Dogs who lose their homes. The breed is known for breaking through windows and doors from anxiety—and occasionally to go after a mail carrier. Regular daily training on outings for several months after adopting a re-homed dog helps reduce separation anxiety, as does daily grooming.

Be careful, too, not to leave the dog crated for excessive time, and don’t punish or even scold a dog when you come home to a mess. Keep a schedule the dog can count on. It actually helps to be “predictably unpredictable.” Don’t leave the dog too long (never longer than eight hours without access to a place to eliminate), but give the dog the opportunity to learn by experience that differences in the time you arrive home are not cause for fear.

German Shepherd Dogs can develop the disturbing habit of chasing the tail and biting it until it bleeds. This makes an alarming mess in addition to not allowing the tail to heal if the dog does it repeatedly. As a last resort, some of these dogs have had tails amputated. Interrupt this behavior immediately, but not with punishment.

Develop a lot of other enjoyable things to do for the dog, both with you and when alone. This is a major reason for teaching the retrieve. Provide plenty of safe chew items in a variety of textures. If the dog stays home alone or separated from any other dogs, try putting treats in toys and hiding them for the dog to find.

Teach the dog some cues for actions, so that for example when you see the dog get interested in tail chasing, you can say, “find a toy,” “bring me the ball,” or “settle” (it’s hard to chase the tail while lying down).

Be careful how you time various activities. Don’t respond to the dog chasing the tail by giving treats, playing ball or taking the dog for a walk. Do the fun stuff preventively when the dog is not tail chasing. Or have the dog stop tail chasing to perform some tasks for you and then reward with the other things.

One way to take a dog out of an undesired activity is “doggy calisthenics.” This is only appropriate for a dog without any bone or joint problem, even one you think is in the past. Merely have the dog do sit/down/sit/down/sit/down, with praise for each position. Then release the dog. If the dog goes back to tail-chasing, repeat the calisthenics, remaining cheerful.

Lifestyle

A German Shepherd Dog is a way of life. Many wind up homeless because they represent a big commitment of your time as well as learning how to train a dog. If this is the breed for you and you want to rescue a dog, you can surely find a GSD to rescue. It would be well worth the cost to pay for the hips to be x-rayed before committing yourself to adopting a particular dog. The risk of hip dysplasia in a GSD from unknown breeding is quite high.

Besides screening for genetic health problems and stable temperament, reputable breeders have different goals for their breeding choices. Make sure the breeder’s goals for the dog align with yours. If not, a reputable breeder will have a lot of connections in the breed and will be able to help you find a breeder who produces the kind of dog you need—or to tell you if this really isn’t the right breed for you.

German Shepherd Dogs are thinkers. They need work to do and problems to solve. They need to be important to you, and they need to stay with you for the rest of their lives. They can change homes if the new home is a good one, but it is a hard adjustment for them and takes time. In a new home, the dog may not want to eat. You may see several months of separation anxiety with the potential for destruction of property, injury to the dog, and escape behavior.
These dogs give you their loyal hearts. They genuinely desire to please you. A well-bred and well-trained German Shepherd Dog is unforgettable. Many people have gotten hooked on dog training by owning, loving, and training with one of these marvelous dogs.

People may change breeds after that to a smaller breed or one with less protection attitude. Even for those who can handle them well, GSDs are heavy-duty dogs. That’s why they have effectively worked beside police officers, soldiers, search and rescue handlers, blind people, and done other jobs where they have protected and saved both lives and property. Perhaps what you actually need instead is a light-duty dog. Even if you never have a German Shepherd Dog of your own, chances are your life will be made better because others have lived and worked with them.