Dog trainers please help! My puppy is too shy!?

by **brenn15** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:01 pm

I have a German Shepherd mix puppy. It looks like a GSD/Alaskan Malamute cross, but the breeder says it is a GSD/Dutch Shepherd cross. Any way, he's still 3 months old and I bought him a week ago. Well I want to make him a guard dog, but it looks like he's too shy. He's afraid of everything and haven't even barked once. But he's active when playing with toys, and has already learned the commands "Come", "go", and "Sit" . But he become tired of playing very quickly. I've heard these are not traits of a future guard dog. So my question is, how can I train him to be a guard dog? How can I train him to protect me and my property? Will still be a shy dog even after he grow up?

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And please guys, I can't take him to a professional trainer right now, so I have to do it on my own. So please at least give me a good link to a "Guard dog training website".

by **tahmelapachme33** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:15 pm

If you want a guard dog, you are going to have to start some serious socialization right away! He also needs basic obedience lessons. As far as his shyness, you have missed the crucial time to expose him to handling by a variety of people (3 to 12 weeks), so you might be out of luck.

by **bellden** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:20 pm

Your dog should be your pet, not a guard dog. Did your parents train you to be an perfect kid or just to be their kid?

by **winfrid12** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:30 pm

you are far too ignorant to have a guard dog. first off no good breeder breeds mutts, and if you want a good guard dog you need to have them professionally trained, at the cost of 7-15k. just stop trying, and treat your dog as a pet. if you need self defence get a gun or something.

by **chika** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:35 pm

How old is this poor puppy - 3 months? Fgs, he's a BABY. And further, you've only had him for a week. With respect, you are trying to run with him, before you can walk. Let him be A PUPPY, settle in with you, play with his toys and figure out where he is. At this age he has enough to deal with moving from everything he knew in his short life. Eventually he may well be the guard you are looking for - just not yet. If it turns out that he really is a shy dog, chances are he's not going to be reliable. Fear biters are bad news. But my bet is once he's mature and settled in his new home, he'll protect his property, just as any dog will!! And he won't bark yet either. If he does already, he's going to be a yapper - which again you don't want. For a dog who is going to raise the alarm, you want him to only do this when appropriate

Lately, the attention span of a puppy is extremely short. So adjust any training sessions, which at this point, should be built into PLAYING, to meet his needs. When puppies are growing, they need to SLEEP.

by **forde** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:39 pm

hope this wil help you.http://www.urbandogtraining.com.au/index.html

by **dureau** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:40 pm

"I bought a car made from bits of a Ferrari and bits of a Massey-Ferguson tractor. I want to train it to win a NASCAR race but its tyres slide on every turn."

Get the comparison?

Okay, firstly you have brought your pup home at the WORSE possible age. The ideal age is at 7 to 9 weeks old, giving you time to spend a week with it 24/7, convincing it that you are the source of everything good in the universe, followed by enough time to give it all the familiarisation-&-confidence-building experiences needed before it ends the confident-&-curious period at 12-13 weeks old. 13-16 weeks is the "need security" period - owners of well raised pups never notice it, but owners of less-than-perfectly bred-&-raised pups discover then that their pup doesn't want to go anywhere new, is scared of everything. And THAT is when you brought your pup home....

To make it worse: If your evaluation is accurate, you have accepted a pooch with a totally unsuitable character.
Timid dogs can NOT become guard dogs. But they can become alarm dogs.

BTW, shown poorly-bred examples of a Belgian Shepherd Dog, a Dutch Shepherd Dog, and a German Shepherd Dog, a newbie would not be able to tell which was which. Joining e-groups for any of those breeds would give you access to knowledgeable help

You SHOULD currently be with your new pup 24/7, learning its timings & signals for such as "Wanna go toilet" (prove that humans are smarter than dogs, by learning his "language" before he learns yours), learning how to be so attractive that he WANTS to come when you call, and convincing him that you are the source of everything good in the universe.
Only when the dog TRUSTS you to protect it can it start learning anything useful to YOU.

Book yourself into a proper training club's weekly classes, ready for YOU to start being coached when Pup is 18-22 weeks old. Do NOT join an IPO or SchH class unless your pup has developed a calm, confident nature before it is 12 months old. Use a "Manners" class then progress to Agility and/or Companion-Utility Trials and/or Obedience Tests (GSDs are good at that last two, but easily get bored by fanatical trainers).

Why would he bark, at present? Barking is a call for help, telling the members of his pack that there is something the barker needs help against. But he doesn't yet trust YOU to come to his aid. So all that barking would do is antagonise whatever he is afraid of - better to silently slink away...

Another BTW: SchH clubs won't let you START on SchH training until AFTER you & your pet pass the BH test (about 2nd http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_GSD_Source/links/Defining_a_GSD_001261993982/ ), which is rarely passed before 12-15 months old. Starting to see how unrealistic your expectations are?
In the [ Search for other groups ] field near top of that group's page, type the breed you wish to connect to owners of. You should also Add that group above's Home address to your browser's Bookmarks or Favorites, to make it easy to look up such as Vaccinations, Worms, Neutering.

Books and videos and web-sites are next to useless to you - THEY can't see&hear what you are doing, can't see how your pet reacts (or doesn't), so cannot COACH you. It is COACHING that you need.

I wouldn't want to pay a pro, either (especially not for the time need to slightly improve a weak charactert) - but a co-operative club is a better scenario. In the GSD_Clubs and Kennel_Clubs sections of the Links part of
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_GSD_Source/
find your nation and ask the HQs where the nearest training branch is and how to contact an officer of that branch.
Lorelei, retired obedience club instructor

by **geol19** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:44 pm

The socialization process for a dog begins as a very young puppy and, although the first three months are very important, you need to continue that for at least a year and a half. So if you are wondering why a guard dog needs socialized- that way the dog learns who to bite and who not to. People who train professional guard dogs do extensive socialization before they teach the dog to attack on command.

The guarding dog drive is often associated with a predatory drive. I can't address the dog becoming tired too quickly about playing, but most people selecting for guarding dogs do want more of a predatory, chase drive.

As far as training him for protection-look for a book. That isn't merely a few lines of instruction.

by **orlondo100** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 5:54 pm

We've got 10 dogs some have passed and 4 still here ! But they were all shy at first BUT it took time love and the care and now our blue healer is half a sook and half guard ! We played with him and sometimes he became just that tad bit aggressive did we care no because we said he was looking out for us ! And we have annoying neighbors and they ALWAYS sit on our fence or just annoy us at our front house so we get the healer and say to him "who's that ? Get him boy get him ! " but those kids have learnt now ! And our boy is 5 and a GREAT guard dog and that took TIME - LOVE AND CARE !

by **symington** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 6:00 pm

At 3 months your shepherds drives are already in full force. A DS pup would already be guarding the hell out whatever it perceives as his duty. 100% of shepherds do NOT have the same drives.

You can socialize him to make him less shy and train guard like behaviors, but you can not create drive.

It sounds like a good thing. YOU do not want a high drive dog if you have no idea what you are doing. A dutch shepherd can be very dangerous if it is high drive and not handled properly.

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