German Shepherds are incredibly loyal and protective breeds. If you bring one into your family, they’ll love you and protect you. But proper protection training is essential to ensure that your relationship becomes healthy. So, how to train a German Shepherd to protect you?
There are many ways to train your shepherd dog to be a good protector. First, you need to assure him that protection training is not intended as a punishment.
Let him know that you are putting him through a training session because it develops their behavioral acts as well as prepares them to combat harsh situational needs.
Once your dog adapts to these facts, he will receive positive reinforcement and learn to obey the basic commands throughout the training program.
As shepherds have protective instincts, this type of training will help your dog identify when a situation calls for its special skills and when it does not.
How to Train a German Shepherd to Protect You? Step-by-Step Guideline
Whether you’re a professional or novice, you’ll have no problem mastering the protection techniques of Shephard training. All you need is one set of basic training plans to help you start with the extensive training program.
Here are some tips that a professional dog trainer applies to train German shepherds safely and effectively.
- Proper Behavior Guideline
Training through positive reinforcement is the best way to get good results quickly. Before you teach a German shepherd guard dog how to protect you or your house, you should first teach him how to behave and socialize with others around him.
Teach your pet dog basic behavioral techniques such as sitting, laying down, staying, and walking beside you on a leash before letting it outside in public, where it can be exposed to a lot of distractions and environmental changes.
- Obedience Training Method
Most shepherds are natural protectors, so it should be easy to teach your dog to attack and stop when you say so. One of the best commands for a shepherd is “Sitz,” which means “sit” in German. So, when you say sit, your dog should sit down.
With the second verbal command, teach your shepherd dog to stop. Since you have already created a strong bond with your dog, it should be able to recognize your usable German shepherd protect commands and hand signals.
The next step is to teach it to halt on cue, which can help in some situations where the dog may charge at an enemy.
- Put Him in Threatening and Non-Threatening Situations
To train a shepherd to become an excellent guard dog, it’s essential to allow him to encounter dangerous situations.
As an experienced trainer, I’ve learned that it’s crucial to place dogs in these kinds of situations that will allow them to know when they should and shouldn’t attack. It will also enable the owners to assess their pet’s reaction to non-threatening situations.
This is a crucial technique for training any dog to be protective.
- Establish Property Boundaries
Set up a fence and boundaries for your shepherd dog to live within. This will let him securely explore the outdoors.
If you don’t have fencing, work with a professional dog trainer to teach bite inhibition to your Shepherd puppy. This will reduce the likelihood of him getting injured later on when he jumps up and lunges at people without appropriate warning.
- Secure Approach with Safety Gear
Make sure you have safety gear on when interacting with your dog. Whether it’s a specially made vest, a muzzle, or even something simple like chew toys and treats, these products will help you if your dog gets out of control.
Guard Dog Training Additional Tips
Dog training helps you teach your shepherd puppy how to act in specific situations, like when you make it angry or happy. It offers many benefits: it reduces misbehavior and increases obedience, boosts the bond between you and your pet, and even prevents any accidents at home.
Here are some additional tips to consider,
- Combining Schutzhund training with personal protection training is a bad idea. Most dogs have to go through lots of stressful and mentally taxing training exercises.
- As with any new topic, practicing is the best way to learn. Dog training is no different — it’s essential to start slowly and build on successes until your dog has mastered the ongoing training skill.
- All dog owners have the responsibility to look after their pets’ safety and welfare.
Key Takeaway
German shepherd protection training is nothing too hard to learn, nor do you need a protection dog trainer in this case (unless you adopt a way-too-crazy German Shepherd). But most people, especially new dog owners, tend to be too wary of this factor.
Essentially, the German Shepherd’s natural instinct of defense is one of its best traits. These dogs instinctively defend their entire family when it senses danger and makes excellent guard dogs even without additional training.
However, according to professionals, protection training can elevate their instinct to a more human level. It makes them understand how to coexist with society and respond to basic obedience commands.
We have already shared the best techniques for how to train a German Shepherd to protect you. Now you can simply take your Shepherd out for a walk and give him a warm-up training session, even if you are a total beginner trainer.
So, you got no time to waste; let’s get started today!
