Page #5 Training:

What training classes do you recommend? 

We recommend that you join or contact a German Shepherd club for obedience classes for your shepherds. Most all GSD clubs offer obedience classes (members normally get a discount on classes). We have found it's better for your shepherd to be in a class with other shepherds because they are within the same intelligent range and bred for the same purpose.

We don't recommend the training classes of pet stores.   Pet Store classes have a mixture of breeds that range from lap dogs to hunting dogs.  All dogs are 70% controlled by their genetic programming and some breeds may not do well in obedience.   In a class with a wide range of dog breeds you might find yourself wasting a lot of valuable training time while the trainer works with someone with their hunting dog or an unruly lap dog. In a training class with all German Shepherds, your Shepherd will be with other puppies with the same type of intelligent and purpose. So you will get more training done in let time in an all Shepherd class. Your shepherd will also pickup on the behavior of the other dogs.

For example we had a family come to us to get a German Shepherd puppy and they brought their family dog. They said they had taken their dog (an English Bird dog) to an obedience class but the dog didn't do well and in general their dog didn't interact well with their family. While they were playing ball and interacting with our German Shepherd puppy, their English Bird dog went over to our bushes and did a perfect point to the bushes. Their dog was frozen in a perfect stance with head up, back straight, right front foot pulled up, tail sticking straight out. She had pointed to our cat in the bushes. I turned to them and said "now that's what your dog was bred for". The breeders of this English Bird dog bred dogs to hunt and point birds and did not care if it would interact with a family or walk on a leash.  Many pet owners don't understand that it takes years and many generations to imprint the purpose of a breed of dog. All of the breeds of today's dogs at one time came from what we now call mixed breeds. The birth of a breed comes from some with a purpose and desire for a dog to do a certain job. They will find dogs that meet their needs and breed them to other dogs that meet their needs. Over years the appearance and temperament become the recognizing treks of their breed.  Dogs are controlled mostly by the 70% of natural genetic programming. You can train a dog to go against they inherited nature but it's sometimes like swimming up stream. It's better to purchase a dog that's bred for your needs and desires than to train a dog to go against it's inherited nature.