Motivating my German Shepherd







I cannot find anything that motivates my german shepherd outside of food. As a result, when he is full, he never really follows commands promptly.

Also, he never barks! We don't want a fighter dog but we would still like to see some guarding instincts from him.

Any tips on what I can do to motivate him to bark and to train him to perform commands more promptly/consistently?

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Dec 05, 2010
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starstarstarstarstar 		GSD's being aware of their surrondings
by: Marie

Depending on the age of your dog will also make a difference on when and how often they will bark. Your dog may not have really found any real reason to yet bark. As far as a security type of measure, when they feel there's a threat, they will let you know, or warn the one that's doing the threatening. They know the difference between real threats, their actions, and vocals, body language will tell you how much of a threat any certain circumstance is. I have GSD number 4 and we can tell without even looking out the window whether it's friend, foe, or something else. The one GSD we had wouldn't stop barking if we parked the cars in the other cars spot-each vehicle had it's "own" spot, and if they weren't in that spot, she'd bark and carry on until we would move the vehicles in "their proper place". My personal experience is that between 18 months and 2 years they start to get vocal. Hope this helps!


German Shepherd Training
Feb 01, 2010
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starstarstarstarstar 		No motivation, either
by: Anonymous

Neither of mine, male and female, bark. Someone knocks on the door - nothing. The cat runs from room to room, nothing. I did hear my male growl once, when he was introduced to the female GS across the street. And then, nothing. He just ignored her.

When I was walking them one day, I saw my mailman of 15 years who did not know I had two dogs. They did not pay any attention to him.

But they are mine and I would not part with them for any reason. Thank goodness they are large and at least look like they would bite!
Jan 21, 2010
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starstarstarstarstar 		barks & motivators
by: wendy

If he is motivated by food, then try saving some of his daily ration for training purposes. As for barking, he might develop that as he matures. I don't encourage bark training, as it can backfire, resulting in complaints from neighbours, postal carriers, etc when you are not home.

In 28 years of owning gsd's i never had to train them to bark, they knew when there was something to bark at & when they did i always check them & praise them. "Yes, I see that man/dog/ paper cup in the road. Good dog. Now be quiet please."
Jan 03, 2010
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starstarstarstarstar 		response
by: Anonymous

He barks when he is hungry....as in if he hasn't eaten and we come outside...he barks for us to open the cage and get food....aside from that...nothing.

He doesn't bark when other dogs are barking at him nor when he sees strangers or anything like that. We tried the youtube thing and he just looked at me and sat down. He is only five months old though so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.

The thing is we want a security dog that will bark around strangers and things of that nature and I am not seeing any of that defensive drive in him....yet
Jan 03, 2010
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starstarstarstarstar 		Strange training method....
by: Anonymous

Have you ever heard him bark? This sounds strange, and we have never done this with another dog, but to get our dog to "speak", we would say the command, then play a dog barking on youtube.

She never barked before this, and since then she speaks on command and also lets us know if someone is here. Believe it or not, it took less than a half hour for her to learn this.

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