The Story of My First German Shepherd

by Terrence
(UK)

I am the Alpha for my German Shepherd, Tabor. It was in final year of my college that I brought a German shepherd puppy home. It was my first pet and I wanted to care for it like my baby.

I read up a lot on training dogs and decided to give him puppy house training on my own. Since he was cute little pup, I did not want to be harsh on it, so I decided to go with the reward technique and tried to be as nice with it as possible. However, I realized that the nicer I tried to be with it, more difficult the task became.

I was unable to understand what was wrong. I consulted a dog trainer and asked him for solution and he told me that German Shepherds are different kind of dogs. They don’t want to be pampered. They want to be treated as adult dogs. He also explained me the concept of Alpha dog, i.e. the main dog of pack.

That day I realized my dog was not just another domestic dog, it was more of a wolf than a dog. I loved the idea that I had such a wild spirited dog. However, I decided to restart the training and enact the Alpha dog myself.

I was surprised to see the change in my puppy’s e behavior within a week. The day I started asserting that I was his Alpha and he was ought to listen to me, he actually started listening and abiding by my commands.

Though I never left praising him for doing something good, I kept ensuring that he knows who the boss is. Though he has grown up now and he keep trying to defy my order once in a while, I know he does so to compete with me and take the position of Alpha but I know how to deal with him.

However, I make sure that he gets the position of Beta dog i.e. second most important dog in the pack especially since I have got two more dogs now.