Behavioral problems often cause dog owners to give up on their dog and surrender it to a shelter. Behavioral problems can range from in-house urination to dangerous aggression, from destructiveness to disobedience, from too active and playful to ignoring you completely. Identifying exactly what is the cause of the behavior problem is sometimes half the battle. Most often the problem is boredom and frustration caused by a simple lack of exercise.
Rule #1: A tired dog is a good dog - WALK or RUN your dog every day. Higher energy breeds, such as herding dogs, or working dogs are ideal exercise partners.
Rule #2: The human must always be the "BIG DOG!"
Recent studies show that pets adopted at less than six months of age and who spend much of the day alone in crates or in the backyard are at high risk of surrender to shelters because they become a “problem dog.” Owners of these pets do not make a commitment to exercise, socialize and obedience train when they acquired their puppy or young adult dog. When boredom and frustration build to problem dog status pet owners are often unable to find the help they need to resolve problems that ensue. These high risk dogs often have one general problem in common; Dangerous behaviors of acting aggressively towards other dogs and people.
At 12 months of age Gypsy had developed into a problem dog. In October 2005 we rescued Gypsy, a 12-month-old black and tan female German Shepherd, from the city pound gas chamber. Gypsy's 2nd owner in just 12 months had decided to take her to the City Pound, as did her 1st owner, due to behavior problems. Classified as a two-owner problem dog she would not have left the pound alive. The 2nd owner said Gypsy's problem behaviors included: soiling the rug, frantic running around the back yard and house, separation anxiety howling, ignoring commands, and aggressive behavior toward their other dog which was quickly escalating.
These bad behaviors were too much for the 2nd owners to handle so they lodged Gypsy at our vet's boarding kennel almost 5 days out of every seven for a few weeks until they finally decide to turn her over to the city pound. My wife happened to work at the vet hospital and feeling sorry for Gypsy she took Gypsy for short walks and gave her attention as the vet office patient schedule allowed. Gyspy had had some obedience training, but there was never any regular follow up practice training and social training except as the kennel staff or my wife had time to give.
No exercise, no training, and almost no social contact – why wouldn’t she be a problem dog at just one year of age.
One day the 2nd owners told the kennel staff of their decision to take Gypsy to the city pound. The 2nd owners, themselves, had taken Gypsy in to save her; they really did not want to take her to the pound, but they felt they had no choice. The kennel staff then asked my wife if she wanted to add a fifth German Shepherd Dog to our pack. Gypsy is a beautiful colored shepherd from German lines and we just couldn't see her taken to the pound. We rescued her, as we had rescued two of our pack before her, and immediately started a program of exercise and obedience training.
Gypsy indeed was a dog who desperately needed attention and traning. I was already taking three of my four German Shepherds for a 6 mile+/- run almost every day when we rescued Gypsy. Lacey, our then fourth and oldest female is too old run with the pack, so my wife walks Lacey separately. – As it turns out, an important fact I’ll explain later. – Gypsy immediately started running with my other dogs, although, after life as a kennel dog, it took many weeks and months for Gypsy to gradually increase her running distance from just a few blocks to six or more miles.
I had been told Gypsy was dog aggressive, so at first I walked then ran her with just one other dog to do the basic behavior training. Gypsy was more playful than overtly aggressive, but I could see her intention was to test her limits of dominance – she has a strong Alpha personality and strong Shepherd herding drive. It took a month or so for her to become one with the idea that as we start out on our walks and runs it’s NOT a time to play and tussle rather it’s a time for serious WORK. Each of my dogs went through this “running is work not playtime” learning experience, but Gypsy required a little more effort.
During and after our walks and runs we always practice obedience command training. A tired dog is a good dog and a dog more receptive to training. Most of Gypsy’s “problem dog” behavior disappeared within just a few days after we rescued her and started her exercise and training program. After a few weeks of training and runing with just one then two other dogs, I started running Gypsy with all three of my other runner dogs. Even now Gypsy will occasionally overly excited as we get started, but a firm “Gypsy Run or Walk” gets her focused on work again.
I leave no doubt that I’m the BIG DOG when we run. I train my dogs to obey voice commands to walk, run, stop (and wait for traffic), go left, go right, sit, down and stay during our run. Voice-command obedience is a crucial safety requirement when running with several large dogs in city traffic. Gypsy is very smart and quickly learned obedience commands.
Socializing youngest female Gypsy with oldest female Lacey required, and still requires, more vigilance and extra care in training by us human pack leaders. Running Gypsy with the other dogs quickly formed a positive pack bond between Gypsy and the other three dogs. We realized that by initially running and walking Gypsy with only the other dogs, but never with Lacey, we created a social rift between Gypsy and Lacey. This precipitated some aggressive tendencies between the two girls in the early months of Gypsy's adoption, but strong obedience training helped put Gypsy and Lacey in check. We continue our efforts to strengthen a healthy social bond between Gypsy and Lacey and the other dogs too. I still run Gypsy with the other dogs, but we’ve added an occasional walk with Gypsy and Lacey to improve their pack social bond.
Today, Gypsy is a well-behaved happy member of our five Shepherd pack. On those few days when I can’t run the dogs a few miles, Gypsy’s high energy can still lead to an occasional show of high-spirited play with the other dogs that we closely monitored.
Let’s get one thing straight - There is no such thing as a “problem” dog. The truth is, ANY dog, big or small, can develop problem behavior. Problem behavior is a symptom of a bored dog; a dog whose life is not fulfilled and guided by their human pack leaders. Some breeds, including German Shepherds, are more powerful than other breeds, so if they develop problem behaviors or become aggressive, they can almost always do much more damage.
Here are some things you can do to keep your dog mentally and
physically exercised:
- Exercise your dog every day. Go for a long walk or run, throw the ball in the yard, or do whatever it takes to get your dog to burn off some of the extra energy.
- Practice obedience every day… By working your dog through the commands, you can help him/her behave more calmly. It uses up mental as well as physical energy and more importantly, this establishes you as the dominant leader of the pack.
- Keep your voice calm. If your dog’s surroundings are high-strung, so will be your dog’s behavior. Avoid yelling at all costs. Instead, use an explaining voice to correct your dog. You must be calm assertive in order for your dog to be calm submissive!
- Buy your dog some new toys. New toys are always a big help to keep your dog entertained, calm and submissive.
- Social training for Shepherds is a MUST! Take your dog on social training trips to PetsMart and other such stores where other dogs can be found. Teach them to be calm around other dogs. You can also get obedience and social training help at most pet stores or ask your vet or your dog's breeder for a good dog trainer.
