You can pretty much count on every breed of dog to have its own types of behavioral issues that need to be addressed. Luckily for you the German Shepherd is an extremely intelligent breed of dog that would much prefer making its human family happy than almost anything else in the world. Many German Shepherd problem behaviors can be avoided by simply spending time with your German Shepherd and helping it to learn new behaviors to override its instincts.
One instinct that can become a problem later in life is the herding instinct that German Shepherds are born with. They can become protective of their human family with this instinct but it can also make them increasingly aggressive and difficult to control. To offset this you need to socialize your German Shepherd as soon as possible. Get it used to other animals and other people so that when it grows it does not feel threatened by the presence of other animals or other people even near its family.
You need to play with your German Shepherd constantly and show it a lot of attention because German Shepherds can get really bored really fast and a bored German Shepherd will start to display problem behaviors almost instantly. That is the thing about German Shepherds, they can make behavioral adjustments almost instantly and when they do they usually revert back to their instincts. A bored German Shepherd will start to hunt and, as you can imagine, that is bad. So show your dog a lot of attention and avoid this German Shepherd problem behavior.
A German Shepherd has a natural instinct to work. It needs to feel like it has a job to do at all times because they were bred to work all day in the fields with herding and other activities. Even if that activity is being the family dog the German Shepherd needs to feel like it has an important task to do or else it will resort to its herding instincts and that can get very ugly if it progresses to aggressive behavior.
As protective as German Shepherds can be, and as great a family dog as they can be, it is not a good idea to leave small children alone for any amount of time with a German Shepherd. You will soon learn that one of the main German Shepherd problem behaviors is herding and wandering children could cause the German Shepherd to resort to that instinct.
If your kids are unsupervised with your German Shepherd and that herding instinct kicks in then there could be trouble. So be a smart owner, and a responsible parent, and never leave your German Shepherd alone with your children no matter how well behaved you believe your Shepherd to be.
A German Shepherd is intelligent and loyal but just like any other breed it has natural instincts that can sometimes cause problems. A German Shepherd is not a dog you can just tie up in the yard and leave it alone, it will get bored and lonely fast and that can result in bad things.
You need to spend a lot of time with your German Shepherd and you need to teach it how to interact with other people and animals if you want to avoid major German Shepherd problem behaviors down the road.
About the Author:
Jan Ryan is a passionate lover of the German Shepherd and has a popular website that can show you how to have a happy, healthy and well behaved German Shepherd. Among other topics at this website, you can also learn all about German Shepherd Problem Behaviors plus a whole lot more.
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