We as dog owners always want our pets to be healthy and remain loyal to us. They do want a lot of exercise and love from us. Apart from caring for them, there is one important thing that our German Shepherd needs i.e socialization. But why socialization is important for German Shepherd dogs?
So why socialization is important for German Shepherds? Socialization in German Shepherds is highly important as it let them adjust to the new world both inside as well as outside of their home, This also means that when you are exposing them to experience different sounds, people, places, animals, or anything that they can experience at some point in their lives.
Socialization in German Shepherds allows the owners to be risk-free as poorly socialized dogs can act as a danger to the family members that care for them. Socialization should be provided at a very early age that helps the German Shepherd to grow their confidence and build a much more stable temperament.
However, it can also be difficult for the vets to care for or examine the non-socialized GSD pups but it’s not a big deal, This post is all about the socialization for German Shepherds, why is it so important for them, and how we can make them socialized and many more.
Let’s go thoroughly to our topic and discuss it in detail:
Table of Contents
Why Is Socialization So Important For German Shepherds?
All dog owners want their pets to behave well in front of them or others but this can only happen when you introduce them to the new world in the right manner. Proper socialization involves learning how they interact in social situations with new people, dogs, and the course environment. Again we can’t ignore the fact that socialization is so important for your dog.
The importance of socialization for your dog can be understood as the condition where your dog accepts the activities of daily life beyond the security of your house. Socialization allows your GSD to be more confident, predictable, and secure. This tool makes your dog’s life even easier to live.
Since behavioral problems are the biggest concerns for dog owners as they can only be prevented through early socialization and training. Proper socialization also improves the bond with your German Shepherd.
When you bring your German Shepherd for the first time into your home, they need to adapt to the environmental condition and with proper socialization, you help them to understand the situation far better.
When Should Socialization Be Done To Your German Shepherd?
All German Shepherds have great potential to be the good companion of their owners. Though they are an intelligent breed but need proper socialization as it allows them to get along with a wide variety of people and animals. The main question that must arise in your mind is when is the right time to socialize with your German Shepherd?
The right time to socialize with your German Shepherd is when they are approximately 3 and 14 weeks old as this is the age where they are most accepting, less cautious, and very curious about their environment. Though you can socialize your German Shepherd at any age it will be a slower process for adult German Shepherds than pups that are under 14 weeks of age. So it’s important to start their socialization at a very early age.
However, the socialization period begins with the birth of the German Shepherd puppy. It’s important to introduce them to a variety of people, objects, and experiences carefully when you bring them home. It will be your responsibility to make them grow in a friendly and reliable environment so that they could be always happy and well-socialized when they become young.
How To Socialize Your German Shepherd(Adult Or Puppy)? 7 Key Ideas?
It all depends on the dog owners when they bring them home for the first time. Socializing your German Shepherds from puppyhood is the best way to ensure that they become familiar with the new environment and people to become friendly and confident adults.
Let’s begin by socializing your German Shepherd puppy:
Socializing Your German Shepherd Puppy
The best period to start socialization period in your German Shepherd puppy starts around 3 weeks of age and closes between 16 and 20 weeks. The German Shepherd puppies can experience a wide range of sounds, sights, scents, or sensations at this time without developing any fears.
It’s crucial to keep in mind, though, that German Shepherd puppies who miss out on these crucial experiences might never feel at ease around strangers or new situations, which could ultimately cause them to develop fear, aggression, or anxiety later in life.
7 Key Ideas To Socialize Your German Shepherd Puppy
You can follow these 7 ideas that will help your pups in the best way.
Start With Careful Handling
When you bring your GSD pups to your home for the first time they need to be cuddled and handled daily by as many different people as possible.
Try to Keep contact gentle and pleasant for your GSD pups.
Hold your GSD pups in different positions, gently finger their feet, rub their muzzle, stroke back and sides, and look in their ears.
Introduction With Sounds
You can introduce your GSD puppy to a lot of different sounds with care. You should be very careful before overwhelming them with too much noise too fast as high-pitched sound may harm their ear and they can become afraid.
Try exposing them to kitchen sounds, the ringing of telephones, sounds of TVs or radios, moving bus sounds, and so on.
Food Bowl Exercises
This type of exercise is a must for your German Shepherd puppy. You should teach your GSD puppy to enjoy when people approach their bowl while eating as it will help to prevent resource guarding, this occurs when your German Shepherd puppy will feel anxious about others that approach their valued resources.
You can walk up to your puppy while they are eating their food, provide an even tastier treat into their bowl, and walk away. Listening to the sounds of the bowl makes your pups more active and want to eat whole as soon as possible.
Introduce Your GSD Pups to New People
One of the important key points for socializing your German Shepherd is, you should introduce your GSD pups to several new people daily keeping the interactions unthreatening and pleasant.
You must expose your GSD pups to friendly people or children as pleasant encounters with the people or children provide them with comfortable situations.
Teaching To Deal with Loneliness
This unpleasant situation must be taught to your GSD pups as there may be some odd conditions where you will have to leave them alone for some time. You should try to make them learn to tolerate being separate from the animals and people daily to avoid developing separation anxiety.
However, you should not leave them alone for a longer period which may lead to severe problems like separation anxiety and maybe other health issues.
Avoid Aggression
One should be always good with their pets as they need a lot of love and affection. You should never show your German Shepherd puppy who is the boss or try to dominate them.
There are many situations where your GSD may become aggressive like pinning them down or scruffing them frequently whichever dog owner should avoid.
The only way to ensure that your puppies are well-socialized is to emphasize pleasant behavior and surroundings while also attempting to forge tighter relationships with them.
Prevent Biting
The most effective way for socializing your German Shepherd pups is to prevent them from biting any other things placed near them. When they bit too hard during play may harm their teeth as it may damage your property too.
You should make them realize your presence and never keep hard things that may harm your as well as your pups. You can provide them with entertaining toys through which they can not feel lonely and enjoy their life.
Socializing Your German Shepherd Adult
Though the best socialization period for your German Shepherd is when they are pups. If your German Shepherd has become an adult but not socialized then it’s a little difficult to handle them. At the same time, it’s never too late as you can make socialize in the best manner you can.
Here are the seven key points through which you can socialize your adult German Shepherd:
Building Their Confidence
For Socializing your adult German Shepherd you can introduce him to this new world where you are his owner providing a lot of care and love. Yeah! of course, this will act as a confidence booster for them.
However they may not be well trained to obey your command, it’s important to train them by basic commands like sitting and standup so that they can recognize your sound. You can also appreciate them after for something right or the commands followed by them.
Though they are mature enough and good learners they can catch all the training much more comfortably. But for building their confidence you must provide incentives and appreciation so start appreciating their curious nature of learning and never misbehave with them for exploring new things.
Taking Them Outdoor
As your German Shepherd are adults they must be aware of your compound, you must let them go outside so that they could be familiar with their surroundings as they do need to experience a whole new world, different sights, hear different sounds, and experience stimulating smells.
When you go to market with your German Shepherd, it helps socialize them in a low engagement capacity. This type of activity is highly beneficial as they can become shy if they miss this step. Taking them to the store or a shop, allow them to experience a new environment with full security.
But this will only happen when you spend more time with them and they are much more familiar with you. If they are not familiar with the situation then it can affect them adversely, they can even bark as they may consider it as their threat. So it’s important to neglect their threat and boost their confidence so that they can be familiar and not misbehave.
Lowering Their Threat Threshold
Lowering the threat for your German Shepherd allows them to learn about the normal situation they are living in. However, it starts when you bring them home for the first time where they must be assured about their normal behavior with the master. The more time you spend with them the better they feel as it allows them to be familiar with you as well as your family members.
You should provide them with a favorable environment where they are not threatened by the odd dangers like strangers or other wild animals that may harm them. Every dog has a different personality and when they accept the environment only then they can express their emotions.
So it’s better to spend as much time as you can and provide full security and love so that they can be much more friendly to you and your family members. You can also try to provide the proper training by the professionals.
Improving Their Sitting Discipline
German Shepherds are highly disciplined dog breeds who can learn all the commands much more efficiently. Here we are talking about adult German Shepherds and they must consider two things i.e
- They must not bark at their owners or any new persons.
- They must sit in one place obediently.
For improving your dog’s ability to sit you need to handle your adult German Shepherd with much love and affection. You may go for an outing with your dog where they feel friendly behavior with the new people they meet with. You can provide some treat for obeying your command as this will be the best way for better socialization in your German Shepherd.
Spending more time with your Friends and Family
The best way to socialize with your German Shepherd is to spend more and more time with them. Once they become familiar with you and your family, they become comfortable enough to entertain you and other visitors.
German Shepherds make an unconditional bond with their owners and giving occasional treats to them accelerates their love. You may encourage new visitors to enter your home with some treats as it promotes friendliness. This also encourages your dog is behaving well with other people when they see them for the first time.
Meeting New People Outside
When your German Shepherd has become mature enough then it’s hard for them to make friends easily with the new people they meet. So it’s better to take your adult German Shepherd outside where they meet new people as you can make them understand that meeting other people is not harmful to them.
This also acts as a familiarity anchor when you take your German Shepherd out to meet other new people. However, if they find the people they see earlier, they will feel less anxious as this also works when they meet new people also.
Taking Your German Shepherd Meet Other Dogs
Once your adult German Shepherd becomes familiar with humans you can introduce them to other species for socialization. As they are grown enough they do require socialization with other dogs.
Dogs also wanna friends whether they are humans or dogs. They do want quality time to enjoy their life. That’s why they need to meet other dogs so that they could be familiar with them and make friends easily. If you are leaving your dog with the smaller breed then it will be great as they will find no threat and easily make friends.
How To Socialize An Older German Shepherd?
It is well said, “it’s never too late to start a new thing”. Many of you may think socializing with an older German Shepherd is too hard but nothing is impossible. However one may face some types of difficulties in making them socialized as they have grown enough but they can be socialized in the same process but in moderation.
For Socialization in older German Shepherds you will have to be patient and follow these four steps across four weeks each:
- introducing them to outside objects indoors
- rewarding them by indoor exploring
- taking them outside on walks
- meeting with other dogs.
As they are fully matured, some of you may think it’s hard and impossible to socialize with an older German Shepherd quickly. No doubt, they will take more time as taken by a young puppy as well as adult ones.
But if you have patience and love for your German Shepherd then it will be an advantage as the step is straightforward. An older German Shepherd will take a month or five weeks to learn all the socialization processes which GSD pups can learn in a week.
What Happens If You Don’t Socialize Your German Shepherd?
German Shepherds are a social breed and also good companions but if your German Shepherd is not a well-socialized dog then there would be a lot of behavioral issues among them. Though Socialization also plays a very important role in their training period.
German Shepherd socialization is very crucial for positive experiences for all dog owners but if you do not socialize your German Shepherd then there would be a lot of problems that you do not want to face. So it’s important to know the negative aspect of unsocialized German Shepherds.
Let’s take a quick look at the negative aspects if you do not have a properly socialized dog.
- Your dog will easily get frightened if they are exposed to new environments or other new animals that are not familiar to them.
- Your German Shepherd can become more aggressive, though it can be because of fear they may face if you do not start socializing with them at an early age.
- If you do not properly socialize your German Shepherd, it will always be hard to handle.
- An Unsocialized German Shepherd can easily become afraid of sensitive sounds as most dogs are afraid of fireworks, thunder, or loud music.
- Your German Shepherd will be scared of adventures if your German Shepherd is not socialized properly.
- They will always be nervous around people so you should socialize a German Shepherd when they are in the puppy phase.
However, it’s crucial to understand their temperament, as they have grown enough will be hard for them to make friends easily however it may take a few weeks and a few dozen treats to trust people and socialize with them.
Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs):
Why is the socialization of puppies important?
Puppy socialization is important because they are very young and it’s easy for them to grab all the things, there are all the necessary kinds of stuff that they learn during the socialization process. Early socialization allows a puppy’s life to live with much ease and it will also make your bond stronger with them.
Why do German Shepherds follow their owners?
German Shepherds follow their owners because of many reasons:
- They may be dealing with separation anxiety.
- They are clingy.
- They may be bored.
- They may be wanting your attention.
- They might be hungry.
Final Thoughts:
German Shepherds are highly active breeds with great biting skills and a lot of strength that can turn into nightmares if not managed.
In addition to making your German Shepherd easier to control outside, socialization is crucial since a well-behaved German Shepherd is also simpler to handle when it comes to being aggressive in unwelcome situations.
A well-socialized German Shepherds are compatible with other dogs and people. It is also considered that well-behaved dog is always treated better which improve their life experience.