End of tether with GSD. Help!

Slave2Magic

Slave2Magic

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Hi
My partner and myself bought a 14 week old GSD bitch. She is now nearly 2 years old and I am really worried about her. She has regular exercise, sometimes running with my partner, but she is so hyper. She lives outside during the day otherwise she eats the kitchen. She's turning the garden into a bog with her constant running up and down. She attacks other dogs off the lead and cannot understand Heel. We have tried a ckocker and a halti. Also, even though she is fed at 8.30 in the morning, if she goes out to the fields at 6.00pm she comes back and throws her food back up.
Sorry for the long post but I have never had a dog that acts this way. Its not a pleasure going out for a walk, its scary.
 
Sounds like she is either bored and/or suffers from seperation anxiety. GSD's are highly intelligant. Have you read the "Jan Fennell book" it is very good at dealing with problem dogs. What dog food are you giving her? It may have too much energy in it for waht she needs.

If she is attacking dogs off the lead she should be let off it isnt fair on other people or her. Sounds like she needs some basic training, take her to night time classes that will also help with the socialisation aspect. She might even benefit from agility to keep her brain active on positive things and not negative things.

Hope that helps

Gh
 
Is she spending the day on her own?

My experience of GSD's is that they are extremely biddable and trainable dogs. Agree with Greyhound regarding basic training.

But if she is a dog that spends all day on her own then perhaps re-homing her would be a better option.
 
Thanks for the reply.
My partner works away alot and Ive tried basic training with her but she pulls my arm so badly that its damaged the muscles in my shoulder. Its not as if she hasn't been socialised. We have another dog and she grabs him round the back of his neck. She tries that with other dogs too. I think its a dominance thing. She has also growled at me if I tell her off.
 
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She has also growled at me if I tell her off.

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Sorry to hear about your shoulder. I would get her thinking by putting her on the lead but just in the garden get her attention by giving her cheese, reward her when the lead is slak. She will soon cotton on that being by yourside gets you cheese. Walk around and praise her for following you / staying by you. Another thing to do is if she pulls you to go in one direction is to do a 180 and go the other way, she pulls again do the same.

Seriously read Jan Fennell, she tell you how to deal with dominant dogs, I wouldnt even try and tell her off as that provides negative attention. A bored dog wont bother whether it is negative or positive. JF explains how to use pack behaviour to assert your authoirty and alpha female.

Gh
 
what are you feeding her. It makes such a big difference. I have taken on GSDs that are jumping out of their skins( do not keep four feet on the ground) changed their diet and amazingly it also helps with the attention span. Majority of owners feed their dogs too much protein and additives
 
have you looked at her food. sometimes if dogs are fed too much protein they are a bit barmy...might be a god place to start anyway...
 
I do agree that her food may need to be looked at but she is in all probability also going through the canine equivelant of the terrible twos - many working/pastoral dogs can be very hard work during this stage and although physically mature, mentally they can be very immature and they really need something to do or think about to stop them being so hyped up. Try splitting her meals into smaller more frequent portions and include some of these in a stuffed kong toy to keep her interested. Take her to obedience training where they use clicker methods - and continue using these methods at home - Get a halti or ( even better) a Gentle Leader so that you can gain back some control when walking her and give her plenty of daily excercise where she has to pay attention to you - take treats and your clicker and get her focussed on you - rewarding her when she pays attention. Do slow heelwork excercises where you are focussing on control then if you can - let her off for some free play - again controlled by you- make her sit and wait until you release her and make yourself really exciting by playing with her with balls/toys etc so that she wants to please you and have the games continue.- YOU decide how long the play goes on for then back on lead for more 'brain work'

I'm afraid that I'm not a great fan of Jan Fennells methods - think the 'pack hierarchy' thing a bit over done personally - BUT it sounds to me as if your bitch desperately needs something to use that clever brain of hers on. Once you have some control then by all means go on to doing agility with her but watch those hips GSD are notorious for having hip problems and jumping may not be the best thing - why not try heel work to music - great fun and it would really get her thinking.

Finally to calm her down initially try Scullcap and Valerian tablets ( from Dorwest herbs) - they can have an excellent calming effect on hyper dogs or even good old Brewers Yeast can be calming - Bob Martins tablets are a good supply of this.


Good Luck !
 
Sounds like you could do with a little help, do you have anyone local that is expert with the breed that could perhaps have a look at her and give you the low down.
 
Read the book by all means, but also get her to some good training classes, (look up the kennel club website) have you tried a Lupi? it's an anti-pull harness... If your near to me, i could help, but doubt if you are...
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what do you feed? is it dried food? have a look at the ingredients, if there are lots of E numbers and additives/preservatives, then change the food, as this will be making her hyper.

any food that is tasty, cheese, liver, chicken, etc, break/cut it into small pieces and if necessary, carry a piece in your hand, and keep her attention, while you train her.. If she's not food orientated this will be difficult!
 
Oh and i wouldn't be using any Bob Martin products as they are rubbish....... try to clam her using training, before resorting to using calming med, herball or otherwise. (sorry, peeps, don't believe in them)
 
"Bob Martin products as they are rubbish"

What ALL of them
confused.gif
!!!! - .....I can only go by personal experience but I have found them effective in the past - my breed ( BSD) can be highly strung as youngsters and some herbal remedies most certainly do work - and ( more importantly ) do no harm.
 
We've tried her on various foods and she's very picky. The only one she will eat is called Snydes Wonderdog. It has 24% protein. Is that too high? Most other food that we've tried either gives her the runs or she won't eat it.
 
We have tried her with a halti and it was a disaster. Even after weeks of using it she rolls on the floor and tries to remove it. She has had it on at home first for 15 mins before going out.
 
try her on Nature Diet - it's very palatable and easily digested. Loads of dogs dislike a Halti as it sits too high up the face - a Gentle Leader works in a slightly different fashion and is (I think) the better of the two
 
24%protein is well high.
try james well beloved or Burns. or if you want to mix meat with it try Terrier biscuits. Look at the protein contents and go for the lowest. Iused to have GSD that would bring her food back up but found Burns easily digestible. It is expensive but I find with the quantity you feed it works out relatively the same price.
 
i have a naughty male great dane, he weighs 13 stone, im female and 5ft 4ins. i use a dogmatic available at www.dogmatic.org.uk and i have complete control of my dog. i did try the halti, but found it rode up into his eyes and looked very uncomfortable, the control also was'nt as good.

jackie x
 
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