adopting a mature german shepherd dog

rufs

I am adopting a 5yr old german shepherd dog tomorrow.
Ive had german shepherds in the past and other dogs but ive never adopted before.
I know a friend of the dogs previous owner and found out as much as i could about him.
He has been well treated and is good around kids and other dogs.
He doesnt have much obedience training though so i was wondering if training is more difficult at his age or does it matter?
Any advice is welcome

fatmammycat

I would have said it was pretty important, especially for a dog as intelligent and energetic as a GSD.
Having a dog that stops on command can save his life, having a dog that comes immediately when called is vital, and when you're out and about an RB dog like a shep really needs to be on his best behaviour. That means no barking or lunging at people or dogs, no dragging you about the place on the lead (a pet hate of mine when I see it).
I think it's important for sheps not to jump on visitors ( they could easily knock a person down), I think they should be easy to call off when on alert, I don't think they need to be overly friendly to strangers, but they do need to be in full neutral.
The great thing is they are brilliant dogs to train and so smart they pick up basic commands easily. Try find what your new dog is driven by, toys or food, and set up a training routine with him, it's super rewarding and creates a great bond between you and the dog and a nicely trained dog is an absolute joy to be around.
Best of luck!

rufs

Thanks for your reply, ive trained all my dogs in the past but ive had them all from puos.
I guess im just wondering about the old dogs and new tricks saying...but as you said they are smart dogs so hopefully itll work out

DBB

Good for you op! I'm such a fan of the breed too!
I can't see you having too many problems. You know how amazingly quick they are to learn new things. At 5 years of age, he has doubtless picked up some bad habits, but if you set out from the start to swap such behaviours for better ones, eg ignore jumping up but reward sitting to greet you, then it'll all happen pretty quickly, if he's your average GSD!
Being 5 has big advantages too... He'll be pretty calm and mature at this stage, and what you see is what you get.
Good luck with him now!

ShaShaBear

rufs wrote: »

Thanks for your reply, ive trained all my dogs in the past but ive had them all from puos.
I guess im just wondering about the old dogs and new tricks saying...but as you said they are smart dogs so hopefully itll work out

I can tell you now that if a dog feels comfortable and happy, he'll be willing to learn no matter what his age! My boy is just turned 9, and is still learning new tricks and commands. It keeps his mind sharp!

rufs

Just collected bronson a few hrs ago and hes settled right in...seems very happy

DBB

rufs wrote: »

Just collected bronson a few hrs ago and hes settled right in...seems very happy

Heh heh! Bronson! Great name!
I forgot to say above that my last GSD came to live with me when she was 7 yrs old, having never been a house dog. She was a dream, for all the reasons myself and others posted above. She'd already had a lot of training, but that didn't stop her learning more when she came here :-)
Good luck with Bronson, may you have many happy years with him!

CBRLizzie

Aw, best of luck with Bronson, I adopted a 6 year old German Shepherd last year, he's an absolute pet, the only thing I had to train him in was cuddles, he didn't seem to be used to any physical affection, nearly lept out of his skin when I rubbed his belly one day, now he's a complete cuddle monster

fenris

Best of luck with him.

Consistency is one of the most important things with a GSD, they recognise patterns quickly and can pick up new behaviours in no time. This is great if you put a bit of thought into it but very double edged if you are not consistent.
I trained my lad with both hand signals and voice, I found that because GSDs tend to be very focused on you that hand signals work very well.

A solid down stay is a must and will go a long way to defusing concern from others as it makes the dog look a lot less threatening and goes you the basis for a stop and drop in motion.
For those kind of commands I would use non mainstream words, e.g. Stad, or platz. The kids are never allowed to just those commands in daily messing about and huge rewards are given after the y are used in training to get them bulletproof.

LucyBliss

I'm chiming in to wish the OP best of luck and many happy years with Bronson and also to say I find this thread very reassuring. I'm some years away from getting another dog but I've often thought about getting a GSD again at some point and as I've no problem with taking in an older dog, I used to wonder how that would work out with a GSD and their smartness and tendency to make up their own habits in lieu of others(!), and I wouldn't want to be all good intentions and not be prepared enough and have everyone's life be miserable.

All the posts have pretty much reinforced what I thought I'd so so thanks for that reassurance for the future, whatever happens.