While training your German shepherd, you will soon realize the importance of offering rewards for good behavior or for learning something quickly. German shepherd dogs are quick to learn, are reliable and obedient – and it isn’t unusual for them to form a strong bond with their trainer.

Rewards actually fall into three basic categories – verbal praise, treats and physical contact. You may find that your dog is motivated by one, rather than the other. In this case, physical contact would mean stroking your puppy. Be sure to give him long strokes along his body, rather than patting him on the head – which your dog may see as a dominant gesture.

It’s a natural thing to want to use treats as a reward during training – but you should be careful not to overfeed your puppy. Many treats are actually rich and fairly unhealthy. If you are using treats as a reward, one solution to overfeeding is to make sure the treat is part of your dog’s daily food allowance.

Try not to use treats as a reward for your puppy all the time – over time you should gradually start to praise good behavior instead of rewarding with a treat. Eventually, during a training routine, you should offer the treat as a reward every other time, and then every 2nd or 3rd time, and so on.

Your puppy will need constant praise and encouragement while being trained – it’s a good idea to keep some treats easily accessible. If you are walking or playing outside, keep them in a pocket or backpack somewhere you can easily get to them and then immediately give them to your puppy.

Good timing is also essential when you give your puppy a reward – you must offer the reward at the same time that the dog has done whatever you commanded, or at least within a few seconds. Dogs are only able to retain information for a few seconds. If you reward your dog for sitting, but he has already stood up again – he won’t quite get the message.

Some effective – but humane – methods of disciplining your dog are as follows. A puppy that misbehaves can be isolated from other people, for no longer than a few minutes. A squirt with a water pistol (filled with water or lemon juice) can be an easy way to stop a dog in its tracks.

And a stern and commanding voice, along with the word “no” sometimes works best of all. If you are training your puppy to do something, such as sit or come on command and he is a little slow, repeating the exercise several times from the beginning may also help to reinforce the message.

While training, use a firm but enthusiastic voice and offer rewards when applicable – you may find you won’t need to use discipline much at all. 

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