Next important aspect of 10 things you must know about German shepherd dogs is the mental stimulation or exhausting the nervous energy in German shepherd dogs or any other highly active and intelligent dog breed.
GSD are one of the most intelligent breeds on earth. They are not just intelligent they are highly emotional and protective towards their master and their close family. This overprotectiveness sometimes leads to an aggressive dog in the hands of inexperienced or ignorant GSD parents. I will discuss this issue of aggression later but here I would like to concentrate on mental stimulation.
German shepherd dogs: Intelligence
The high intelligence and high activity level builds up a sort of nervous energy in your dog that needs to be exhausted. I have mentioned prior in my posts that I play with my dogs in the evening almost every day. This play time is essential as it provides much needed exercise to your dog but more importantly it provides mental stimulation to them.
Running behind balls, tug of war with ropes and specialized toys, jumping with bouncing basketball, searching for toys in small spaces and bringing them back to please you or maybe for a treat; all of this provides them daily with much needed mental stimulation and keeps their much active minds busy in fun and play.
German shepherd dogs: Mental stimulation
This will also solidify your bond with your dogs more and more on daily basis. Additional to this it will also help you to achieve more and more patience and mental peace on daily basis. So, remember that the next big thing in 10 things you must know about German shepherd dogs is their need for mental stimulation on daily basis. Keep yourself and your dog happy all the time with this short play time. I have also mentioned earlier that I give them a short revision of their training lessons in the morning also. This is not as regular as that of running in the morning and little playtime in the evening but certainly it happens 2-3 times a week and most certainly on Sundays. If you are new to dogs and are hesitant to do training by yourself or maybe you are busy with your daily work and can’t afford to manage this much time every day then there are a few alternatives you should look into.
Tough I always recommend that owner should be doing training by themselves but sometimes in some situations it is literally not possible for individuals, sometime its job, sometimes its family or maybe any other issue. In such situation you can always hire a dog trainer who can visit your home for 5-6 days a week and train your dog, of course for a fee. If it’s the question of affordability then you can join community training sessions where various other owners bring their dogs for socialization and learning. Actually, a community training session is very helpful for both the dog and the owner. Dog learns to socialize well and most of the time collective training would bring the best in your dog. For you it will be easy on pocket or maybe free.
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A community class or frequent visits at dog agility course facility would keep their anxiety down for good. You can also try some of homemade toys and play tricks. I will give a detailed account on some of these tricks in our upcoming articles
