Dutch Shepherd Forum

My name is Charles. I am new here. Just last week we adopted "Duke" a dutch shepherd to our family. We took him to the beach today for a swim. He jumped right in and loved it. After playing there for two hours we returned home to run and play in our 4 acre yard. My 7 year old son loves him very much, and Duke seems to be pretty mindful of our 1 year old daughters presence on the floor. I feel I have the perfect dog for my family. I am however concerned as I do not know how to go about training him and especially proper disciplinary practices. I want the most out of him and I want him to have the most out of us. So far we have taken him outside to run and play frequently during the day and taken him with us on many rides to the store, the park, and family members homes. He does very well. He seems to listen well, but every now and then (seemingly without reason) he will resist a call for obedience. Almost as though he's testing me. I hope that as a member of this forum, it will help me to be a better companion to Duke and him the same for me, through stories, help, and advice from other DS owners and enthusiasts.

Welcome to the forum, Charles. Where did you adopt Duke from and how old is he? There are many rescue DS's here. We would love to see pictures.

One of the hardest things with a Dutch Shepherd is that their intelligence can get them into trouble. Just remember, everything you don't correct, you train. My dog, Odin, if allowed to heel a step or 2 forward, or sit crooked during obedience training, will start to think that's what he can get away with from now on.

EVERYTHING has to be nipped in the butt right away, that's why, I think, a lot of regular people have problems owning a high drive dog. One has to be on top of everything.

Another thing I've noticed is that the more exercise they get, the less "testing" there is. If you wear them out everyday, you'll have a very happy dog. For us, this means about 3 hours of walking, fetch, or swimming per day, in combinations. It's a lot to handle, but it is easy in our situation, my husband works from home and Odin can go to work with me. We also do agility training and the occasion dock diving jump.

This forum is a great resource for everything Dutch Shepherd. Another great resource would be to find a trainer with high drive dog, preferable Dutch Shepherd or similar dog (Malinois, etc) experience.

Thank you for the post. Duke is around six months old. We adopted him from a man in the city whose life style clashed with Duke's. I have never seen a DS before, so I commenced to a great deal of continuous research. I have read that they are very high energy and require consistency. I need to get him to stop the playful biting. I think a few chew ropes and such will help that. I know he does not take well to physical discipline. Honestly that makes it hard for me, because I grew up with the swat on the nose or but is the way. I don't think that is how I should go about it with him. I do need some advise in that area indeed. I took him swimming today for two hours, ran a mile, a hike in the woods, and some agility training, i.e. slalom, jumping, quick turn, cat walk and through the hoop. and a couple sprints through the back yard every hour or so and after all this he is still ready to play. I am pretty tired. I like that he challenges me to be more active. I am going to hang up the guitar a little more and make quite a hobby out of my new friend.

Welcome! Duke looks so much like my Sugar...the colour, fringe on the tail, and of course the ears! Easy dog to fall in love with, but yes, alot of work. I second what Stephanie wrote.

Can't wait to hear more stories about Duke

[quote="Sugars Mom"]Welcome! Duke looks so much like my Sugar...

Wow - twins!!! He does look like Sugar!!

Hi Charles,

You're going to want to find a positive trainer who has experience with working lines dogs. Your old ways of discilining your pup are not going to work as far as current training practices go.

In the mean time, get a good training book, something along the lines of Purely Positive Training, by Sheila Booth. There are a lot of them out there. It will get you started on the road of learning how to train your new pup.

The biting and mouthing will take work, but you'll get thru it. At six months, he should be just about through teething (that may account for some of the biting behavior, BTW). Before he goes to chew on something unacceptable, distract him with something he can chew on, and reward him for picking the right object.

There is no way that you have rescued a fully-trained, well-behaved and mature dog at 6 months . So, it's not like he already knows everything and is simply testing you or "resisting the call for obedience." It will take him weeks to settle in properly, and you're no where near the end of the honeymoon period, either. You need to focus on developing your relationship right now, and in time and with training, you'll develop a relationship with him that should result in a dog that does not randomly resist the call for obedience .

Thank you Leih, He is doing well.I have been rewarding him much positive reinforcement and have not once resorted to the ol "beat it out of him tactic" As though that was the only approach i saw growing up, I did learn the negative outcome. This has not and never will be my approach towards anything living and breathing. Please don't mis judge me in that aspect "not saying you have" I have been reading books and watching training vids excessivly. A dog trainer is not an option I intend to look to. I must learn to be his trainer. We live in a very rural area with no trainers for 80 miles so that simply won't work for us as far as I can see. Thanks again for the input. BTW. So far Duke has not chewed anything that does not belong to him or potty in the house...........yet. lol. i am thinking about the purchase of an invisible dog fence. Any advice, preference, tips or opinions on that....educate me

RangerFamily wrote: i am thinking about the purchase of an invisible dog fence. Any advice, preference, tips or opinions on that....educate me

I'm glad you're doing well, and him, too .

I didn't mean for you to turn training over to someone else, but rather, to be able to work with someone who is much more experienced with dogs like Duke. I'd never let anyone else train my dog, either! (When you'd asked about proper discipline techniques and how to go about training him the best way, working with another trainer sounded like a good plan. Probably not a very good one in your case, given where you live .)

As far as invisible fences go, I don't like them at all (same as dog parks ). You can't control anyone or anything else from entering your yard, for starters. And, once a dog goes thru the fence one time in high prey drive (perhaps after one of the unauthroized squirrels you have out there in rural land) and finds out that doing the crime trumps doing the time, well, you can no longer trust the fence at all for containment.

Some dogs won't do that, but I'd never trust my own dog to that kind of system. As far as that goes, my dog isn't outside unsupervised, peroid. And, now that she's 2 years old, she doesn't want to be out there without me much, anyway. She'll go outside by herself to eat an egg (with me watching from the kitchen), but then she wants right back in. You may find that Duke turns into that kind of a dog, too, as DS become very attached to their family, and especially their special person.

Just my

Yes, Our last dog was an old hound, and he naturally stayed near. We never had to worry about him. My concern with Duke is that he wants to run freely so bad. But I have not had him out without the leash yet, in fear he may run off and not come to my call and possible get hurt or pick up lord knows what in is travels. He does not get left out unsupervised but I guess in time I will be able to take that leash off and trust he won't run off into harms way after one of the many rabbits that call my yard home.

Welcome! RE: the playful biting. One of my latest trainees is a field trial bred Labrador owned by an 83 yr old lady with very thin skin. The dog incessantly bit her playfully and her poor arms are so horribly mangled. Now at 70 lbs, the pup does (did) some serious damage. We tried a couple of methods to get the 9 mo old pup to stop. Positive reward, toy exchange, etc. The one thing that did cure the pup totally from biting is lemon juice. Yes, one of the lemon juice bulb type containers with the tip on the end that you can buy in the produce section for a buck. As soon as the pup puts its mouth on you, squirt that lemon in the side of its mouth and BINGO, it works. I have given this suggestion to several people with large dogs that playful bite. Try it.

Denise---love the tip, I will remember that!!!!

RangerFamily wrote:My concern with Duke is that he wants to run freely so bad. But I have not had him out without the leash yet, in fear he may run off and not come to my call and possible get hurt or pick up lord knows what in is travels.

Get a 30-50 ft line to keep him on when you're outside. You'll become adept at dancing around that lead . You can do a lot with 50 ft of room to fetch and stuff like that.

If I were you, I'd not even consider taking him out off lead, unless you're in a secure/fenced area, until you are certain about his recall ("come") and also, a very solid "leave it" cue.

I always start people off with the Name Game. Have some good treats ready. Say his name, and the second he looks at you, say "Yes!" (that's your marker word that tells him he got it right), and then deliver him the reward (a treat). If he doesn't really know his name well yet (which I highly doubt), the first couple of times, say his name when he's already looking at you. I"d guess he already knows his name, tho, and what you are now teaching him is that he needs to respond to it first time, every time. If he doesn't look at you when you say his name, touch him gently with your finger and he'll look to you, then say his name, mark ("yes!") and reward. Repeat 5 times or so each time you do this.

You'll be teaching him two things here. One is that when you say "yes!" that ALWAYS means he gets a reward, either a treat or play or affection, whatever is appropriate for the situation. For other times you want to let him know he's got it right, but you don't want to give a treat, just say "good." The second thing you'll be teaching him is that when you say his name, he needs to respond immediately.

Start off indoors, under low distractions (don't have the TV blaring, your son playing army, and the vacuume running at the same time ). As he gets to understand the game, and he will very quickly, you start to increase the difficulty factor. Do it when he's further away from you and not looking at you, increase the distraction levels, etc. Then start moving it outside. When you're out with him and he's on any length of leash, say his name and mark/reward several times during your outing. Be very upbeat, and very happy/excited every time he responds correctly. By now, he should be running to you to get his treat when he hears your mark (start out with shorter distances, just like inside the house, then gradually say his name from farther away; mix it up, close/far/medium distance, as paying attention to the degree of distraction he's dealing with at the time).

So, only say his name once (never give any command more than once, unless you want to train him not to respond the first time; don't give a command if you're not in a position to be patient and make sure he complies ). Practice this daily, inside and out, once you've taken it outside.

Hey again, Charles,

I noticed in the swim thread that you use Zukes for treats. They're great treats, but I consider them more like a biscuit/cookie.

When you're in training mode, you should prepare a baggie of mixed stuff...pea-sized (or so) pieces of natural hot dogs, cooked chicken/beef/fish, cheese, etc. You want small pieces that he doesn't have to chew (they can't think while they're busy chewing), but can just swallow down and taste as it goes. And, small also because during a training session, you'll go thru a lot of treats. Keep your sessions short (3-10 minutes), let him know when they begin and end ("let's train," or go to work, whatever, and "we're done," followed by some play time with you.

They have all sorts of bait bags (things to hold your training treats), but I tell people to just go to the local hardware store and get a nail apron for a dollar or so. Then you've got two or three pouches right in front of you, one of which may hold a toy or two, and you can reach for the treat AFTER you've given him the marker word.

Thanks to both of you for all the tips. The Zuke's treats i got are very small, pencil size in diameter and about a quarter of an inch in height. They seem to have healthy ingredients and are working well. Today. I purchased some toys for him, A three foot tug rope, a healthy chew, and a doggy ball. I hid them in 3 locations in the back yard, rubbing on the chew as I went along. I then brought him out with me. He instantly commenced to sniffing finding the ball first. He bat the ball around while stopping and sniffing intermittently. then finding his way to the tug rope, dropped the ball, picked up the rope, continued the same process then found his way to the chew, which was under a plastic crate. It wasn't long after a little circling that he turned over the crate and had his chew. I sat with him scratching his ear as he chewed on his new treat as he seemed to enjoy the attention along with the chewing. Unlike some other dogs I've known. When he got bored with it, he carried it to the back door and sniffed at the toys in my hand. We played with the rope a while then the ball. He would get the ball, lay down and gnaw on it a while looking at me and eventually would bring it to me and shake his head as I reach for it. I stopped reaching for it until he simply dropped it at my feet. we continued this for a while than ran up and down the back yard a few times before going in for the night. I also purchased a 50 tie out cable today that I will now implement. BTW I like the lemon juice idea. I think I may not need to do that but its a great idea i think. Good to know should that become necessary.

Zukes Mini Naturals---perfect size, soft, several flavors, great training treat, Lyric loves them.

Welcome Charles and Duke.
Charles, would you mind creating a signature in the control panel on the left top of the page? That way you don't have to remember to sign your post, and we can keep the whoiswho straight.

Welcome on (the) board

Well you still have a puppy... and luckly you ahve a DS puppy and training them is one of the simpliest things you will ever do, but it is still alittle challenging with all the energy. You can be almost certain that the loyality inbreed into your pup will keep him from running off from you, at least that has been my experience. Now coming directly to you maybe antoher thing, I used a long rope ~10-12ft long and let my pup run free on it, she mostly wanted to run at me when p;playing then dart around me as she closed in, with the rope i had a chance to harness her. As far as correction, I swatedc her rear in once lightly wih a rolled up paper, from then on, just the sound of me hitting my leg with the papaer was all the correction she needed, soon you will see tht he has become so tuned into you, that jsut a look will cause her tremedous feelign of wanting to please you. He is a DS pup, it probably wont be to long before he will be monotoring everyone else in the family for thier proper behavior, LoL. You will be fine, your dog is going to be the most loyal creature you will ever encounter, and your life will be blessed.

Thank you.