29 Essential German Shepherd Training Commands

Teaching your German Shepherd training commands is second only to potty training and a ‘soft mouth’.  It should also be fun!

As a dog owner you decide what commands to teach your dog.  But in general training commands are standard for all thorough dog training.

An important point to remember is that we can’t expect our dogs to know what we want if we haven’t taught them.  This is the essence of any kind of dog training.

Dogs don’t just perceive a command as a physical sound.  But are able to recognize a relationship between certain sounds.

So how does this relate to how you teach your German Shepherd training commands?

The 2 Key Strategy to effective German Shepherd training commands

1. “Trust is built with consistency”.  This is a quote by Lincoln Chafee.  This is essential in dog training.  Be consistent when teaching your German Shepherd training commands.  This will ensure that your dog trusts your commands and establishes you as a good leader.  Deviation will reduce your dog’s response.

2. KISS.  Keep it short and simple.  Dogs don’t care for ‘correct grammar’ and respond better to short commands that are simple and to the point.  Avoid ‘filler’ words like; ‘and’, ‘the’ and ‘on’.

Training commands fall into 2 main categories:

Basic obedience commands.  These commands are useful for on-leash and off-leash training sessions.  your German Shepherd will likely master each of these with 20 to 30 repetitions over 3 or 4 training sessions.

Advanced obedience commands.  These commands are used  in trick training, agility and working situations.  The are also useful on-leash or off-leash.  Your dog will need more time to master these commands and regular refresher sessions.

Teach the basic obedience commands first.  Once your German Shepherd has mastered these, you can move on to the more advanced commands.

20 basic obedience training commands…

• Attention! – your dog should focus on you, waiting for the next command.
• Here – your dog should position himself in front of you or at your side.  Usually accompanied with a hand gesture.
• Heel – your dog should walk at your side.
• Sit – your dog should sit either on- or off-leash.
• Stay – your dog should stay on the spot where he is on- or off-leash.
• Down – your dog should go into the down position.  Could be a ‘working down or a ‘relaxed down’.
• Come – used to call or recall your dog on- or off-leash.
• Stand – your dog should stand from either the down or sit position.
• Go out – your dog should leave the room.
• Go inside – your dog should enter the room.
• Let go – your dog should drop any item in his mouth.
• Kennel/Crate – your dog should climb into his crate or kennel.
• Good! – usually paired with a treat or play when executing a command correctly.
• Good dog! – used as praise when when performing executing the command correctly.  Usually accompanied with physical attention like patting or a nice scratch.
• No – immediately interrupt your dog from doing something.
• Don’t do that – similar to ‘no’ but can be too long winded.
• OK – indicating to your dog that the situation is safe or in order.
• Eat food – your dog has permission to begin eating.
• Stand still – usually used for off-leash training.  Your dog should stop dead in his tracks in the stand position.
• Leave it – stop your dog from picking up an object.

9 advanced obedience training commands…

• Fetch – your dog should fetch the desired item.  Could be the newspaper, your slippers or a
  
  ball.
• Jump – your dog should jump over or through an object. For example a low wall, a hoop or into water.
• Track – your dog should track the desired item or person.
• Guard – your dog should be watchful and alert around something like an item, door, person or gate.
• Bite – your dog should hold onto or bite into an object.
• Speak/Bark – your dog should bark on command.
• Quiet – your dog should stop barking on command.
• Go ahead – your dog should go ahead of you.  Used during agility competitions.
• Article search – similar to ‘track’.  your dog should search for a lost item.

Dog training is constant.  Keep in mind, a lot of training will happen during your daily interactions with your dog and consistency is still important here.  But short refresher sessions are essential.  These short sessions will keep your dog from becoming ‘rusty’

4 Key takeaways for teaching your German Shepherd training commands:

• Always be consistent.  Use the same words each time.
• We can’t expect our dogs to know what we want without teaching them first.
• Keep your commands short and simple.
• Do regular short refresher training sessions to avoid a decline in your dog’s response.

And now for the special download…

Here you can download an audio recording of how to pronounce all of these commands in German.  My friend Anna is a native German speaker, so you’ll be getting it from the horse’s mouth so to speak!  You can also download a text file so you can follow along with the audio.

Just right click the links below and save to your computer.  It’s Free!