Train calmness?? - Page 1

I am a first time GSD owner. I have a 5 month old female GSD, she is so smart! So far I have taught her sit, lay, off, load, unload, leave it, come, night-night (get in crate). She is such a wonderful dog, affectionate, playful, and so happy. I would like to train her to greet people calmly, but I'm not sure of how... She gets really excited when she meets people and gets petted by strangers, she will roll around, paw, jump, and push. I know she is still very young and is still just a baby, but is there anything I can start her with to begin training her to stay calm and confident?

fallon,
She is young and with more socializing she will mature out of some of this.
Bring new people to her on leash, jerk down on her lead if she jumps and be ready for it.
If your calm she will pick up on this also, make sure the other person  does the same.
Correct bad manners like jumping but let her be a puppy too.
The more experience she has meeting new people the better she will get, and everyone does not need to pet her either.
Moons.

a tired dog is a calm dog and a calm dog can think.
wear her out playing fetch or other games and then try taking her out and about.

To me calm is one thing and tired is another. Still a puppy and still full of energy and excitement. At times it's really amazing to me to acknowledge many, many owners of our breed let alone other breeds. For me it's nice to jump on the PDB and associate with other owners. At times they are the only dog people I get to be around.

For me, what do I want my dogs to be? First and foremost, I want them to be well mannered. My male is heavy obedience, service dog the same way. My two girls are medium/sometimes light obedience. They're in training for service dogs. All my dogs are taught a command to/for be/being calm. My male in English the command is "RELAX" and he will do it when I deem necessary. The service dog and two girls are in Dutch and their command is "SETTLE" and the same for them. 

For me, depending on the action(s) wearing out a pup or dog to an extent just means the dog is tired and going to rest. Maybe even go to sleep. (To an extent, not every time. Yes, you can take some of the energy edge off) Just depends how many commands you want your dog to know and understand? Just as you taught the commands she already knows make a command to calm done. One word and you can start with holding her collar, not like wrapping your arms enveloping her body. But hold her close to you, long strokes from her head to her tail, soothing words and stay constant. Whatever you do ONLY do the same thing for that reaction/response. Once learning that command even when she knows it continue that command always. That way you can also use it whenever she is sick or gets hurts, minor or major. People laugh at me sometimes because my dogs go to the bathroom on command. And even though they know the command(and can go to the bathroom by themselves) I still give the command to go to the bathroom or while they are going to the bathroom.

But the pup/dog can learn whatever, (for the most part) whatever you want that pup/dog to do. CONSISTENCY,CONSISTENCY and more CONSISTENCY. Good luck     

If you are going to do Schutzhund I would not stop her from jumping by any correction whatsoever.  You can just tell them/ask people not to pat her until she sits (which you can ask her to do) or lies down, but I would not use any adverse consequence other than absence of attention.  If you are not going to Schutzhund train her, then, yes, you can use the leash direct/correct or hand to block.

She will calm waaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy down in a year or so.  And, yes, tired or busy means less of a destructo dog.        

I think fallon just wants a well mannered dog and probably would not be training Schutzhund.
I also believe you can teach a dog manners and still train for Schutzhund, it's a myth that the dog won't perform as well in my opinion.
If the dog's worth anything and not dumber than a rock it will understand the difference.

LOL...Two Moons...

I agree they should be taught manners.  It is the how that is different when you need the dog to feel it can vanquish any human and listens only to the handler, or one that you want to be only a pet that would never dream of taking a flying leap to tackle and bite someone.

Good post alboe.

I've had well mannered dogs who had no problem biting on command or on their own when the situation called for it, and I'm not talking about an offered sleeve.
This is possible and should be the norm in my opinion for the correct GSD.

Thanks everyone!! I will definitely start giving her more exercise and practicing more commands.. Alboe, that was a great post! I never would have thought to teach her the word calm in that way! Greatposts everyone!