Training ideas for my Shepherds - Page 1

 Hello I have 2 puppies. A 16 week old male and a 12 week old female. Does anyone have any ideas on teaching them sit stay, down stay and regular stay or up stay? I have tried several things. Not too much sucess here. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am pretty new to owning my own Shepherds. My grandfather was a NY State trooper and my parents always had a Shepherd, but this is my second go. The first Shepherd I owned was from a working line, he was a German import. He was from Barockschossle in Germany. The dog had no nerves and very weak drive. I now only like the Showline but I will try again maybe someday with working line. The breeder just put a bad taste in my mouth with the dog or puppy he had sent me. He is now living happily with a friend in NC.

 It is clear from what you write that you are in over your head. My strong suggestion, so that you don't get a second bad taste in your mouth is to realize that YOU do not know what you are doing and go and get some help from a LIVE competent person. You cannot learn about dog training or how to deal with two pups from a message board. Get some help so the pups don't end up being sent off because you don't know how to motivate them or work with them or evaluate what they do or do not have in terms of drive and nerve.

SSDD.

I agree 100% with VomMarischal.  I did raise two puppies...littermates...I bought the male and then co-owned the female with the breeder because her husband wouldn't let her keep another dog.  Anyway, they were a nightmare to train and I will never, ever do that again.  Ever.  Of course, after I already had them, everyone came out of the woodwork and told me how hard it was and how they'd never have two puppies at once.  =)  

What you'll likely find is that they'll distract each other, bond to each other, and whip each other up into a frenzy.  Forget training together; depending on their personalities and the strength of their bond, it might also be very difficult to separate them in order to focus on training one at a time.  Mine would throw hysterical fits if I took one outside or put one in the bedroom at training time...and of course the trainee paid no attention to me while the sibling was howling and slamming him/herself against the door.  So my best advice is not to attempt two at once, but since that ship has already sailed, my second-best advice is to start early and train them separately no matter what you have to do to accomplish that.  Even if you have to crate one and drive the other to a park, just do it and don't let them discourage you.  

As far as the actual training, they're still pretty young.  At this point I'd be putting most of my time into bonding, getting them comfortable with walking on-leash, and especially teaching them to come when called.  I think the recall is the most important thing.  After that, please, please consider finding a good training class in your area and signing up or even finding a trainer who makes house calls.  

Its not impossible to train two dogs, depends on how you go about it.
Its twice the work.   You can't train them side by side at the same time without a helper.
If you can't train one , your not going to have any better luck with two.

It's not impossible, but it is difficult.  In order to train any dog, you need to get that dog to pay attention to you.  That can be more than twice the usual challenge when another little furball is distracting them with the promise of fun...  Separation is key.  Divide and conquer.  

Distractions are a very nessecary part of training but again you can't do it alone.

 I am not training both at the same time, I just have the same happen to me by both when I am trying stay. I have 2 acres and I go to the training side of my property with each at different times. I also walk tem both like this. I go for 4 walks a day. It is really getting me into shape. I am getting another puppy in May, then June, so i will have 4. I am very dedicated to my Shepherds. It passes my time as I am disabled and it gives me something to do.

Hi Cat

If you go ahead with this plan you will be wide open to a lot more grief than joy from your GSD ownership.  You would be wise to get a good bond and a reliable level of training into the ones you already have before even thinking of adding any more pups to your pack.  You really need to ask yourself if you want these dogs to be companions for you or companions for each other with you as the outsider and food dispenser, because that is almost certainly what you will become.  Who are you getting all these pups from?  Do they know you already have two such young ones already?

Margaret N-J