3 ways to correct unsocial behavior with a dominant reactive German Shepherd

The dog in this video is mine (I'm the fat guy owner). Beckman's is AMAZING. Zoey was an abused and abandoned rescue considered unadoptable by the humane society. She was never socialized and likley tramautized when she was on the street. We've spent a lot of time and money on other trainers, inlcuding some very good ones - but the progress made by Joel in one hour was incredible. We have just sent her back for a two-week session and she is making huge progress. I highly recommend Joel and Liz, and am thankful to them.

That was a really good looking german shepherd. Over here in northern europe they have bred them to be lover in the back to a really bad degree. This one was good looking!

Everyone to German Shepards: "can you be normal...for 5 minutes?"

I love Prince’s response! He doesn’t cower (great confidence) and is a great helper! 😀

I really think she'll become a good dog. Her owner is very inquisitive and I'm sure he wants to help her as best as he can, so I hope they manage to erase all the problems she currently has. Also, happy to see a healthy GSD. <3

She has intense, extremely excitable energy. Not only does that cause her to be twitchy, but also every dog she met. You could tell she didn't like that big guy because her energy put him on "I ain't gonna play that game" mode. He was just ready to defend himself like a calm pro fighter lol Handling dogs and assessing corrections is a combination of science and art, which you display with skill.

“Aaaaaaand they’re best friends.” Love Joel’s commentary lol

I wish I knew all this when I was 13 and my family got our German Shepherd. She's 12 now, a whole life of unsocializing and extreme reactiveness. I feel sad for her and the fact that I was a dumb teen during her upbringing and didn't intervene.. I promise I'll be different with my next dog

Ran into a couple training their GSD yesterday at the market, while I was training my Staffy. They saw that I was following your method, and we got together and had a great session for both our dogs. We both have issues letting dogs meet on leash, so getting them together was gold. Thanks again, and hello to John and Robin!

What a blessing you are, Joel! Prince, too! Would love to see a "leg flip"/"butt touch" slo-mo montage perhaps with modifications/tips for ppl not as strong/dextrous as u are? It was < 1 year ago u hit 100K I think; now almost 400K!! Thank you for these vids!!! oh loved Princey jumping over Zoe at 5:02🐾❤

What a beautiful german sheperd

German Shepherds are a whole new world of crazy. I get it now. But, it took me a couple years!!!! Lol. Thanks Joel. The best.

I am from Germany. Many of this breed in our country have problems with other dogs, because they are undersocialized. This reflects badly on the German shepherd. What a pitty! I myself had one from a kennel. We managed to get him used to our cat, but he never got along with other dogs. Thank you for caring for these dogs and sharing your profound knowledge with us. It is so valuable to help these dogs.

I’ve just found this channel and I’m just blown away by all of it. I have a small dog that attacks every dog it sees. I want him to meet Prince! But unfortunately I live in the UK. Subbed and liked. Amazing.

Another banger of a video from Joel and team. She is clearly not used to dogs movements and other behaviors, kind of puts her on edge with them all so like you said she needs to be around dogs to learn how to get better social skills. Thanks once again Beckman team!

My Shepkita is the same way. He is always so excited to meet other dogs. We go to the dog park and he is great. Except when he sees a small dog, then his prey drive kicks in. But the great thing about my dog is I've trained him to have perfect recall. So I just call him back to me, and he gets praised. Once he has had time to calm down after awhile, he isn't so prey driven anymore. He is a really good boy, just 8 months old. But I have had to put so much time and effort into creating the bond and the skills he has. And that's what it's all about. The owner has to have the patience and skill level to be able to get their dog to a good level of obedience and then the trust can happen. It really is a beautiful thing. I just wanted to say how much Joel's videos have helped me and my dog. So thank you, Joel. You rock!!!!! ❤🙏 God bless you and your people and of course, PRINCE! He's such a gorgeous dog, and he is so brilliant!

I used your methods to introduce my reactive border line aggressive dog (has a bite history) to another dog today. First dog he has met in 1 year since his brother dog passed away and the first dog other than his brother in 2 years. We worked through a fence, and he was losing his mind. After a while we worked them closer and closer to each other. The real success was when we let both dogs walk lose leash near each other after a while they properly introduced themselves (butt sniffs) and while they were not playing together, I feel it was because the model dog I was using was unsure of my dog after his big reactivity outburst and generally stiff body language. By the end of the day, I had my dog off leach muzzle on indoors with another dog almost playing together! The key that may get other looked in these videos is the verbal correction and how it is delivered. Strong, loud, and sharp with the dog knowing i have the ability to back up the verbal correction by grabbing him and sitting him down. He still gets too worked up when the other dog started to play, and he constantly tried to be dominate but I feel this is likely an effect of not being around dogs for so long. Thank you so much for putting out this content and making it available for free.

For anyone reading this: I know that dog training can be difficult sometimes, but you're doing great. Keep up the good work, and your dog (and your own sanity) will thank you for it! ❤️💕

I love how good you are at reading dogs. German Shepherds are generally nice and social dogs but they are also often very dominant and physical which needs to be adressed (best with early sozialisation). Many just missunderstand it and avoid other dogs which just makes the situation worse as the gsd has no chance to adapt and learn other dogs' language. My Shepherd ist just like this one, very very physical, strong prey drive but he is overly friendly and would love to play with each and every dog (which he obviously can't) but due to them being head-strong, it needs a firm owner to teach them manners and how to approach other dogs politely. Owners who just avoid other dogs or believe their GSDs physicalness is agressive behaviour create a dangerous dog. It's my first Shepherd and they are easy to train yet also stubborn and really need a strict training unlike my Akita who is stoic and while without any will to please actually very easy to train as they are reserved and usually focused on their owner by nature.

I love your videos. This German Shepherd here is virtually identical to mine (exact same personality; 4.5 yrs; adopted at 15 months from GSD rescue). As one experienced dog boarder put it, she's fine with other dogs but likes to dictate the terms of her meeting with them, which means that if she's doing that with another dominant dog, things kick off, or if she's doing that with a fearful dog, that dog may lash out out of fear and things also kick off. Unfortunately this makes socializing with other dogs VERY challenging, as the range of socialization (or lack thereof) of dogs at public dog parks is just far too wide. I'm glad you quickly recognized that this is NOT the sign of an aggressive dog that "hates other dogs", but rather a dominant personality that is just too pushy at the outset. If anything, this video points out some aspects of why GSD's are challenging and not for every dog owner.