Every dog breed has its built in instincts and some breeds are better at adapting and curtailing those instincts than other breeds. German Shepherds are extremely intelligent and they also have their instincts but their main overriding instinct is to be part of its human family and make their human family happy. You can avoid a lot of German Shepherd problem behaviors by just spending a lot of time with your German Shepherd but there is also a few other things you should do to help your dog adapt to its life in the human world.

One instinct that can become a problem later in life is the herding instinct that German Shepherds are born with. They can become protective of their human family with this instinct but it can also make them increasingly aggressive and difficult to control. To offset this you need to socialize your German Shepherd as soon as possible. Get it used to other animals and other people so that when it grows it does not feel threatened by the presence of other animals or other people even near its family.

You need to play with your German Shepherd constantly and show it a lot of attention because German Shepherds can get really bored really fast and a bored German Shepherd will start to display problem behaviors almost instantly. That is the thing about German Shepherds, they can make behavioral adjustments almost instantly and when they do they usually revert back to their instincts. A bored German Shepherd will start to hunt and, as you can imagine, that is bad. So show your dog a lot of attention and avoid this German Shepherd problem behavior.

A German Shepherd has a natural instinct to work. It needs to feel like it has a job to do at all times because they were bred to work all day in the fields with herding and other activities. Even if that activity is being the family dog the German Shepherd needs to feel like it has an important task to do or else it will resort to its herding instincts and that can get very ugly if it progresses to aggressive behavior.

I have always been shocked at the people that get so trusting of their German Shepherd that they let the dog watch the kids for just a minute or two. Never leave your children alone with your dog because one of the German Shepherd problem behaviors is the herding instinct.

A main German Shepherd problem behavior is the herding instinct and that can kick in at any time and if your small children are around unsupervised that can be a bad thing. So never leave your kids alone with your German Shepherd.

All a German Shepherd wants to do is be part of your family and if you treat it like a part of the family then you can avoid a lot of the German Shepherd problem behaviors that can occur with this breed.

You need to spend a lot of time with your German Shepherd and you need to teach it how to interact with other people and animals if you want to avoid major German Shepherd problem behaviors down the road.