After all this time, you finally got a German Shepherd dog, or you are just bored and don’t know which activities and exercise you can do with your dog?
You probably already know that German Shepherds are highly energetic dogs, and they need at least 60-90 minutes of exercise every single day. Maybe this sounds to you like too much work every day, but trust us, this can be fun and good for you!
Lack of exercise for your dog can only cause negative consequences, like weight gain, destructive behavior, becoming withdrawn, hyperactivity, stiffness or lack of endurance, barking and whining, and much more.
Have one thing in mind, a tired dog is a happy dog. Their bodies are not meant to rest all day, every day. As well as ours. They need to work, to have a job, to exercise. We gonna agree with you that working, training, and exercising with your German Shepherd maybe sound boring and hard and that we can’t do that.
Every beginning it’s hard. So if you are ready to start and you are looking for perfect and fun activities to do with your German Shepherd, then this place is for you!
Let’s see which activities are the most interesting to do with your German Shepherd!
Our list of the most interesting activities with German Shepherd dog:
- Walking
- Running
- Obedience training
- Tracking
- Playing with the toys
- Swimming
- Cleaning up
- Agility training
- Find a job for your dog
- Seek and find
- Getting outside
- Flyball
- Herding
- Playing fetch
- Brain training games for dogs
Walking.
Let’s start with the most basic activity, and that’s walking. This maybe sounds fun, but most dogs owners don’t take their dogs on walks every day. If you have a German Shepherd, you must take him on walks every day, a minimum of 60 minutes.
By walking him for just 30 minutes, you will stimulate your German Shepherd’s mind enough to prevent bad behaviors like digging, barking, chewing, biting, and other destructive and bad habits.
We know that this is maybe difficult for you now while is a global pandemic and lockdown basically all over the world, but you must find a time for your dog.
If you are in isolation, then this isn’t a perfect choice for you. Say sorry to your dog, and choose a different activity.
But if you can go on the walk, don’t be lazy, let your dog explore and sniff this world. Take him out and enjoy together in the walk.
Running.
Running can have so many good benefits not only for your German Shepherd but also for you. Besides that running helps your dog to maintain weight, improve muscle structure and tone, and build endurance, running also helps in improving the mental health of your dog.
Running can be actually pretty fun activity to do with your German Shepherd, but you must be careful how and where you running with your dog.
German Shepherds are very fast and strong dogs, and if he isn’t well trained, your running day can become a nightmare in just a couple of seconds.
Before you start with running, make sure that your GSD is well trained, well attached on the leash, and that he has “good manners”. Also before starting running, do a little research on when is the best time to run with your dog, and how much he can run per day (this depends on the age of your German Shepherd).
Obedience training.
If your German Shepherd is a “bad boy”, then is time for obedience training. Even if this dog breed is the third smartest dog breed in the world, this doesn’t mean that every German Shepherd puppy is born like a well-trained dog.
You need to work on that. Just as we teach children from birth what is good, and what is bad, we must do the same to our dogs, because they don’t know what is good or bad.
This part most dog owners skip, and then they blame their “stupid” dog because he doesn’t want to listen to them. He wants to listen to you, but he just doesn’t understand you. You must find a common language.
Once you start with obedience training, you will see how smart is this wonderful dog breed. And yes, it’s impossible to train your dog, even if you don’t have any experience.
Buy a good book, watch some YouTube tutorials, read more blogs, and start with training. Be patient and consistent, and we can guarantee outstanding results!
Suggestion: How to discipline a German Shepherd puppy?
And maybe one of the most important parts is to stop looking for excuses. Everyone does that (even me while I’m writing this blog) but you must come over that, and start doing things. Think less, do more, and results will come.
Tracking.
Did you know that dog smell is stronger for 1,000 to 100,000 times more than humans? This depends on the dog breed how much scent smell is stronger, but you probably got a point. Tracking is a sport in which most dogs love the most!
There is different tracking title, such as tracking dog (TD), tracking dog urban (TDU), tracking dog excellent (TDX), variable surface tracking (VST), and champion tracker (CT). If you’re ready to learn more about these different titles, we suggest you visit the AKC website and learn more by clicking HERE.
This is maybe one of the most interesting activities to do with your German Shepherd! Another interesting fact is that dogs can basically look into the past and know what’s happened based on the smell.
This is one of the reasons why police officers, military, and other special forces use dogs in their missions and daily routine.
We don’t gonna lie, but this can be tricky to teach your dog as a beginner. It’s not impossible, it’s just a little bit harder, but we encourage you to start with this amazing activity right after you watch some tutorials and read more blogs or books!
Playing with the toys.
If your German Shepherd is bored, or you, just grab and toy, and fun can start! Dogs love to play with their owners, and they will rarely refuse to play with you.
But you must be careful which toys you will buy for your German Shepherd. They are strong dogs with big teeth, and they can easily destroy “ordinary” toys. We recommend you to look and search for toys specifically designed for large breeds, such as German Shepherd.
You can also buy different types of toys for your dog. For example, you can buy some dogs for training, for chewing, or some toys just for fun. There are plenty of different types of toys out there for your dog.
If you are looking for a toy for your dog, you can explore our unique collection, specially created for German Shepherds by clicking HERE.
Swimming.
This sounds fun, and it is! German Shepherds are known that they enjoy water games and swimming (but not much in bathing and showering). Of course, this activity depends on the location where you live, but if you live near the river, lake, sea, or ocean, then this can be the perfect activity for your dog and you.
Swimming is a perfect activity for your German Shepherd for several reasons. If he has extra energy, he will definitely burn off that energy during swimming and build stronger muscles. Also, swimming can help your dog with stimulation and cooling during hot days.
But before you go on swimming with your land shark, make sure that you have safety equipment for your German Shepherd. Your dog can suddenly get tired while swimming, and he needs a safe life jacket.
Also, we recommend you get a long leash for your German Shepherd while he is on the beach, especially if he is on the beach and near water for the first time.
Cleaning up.
Who would say that cleaning can be fun? Well, cleaning only can be fun if your German Shepherd was picking up his toy from the floor and putting them back into the basket, where is the place for all his dog toys.
This can be really cool and good trick to teach your dog to do. You can also teach him to always back things into their place.
To teach this trick your German Shepherd, you will need a little more time, but after all the hard work that you have done, we are sure that you will achieve amazing results.
Agility training.
So, what’s agility? Agility training is where a handler has to guide a dog through an obstacle course as fast and as accurately as possible. This maybe sounds like a “Mission Impossible”, but with the right guide and work, everything is possible.
If this sounds interesting to you, and you are thinking of starting with agility training, we suggest watching this tutorial.
Keep one thing in mind. This training is teamwork, and you need to have a strong relationship with your dog.
And there are no secrets, this can be really hard, especially if you are completely new. If you are a new dog owner, without too much experience, we suggest you skip this activity and start with more basic ones.
Find a job for your dog.
Dogs love to work, to have a purpose, especially high energetic dogs, like a German Shepherd. Finding a job for your dog can boost his confidence, create a stronger relationship between you (dog handler) and your dog, and most importantly, leaves the dog tired and happy! But on what do we mean when we say “find a job for your dog”?
Usually, people hire their dog as a home and family guardian, and a German Shepherd is a perfect dog for that job. German Shepherd is known for its loyalty and love through family.
The other job that we recommend giving to your dog is sniffing and searching (tracking). You can hide some toys of your dog, or treats, and leave them to your German Shepherd to find them with his magical nose!
Seek and find.
This is one of our favorite activities for a German Shepherd! No matter where you are, you can play this game with your dog always! By letting your dog search and sniff for his toy once you hide it, you will improve the mental and physical health of your dog at the same time!
You can start teaching this game to your dog by hiding his favorite toy while he is watching you. It’s important for the dog to understand what are you trying to tell him. To learn more about the seeking and finding game, we recommend you to read this blog post by Wag.
Also, you can let your dog search for you! You can find when he doesn’t look, and start calling him. This is also a great way to reinforce your dog for coming to you when called.
Getting outside.
When we say that, we don’t mean only on regular daily walks. Instead, you can do much more outside with your German Shepherd dog.
You can explore the forest or park which is near to you, play on the beach, explore the hidden place of your city, go on the ride in a car, take your dog out and take some outstanding pictures.
There are so many interesting activities which you can do with your dog outside. Or just go outside without any plan.
Your German Shepherd doesn’t need any plan to have a great time outside with you. Grab your leash, go outside and have fun.
One of our favorite outside activities is playing tug of war games in nature. This can be a perfect activity for your German Shepherd, since they are high-energy dogs, and you can easily train them that way!
Flyball.
This can be a really good activity for your German Shepherd, and it’s one of our favorites! And the best thing is that you don’t need any expensive or fancy equipment, you can start with just an ordinary tennis ball!
For everyone how are interesting in this activity, we will leave this video here.
It looks really amazing, right? There are so many good benefits of playing this game with your dog that we can’t write all of them.
You are ready to try this activity? Them your next step will be to learn more, and our recommendation is to read THIS blog post.
Herding.
This activity isn’t perfect or possible for anyone, since you need a herd. But let’s say that you will be on the farm with your German Shepherd, and you have a herd, then this activity can be really interesting!
German Shepherds is one of the best dogs for this job, because of his intelligence and a strong instinct for herding.
As we mention before, dogs love to have jobs, especially German Shepherd, and this activity can be really helpful not only for you but also for them.
Playing fetch.
Playing fetch is one of the most basic activities which you can play with your dog, and one of the best ways to satisfy your German Shepherd dog mentally and physically. Even is most dog owners think that this game is hard to teach their dogs, we believe that isn’t.
And the beauty of this game is that you can play this game anywhere, at any time, basically with everything. You don’t need some professional ball, you can start with just a stick.
If you are struggling to teach your German Shepherd to play fetch, we recommend you watch this amazing tutorial. Once you realize how easy is to teach your dog this game, you will start playing with your dog immediately!
Brain training games for dogs.
As we stimulate our German Shepherd physically with walks, running, or playtime, we need to stimulate also his brain with brain games. Training the brain of your dog is essential, especially when you have the third smartest dog in the world.
If you think that this is too complicated, you are wrong. Everyone can do that, even if you don’t have any experience. Do you wanna learn more? Then keep reading!
Every dog is usually motivated by two things: food and biting. German Shepherd, at least from our experience, can be motivated with the food as same as with the biting. This depends on the dog’s personality, but if you keep rewarding your dog always after completing tasks, he will continue to work to receive the reward (biting or food/treats).
If you want to start with brain games and brain training, first inform yourself well on this topic. You can start by watching this tutorial.
There are different ways on how you can stimulate your German Shepherd, but it’s on you to find which game your dog loves the most.
Bonus activity: Schutzhund.
Did you know that Schutzhund is a dog-sport invented only because of German Shepherds? According to the information from the Wustenberger-Land:
“The SV developed the Schutzhund test to emphasize the correct working temperament and ability in the German shepherd, and the first Schutzhund trial was held in Germany in 1901“.
Now, 120 years later, Schutzhund is open to all dog breeds. This sport is most popular in Australia, Canada, and the USA.
“But this sport looks dangerous, should I try this with my German Shepherd?”
Yes, but, for the first time, you may need to consult a professional dog handler. It will be much easier (and safer) to do that.
Conclusion.
Maybe it will be hard for your to determine which activity looks interesting for you and your German Shepherd, but this depends on you and the personality of your dog.
There are no rules, you can start testing different activities with your dog at the same time to find your favorite activity.
As we said a couple of times already, a happy dog is a tired dog. The activities will keep your German Shepherd healthy, build better confidence, reduce boredom, and increase their interest in life.
