Verified answer

I'm sorry, but I have to point out the elephant in the room. Why are you getting a "pure breed" GSD if you are a first time owner who doesn't know much about dogs?

First, it's purebred.

Second, a GSD is not a good first time dog. The amount of time you have to put into a properly bred GSD is pretty staggering, especially if you want the dog to get to his "full potential".

Good private lessons tend to start at about $50-$60/hour and go up from there, depending on what kind of training you are doing. Such a trainer will be accredited, insured, and will reguarly be attending seminars and continuing education programs to stay on top of techniques.

I am not a fan of "training centers". Sending a dog off to camp doesn't train the OWNER properly and 90% of dog ownership and training is on the owner, not the dog.

For a GSD to reach his "full potential" in a working class could easily be over $10,000. But, this is not the type of dog I would even come close to recommending to a first time dog owner. Such a GSD is going to eat you alive. Smart GSDs test you constantly. The one time you don't enforce your rules, the dog thinks there aren't any more rules. And that $10,000 number is on top of the $2000+ you will spend on a properly bred working GSD that can do what working GSDs should be able to do.

Length of time depends on how much you put into the dog with training. Several years is perfectly normal.

You can send the dog off to school & have it taught by the best trainers around & have one fantastic dog.

But, you would still be very ignorant (uneducated) about how to handle such a great dog.

You need to learn how to teach the dog to be the dog you want. Start at step one & learn all about the breed, potty training, puppy training, basic obedience, manners, The dog would need to be properly socialized.

Check with the German Shepherd Dog Club of America.

http://www.gsdca.org/

Through them you can find the dog you want & learn all the jobs this breed can do. There is probably a club near you & they would know all there is to know about GSDs & their training.

It is during training that you & the dog would form a very strong bond.

one more thing, I have trained PPD's for many people & everything single time I would have to go back & teach the owners more about their trained dog. It is harder to train an ignorant person how to handle a dog than it does to teach the dog. If you don't understand all the why's, when's, how things go, you will ruin the training. Be the trainer & learn what you have to learn to teach your dog.

Some training schools will allow owners to handle their own dogs & will educate you as well as the dog.

Professional dog trainers may charge a lot of money, but work with extreme proficiency. Every dog trainer works differently and may charge as per the time spent to train or number of training sessions. Private dog training is likely to cost around $240-$600 for 6 weeks while training schools will charge around $950-$2,500. There is also an option of group training, where dogs of different or similar breeds are trained. Such a training will cost around $40-$125.

It depend on what you mean by "fully trained" and what kind of "training center" you're talking about.

For a first-time dog owner, I recommend starting with a basic obedience class offered by one of these (or referred to by these): http://www.akc.org/events/obedience/training_clubs... where 8 weeks of class should run you $50-200 - less than most places and with higher quality training.

Work towards a Canine Good Citizen test and, from there, pick the event(s) that tickle your fancy - rally, obedience, agility, schutzhund, tracking, herding, dock diving, freestyle, frisbee, flyball, therapy work, SAR, the sky's the limit.

I don't think any dog can ever be "fully trained" in the sense that there is nothing it could learn - a dog can be fully trained to meet a specific goal or perform a specific job, but you can always find a new sport/event/task/trick to teach a dog. Most people spend 2 years getting their first "CD" (novice level competitive obedience title) and it is rare to see an OTCH (obedience trial champion title) on a dog less than 5-7 years old. Once you learn how to train generally, the rest of your dog's life can be spent trying new things together.

Good luck!

You can spend an enormous amount of money when you take your dog to a training center for someone else to train, and the training doesn't always stick with the dog if you don't know how to do maintenance work with it.

There is no earthly reason you can't train this dog yourself. It produces a bond like no other when the owner is the trainer.

Talk to the breeder about where to find a local obedience trainer that has worked with GSDs and take some lessons so you can learn how to train your own dog.

I've been a competition obedience trainer for more than 40 years, but there is no way I would train someone elses dog for them, as I know that the training doesn't always work when the dog goes home. You have to learn how to keep the training current, and as long as you have to do this, do it all.

Here are two basic training sites to help you'

http://www.dogtrainingbasics.com/

http://www.dog-obedience-training-review.com/

Here is a GSD site that you might find interesting;

http://www.leerburg.com/ (good GSD breeders)

IF you want to get the dog to it's "top potential" then the dog will be in training for it's lifetime.

NOw you need to decide what you mean by "top potential" do you want your dog to compete is various activities? if so what activities? Agility, Obedience. conformation, protection work, and what venues do you want to the dog to compete with? Are you going to turn the dog over to someone else to train and show or are you going to take lessons on how you need to work with the dog and then do the practice at home?

Once you have answered the above questions then you can looking in to the options in your area. I drive 4.5 hrs each way once a month to take lessons with my 7&10 year old dogs that run $95/hour or lesson.

First I'd talk to the dog breeder, they'd be the most helpful with helping you find best trainers in your area.

Training depends whether you do it with classes with other pups or one on one with another trainer.

Classes with other dogs are usually a bit less at around $120-160 for like 6-8wks. and I've found private sessions around $200 to 350$ for 6wks. It all varies though.

I think classes with other dogs are best though, teaches to socialize and pay attention to you when there are a lot of distractions with people and other dogs to play with. As far as how long depends on you. There's puppy classes, beginner classes, intermediate, and advanced classes. All usually around 6-8wks.

Good thing is you have a German Shepherd which are excellent when it comes to training. You'd could probably just take maybe beginner and intermediate classes then continue with videos/dvds on your own.

My Dad breed show German Shepherds when I was kid he'd only do puppy classes for basic training, socializing, and obeying commands with major distractions. He'd let us teach them tricks and socialize them and stuff. If they were going to be in shows they had a private trainer because the shows were like for attacks dogs and stuff.

Depending on what you want done, A LOT of money. TOP training is very time consuming and takes a lot of knowledge which does not come cheap.

Start here:

http://www.sitmeanssit.com/

One size does not fit all. Some cheaper/shorter.......

But I really like SMS' way of training.

i wouldn't go higher than $200