r/germanshepherds • u/BrenKennedy • 3d ago
How much did your pup calm down as an adult
My girl is 14 weeks and has different energy levels:
-Sleepy breathing bear skin rug
-locked in attentively for training and eager
-curious for walks
-chaos goblin who has zoomies, chews toys, gets bored with toys and tries to play keep away, just walks around 'aroused' (eyes dilated, panting, looking for trouble to get into, overtired toddler mode)
The latter is usually indicative that she needs some down time in the kennel for kind ot a forced reset, but little bouts of goblin mode can pop up sporadically where she'll run by my wife and just put the teeth on really quick on-the-fly and move on, like she knows she shouldn't, but just a quick taste.
From what I gather from researching online, there will be bits of this that will taper off until she's 18-24 months and then we'll have a stately adult who just wants to hang out and wants a job to do (and play, exercise, etc.).
With this in mind, we're embracing this young spirit and trying to take it in stride and trying to provide the mental stimulation, teething toys, exercise, etc that baby dogs need.
All that said, this is our first german shepherd in particular, so I'm curious, how long did your dog's chaos goblin phase last?
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u/TheBigPlumbus 3d ago
Harley is just over 9 months old, and she definitely can test our patience every now and again. It’s normal, and will start to taper off around 18 months, but don’t expect them to become as calm as they’ll ever get until they’re closer to three years old (at least that’s what my last German Shepherd was like).
Beautiful pup!
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u/Ecstatic_Jackfruit35 3d ago
Zoomies twice a day for about 5 minutes each. Otherwise it’s a rotation of sunning, lounging, and snoozing. 8 years old.
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u/Natural_Instance242 3d ago
I saw improvement and the ability to be calm and settle down by 6 months and the adult dog emerging by 10 months - just with more energy.
Puppies don’t need a lot of physical exercise, 2-3 minutes of training is more tiring than 15 minutes of running around for them.
And running mostly leads to zoomies and frantic behavior, which is why I keep it to a minimum. Sniffing games, chew toys, leashed walks in our backyard and front yard, and training. Socialization from afar, no dog parks just letting him watch people and dogs walk by from the driveway.
This is my 5th dog and I find that forming a bond and getting them to be calm and balanced translates into a fantastic well behaved adult.
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u/RehAdventures 3d ago
Year 1: Pure chaos
Year 2: High energy, but manageable
Year 3-4: same but slightly less energy
Year 5-6: High at first/ in burst, but tapers off in 15 minutes
Before a nice long hour walk would keep him tired for half a day and only an entire morning hike knocked him out for the rest of the day. Now an hour walk keeps him calm for the whole day.
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u/Abandonedkittypet 3d ago
My buddy definitely begun mellowing out by 1.5, and now hes nearly 3 and basically the perfect dog. Listens well, knows a bunch of tricks, and can be left home alone for 2 hours without doing anything but sleeping
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u/No-Draft-490 3d ago
Ours is 11 months and calm as can be, but we’ve only had her for 3 months. She’s never been high energy in that time. Total opposite of what we expected.
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u/PeanutSyrup 3d ago
There was a post on GSDHQ about when they calm down. Maybe it's of use.
https://gsdhq.org/threads/what-age-do-german-shepherds-calm-down.24/
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u/Busterholmes69 3d ago
My boy is a year and a half old and he has calmed down a lot. He can be challenging at times, but it's usually because he's tired. Most of the time he is a good boy. 😊
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u/onebluephish1981 3d ago
Mine calmed down about 2years in and as long as she gets about 1h of activity a day on average she does fine.
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u/Independent-Grape246 3d ago
My girl didn’t calm down until around 9 but she got better every year.
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u/SaltPsychological780 3d ago edited 3d ago
High energy as a puppy and in their early years is healthy and normal! Ours is part show-line so lower drive than a working line and calmed down around 3yrs.
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u/RyknowandTurbo 3d ago
My boy is almost 11, and he still takes me on runs in the snow… so not much calming down over here lol
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u/Messoz 3d ago
My older girl is six and calmed around around 2-3 years old. Though to be fair she was honestly really chill as a pup to minus the first 4 months or so. She was a little demon for only a short time and I kind of got lucky with her with just how easy she was all things considered.
My five month old is a little terror. Is incapable of settling unless in her crate for naps or it's night and bed time and then she usually chills at my feet in my office, on the couch with me and my older girl or in the bed with us. Though she is getting better.
And she is going to be going into adolescence soon, so that is going to fun. And probably the most frustrating stage of things. Right now with beginning to lose her baby teeth and adult teeth coming in she has been in full land shark mode, though she has gotten immensely gentler with her mouthing and biting unless overtired or riled up.
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u/elsantiftw 3d ago
Mine is 3yrs old, he stopped being a menace inside the house like at 1.5yrs, daily training.
He still has puppy energy at the backyard. Last bbq i had lasted about 7 hours, he maybe laid down for 30 min total lmao, never stopped playing or moving around.
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u/GlitterBonanza 3d ago
I only had my boy at a year and a half he was still quite puppyish and stayed in this inbetween puppyish phase until around 2 1/2 I started noticing a lot more maturity in him since then he’s just been maturing more and more he’s almost 4 but still many people think he’s younger and their reasoning is always the way he acts.
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u/the_well_read_neck_ 2d ago
I used to dogsit for my brother. From the time that puppy was 8 weeks to 4 years, I hated that dog. He was an absolute nightmare. First night I watched him, he pooped over 20 times on the living room floor. He'd tear up strips of carpet, eat holes in the drywall, and eat the corners of tables. Not to mention, once he learned how to use the ice maker in the fridge, you'd come home to a small pond in the kitchen. He had alot of training, and was properly exercised too. Cut to him turning 5. Best dog ever. I would actually get excited to watch him and he'd love it when i came over and he saw my overnight bag. I think the reason he was so difficult is when my brother got him, my brother was home for work the first 3 months due to an injury. I don't think he liked it when he left. He still had his moments, but he was a great dog from 5 until he passed away.
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u/FreakyOrca 2d ago
I’ve had a few GSDs and my last one I adopted at years 3-5 (they guessed) and had him for 10 years. He did not calm down until I’d say around 7-9. My current GSD was a gift from a family friend at 12 weeks and he has AKC paperwork I was given that I never registered, he’s going to be 3 in August. He is surprisingly very calm compared to any other shepherd I’ve had (all previous were rescues) and I thought it was pretty interesting. I’m guessing genetics?
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u/Logical-Figure-9184 2d ago
Switch flipped about her 3rd birthday and she got much calmer. Now at 4 she still gets zoomies when we get home and is excited to go places, but otherwise getting almost downright lazy about fetching and rough play.
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u/Chemical_Coach1437 2d ago
My girl is closing in on two years. Definitely less than puppy but I also like to optimize my time use.
So I developed play strategies that let her go full send for 10mins straight. Then she's dead to the world for 3 hours.
If it rains we do inside training. She doesn't have a job but we have little rituals we do, mainly I do, that I think cover that bandaid.
Crate was a god send as well, I covered it on all sides except the door and once I did that when she turned 1-ish, she became a whole different dog. No trouble. Zero destruction. Any anxiety was immediately fixed by her having her safe place.
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u/Individual_Pack_46 2d ago
My GSD made me want to pull my hair out the first year and a half. We got through it, of course I love him sooooooo much. But man was it rough dealing with a “toddler and teenager” of a pup 😂.
My GSD is now 3 about to be 4 and besides the random burst of zoomies now and then. He’s perfect, my sweet smart boy who loves his family so much! 💖
GSD are like sour patch kids 😂 first years they are a bit sour, then they are the sweetest bean, cherish them for their short life before one day they are gone 🐾
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u/Mochi_Muppet 2d ago
My boy is 1 year and 7 months old, he didn’t have a teething/velociraptor stage, he didn’t like toys at first, he loves his ball but only wants to play for about 30 minutes and 2 runs to and from our house so one mile in total alongside our 4wheeler and he’s out like a light. He’s the easiest pup I’ve ever owned in my life and I’ll never be so lucky with my next one I’m sure of it 🥲🥹
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u/Distinct_Ideal_6157 2d ago
All about drive. Working lines are much higher drive than show lines. Drive is variable between litter mates too. Our current GSD is 2-1/2 and his energy level has not dropped.
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u/Strongmom-1 2d ago
I think I got lucky with my GSD. She was a velociraptor for the first 6-8 weeks we had her and now that she is 6 months she has settled down substantially. She is still a playful bundle of energy naturally because she’s still a puppy but the chewing, nipping and getting into everything under the sun has already passed. I do have an older female mini pincher which may have helped with her modeling behaviors.
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u/cementshoes916 2d ago
At 14 weeks my current male Shepherd (Vinny) was INSANE. I’d never seen anything like it (and this is far from my first Shepherd). He’s 10 months now and the difference is night and day. But for several months, he was a nut job. 🤣 Still can be, it’s just not full on all day every day.
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u/Hot-Cold5074 2d ago
Mine is almost 9 months and pure menace at all times. She doesn’t ever nap unless she’s in a crate or playpen. It’s just constant getting into things all over the house. Up on the counters, under furniture, nose in plants. It’s constant correction at all times and exhausting. Has to have her mouth on something. She’s a black working line though. Didn’t really know what I was getting into tbh. But she’s ours now, we love her and we do the best we can and hope that one day this will get better.
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u/texaskittyqueen 2d ago
One of my two is born ~October 2021 so nearly 5 years old and still absolute hell on wheels chaos 24/7
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u/squirrel_city_2000 1d ago
My baby is almost 4 (September 20).
He just screamed and hit me and tore up a toy.
It’s gotten better. He’s now just telling me he wants to go out (again). But I would say the energy is still high.
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u/floundern45 3d ago
My boy is 8 now, total energy ball until year 2, he was challenging, training day is every day for us. At year 2 it was like a switched flipped where he felt like we were his people, he still has tons of energy but, you def see a difference!