How to train a 14 week old German Shepard?

Question

My roomate got a new german shepard puppy recently. Between the roomate, me, and my husband, usually only one of us is home at a time. We have all tried to be consistent with the dog's training, and so she is doing pretty well with things like house-breaking, but she seems to have one big problem that we aren't able to fix.

I have a one year old daughter who loves the dog, and loves to run around the back yard. The dog seems to think she is dominant over the baby though. The dog is constantly running over to the baby and trying to run her down, trip her, nip at her, and generally not being very nice to her. I am always having to be on the lookout when they are together.

The dog has her own areas she can go, and other areas are off limits, like the bathroom and the baby's room. But what do I do for shared areas like the yard and the living room?

Does anyone have a good suggestion for training a dog to realize they are not dominant over children?

Answer 1

You just have to intervene and correct her.  This may be more herding behavior, being a GSD, than dominance behavior, or a mixture of the two.  

The only thing you can do is always monitor the baby and the puppy when they're together in the yard or living room, correct her with a stern "OFF" or "Leave it" , and remove her from the baby.

Answer 2

Any moving object will trigger the dog's chase instinct.  If your daughter likes to run in the yard, keep the dog and her separated when she is running.  As your daughter gets older and is able to physically control the dog, then she can take charge herself.  Until that time, keep them apart when they are playing.

Howevver, it is also important that the dog and your daughter have time together.  When you daughter is sitting, take the dog, on leash, and walk up to her.  Have her play and pet the dog, while the dog is on leash and you have the ability to pull the dog away if she gets too rough.

As long as the dog is playing nicely with your daughter, leave them together.  But as soon as the dog starts to get rough, pull her back and move to a different room and ignore the dog.  She will learn that if she plays nicely, she can play.  But when she is not nice, she doesn't get anything.