Recognise that this is not something with which I have experience. I am really into the one handler thing.

If it is just to be a pet, you can probably involve the three of you.

The most important thing to all agree on (everyone in the house) is the ground work stuff, rather than training specific behaviors. No dogs on the couch, dog will be crated when not supervised and so on.

If I had three people that wanted to train the dog I would do the training session all together. I would set goals and discuss things, and even practice timing, commands and such with the humans only before a session invloving a dog. That way everyone can make sure they are being consistant with expectations and outcomes.

There are some fun things that lend themselves well to working with a group. Fun "come" puppy drills with multiple people is an example that comes to mind.

I think it will be difficult just to agree on ground rules (and who will take the pup out at 3am once the novelty wears off) with that many people, let alone how to train more formal things, but go ahead and prove all of us wrong!

I caution you as well with a dog like a GSD you may think you just want it as a pet now, but you may want to get into dog sports (bitework, agility, obedience, whatever) if you have fun training.

Maybe some actual trainers on the board may have some advice. Some that have encountered such a thing and have seen it work or not work?

Jennifer,

I completely respect your advice. I mean, what do I know? We have had "family meetings" about pack structure and what rules we want our dog to live by. We've talked about who is going to take the dog out 3 in the morning. My sister is responsible for putting together our dog's raw diet. So we're trying our best to be as prepared as possible. We watched the 8 weeks video and all of us just got so excited by the training methods Ed uses and want to take part in the experience of training our dog. But, ultimately we want to do what's best for the dog and if it is going to cause confusion then we will put aside what we want and do the right thing. It's just we're in a unique situation because we're not kids or teenagers who want a dog to play with and let our parents do all the training. We're all adults who have made a financial and time commitment to the dog we're going to bring in our house. So we're looking for the best advice that fits our family's need and you've given some great suggestions as well as others. Thanks.

The funny thing is that we just wanted a "pet" and I got to talking with the breeder about what her dogs have excelled in and I started to think I might want to do agility with our dog. So, there you have it. No one told me when you get a GSD you were going to want to do some kind of sport with it. I just want to do it for fun but I'm also pretty competitive. So I hope that gives you a better understanding of our situation.

Every person teaching different behaviours is a good idea. Having only one person to train is better. But if you have three people that reallyreallyreally want to train the dog, I think it can be done. Though I whouldn´t try to walk that road if I had high competition goals.

I have a word signal and a clicker. Actually I have several clickers that sound pretty different (one button-clicker I bought at a Belgian clicker trainer seminar, some box-clikers I have bought at pet strores and my favorite i-Click I seem to have misplaced). All the dogs that live with me, what a click means and usually aren´t confused by the different clicks but I still give some initial clicks for eye contact to get them in the mood and remind that this click means click too. I actually prefer a cliker to the voice marker- I can sound a mile apart depending on the mood I am in. This is why I picked the sound marker to be so weird that I shocked the instructor in the first training where I used it- I sort of squeal in a very high voice "PAI" (that means "pat" or "be good enough to be petted"). This is freaky enough to sound pretty much the same all the time.

 Quote: maisha butler

Jennifer,

I completely respect your advice. I mean, what do I know? We have had "family meetings" about pack structure and what rules we want our dog to live by. We've talked about who is going to take the dog out 3 in the morning. My sister is responsible for putting together our dog's raw diet. So we're trying our best to be as prepared as possible. We watched the 8 weeks video and all of us just got so excited by the training methods Ed uses and want to take part in the experience of training our dog. But, ultimately we want to do what's best for the dog and if it is going to cause confusion then we will put aside what we want and do the right thing. It's just we're in a unique situation because we're not kids or teenagers who want a dog to play with and let our parents do all the training. We're all adults who have made a financial and time commitment to the dog we're going to bring in our house. So we're looking for the best advice that fits our family's need and you've given some great suggestions as well as others. Thanks.

The funny thing is that we just wanted a "pet" and I got to talking with the breeder about what her dogs have excelled in and I started to think I might want to do agility with our dog. So, there you have it. No one told me when you get a GSD you were going to want to do some kind of sport with it. I just want to do it for fun but I'm also pretty competitive. So I hope that gives you a better understanding of our situation.

Sounds like you know a fair bit actually I am quite confident you will see how it goes and do what works for your unique situation.

I hope you will keep us updated on how it goes and your specific triumphs and challenges... (can't wait to see puppy pictures).

Thanks for your support Jennifer. We're just trying to do our best and I'm sure when the puppy comes home in a couple of weeks I will be flooding this forum with panicky questions. There are a lot people on this forum who I value they're advice and you're definitely one of them. I just enjoy looking at your pictures and hope to be a great dog trainer like you and a lot of people on this forum. And I can't wait until I can post pictures. The only thing my family can't agree on is the name. LOL. We're on one accord with everything else except the name. Go figure.

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I just enjoy looking at your pictures and hope to be a great dog trainer like you and a lot of people on this forum.

I do not have the experience required to consider myself a dog trainer, let alone a great one! Thanks anyways.

There are however some dog trainers on this board, great ones too

Good luck with the new pup!