Why does my German Shepherd puppy follow me everywhere?

If your German Shepherd puppy has been following you everywhere then you might be wondering why and what you can do about it.

This post will show you a number of reasons why your German Shepherd puppy might be doing it and what you can do about it.

So, why does my German Shepherd puppy follow me everywhere? Possible reasons are that it has separation anxiety, wants attention, is scared or that you have inadvertently rewarded the behavior.

There are a number of things that you can consider when trying to figure out why it might be doing it. Depending on the cause, there are also a number of things that you can do to stop it.

Why your German Shepherd puppy follows you everywhere

Each of the different reasons why your German Shepherd puppy follows you everywhere will likely come with some clues.

Below, I will mention a number of reasons why your German Shepherd might be doing it and what would make them more likely.

Separation anxiety

The reason why it follows you everywhere could be that it has separation anxiety. This is where your German Shepherd puppy does not like being left without you and it gets anxious when you are gone.

It would be more likely if it also shows other signs of being anxious when you leave such as pacing, whining or crying. It would also be more likely if it does anxious things when you are gone such as it becomes destructive, it pees inside or if it continues to cry.

I have written more about what you can do about separation anxiety in this post.

It wants attention

The reason why it follows you around everywhere might be that it wants you to give it attention. This would be more likely if it tends to follow you around more when you have not given it attention and if it does it less when you have.

In this case, it would help to give it attention throughout the day but to try and avoid rewarding it with attention when it does follow you around.

Nature

German Shepherds were bred to work alongside their owners for hours on a daily basis. The reason why your German Shepherd follows you around everywhere could be that it is in its nature to want to be around you.

In this case, it would help to give it lots of training such as to sit or stay so that you can get it to do what you want when it does follow you.

You have been reinforcing the behavior

It might be the case that you have inadvertently trained your German Shepherd puppy to follow you everywhere. This would be more likely if you tend to give it things that it wants when it follows you.

Instead, it would help to avoid rewarding it when it does follow you and to train it to stay and to sit so that you can get it to stop when it does it.

Fear

It might be the case that it follows you everywhere because it gets frightened on its own. This would be more likely if it tends to do it more when there are things around that might frighten it like people that it doesn’t know or noises such as sirens or thunder.

Related post: Why is my German Shepherd afraid?

Things to consider

Below are some things that you can consider to help you figure out why your German Shepherd puppy might be doing it.

When it started following you everywhere

It would help to consider when it first started following you everywhere. If it didn’t always do it then it might be that there was something that triggered it to start doing it.

Some things that might have happened could be that you rewarded it for doing it one time, stopped giving it much attention so it started seeking it from you or something changed in its schedule.

If it always has followed you everywhere then it would be more likely to be due to its nature.

What is different when it does not follow you

If it does not always follow you then it would help to consider what is different when it does not. For example, if it doesn’t seem to follow you when you have fed it recently then it might be that it follows you because it wants food.

How to get your German Shepherd puppy to stop following you everywhere

There are a number of things that you can do about your German Shepherd puppy following you everywhere that I will mention below.

You can look at the book Training Your German Shepherd on Amazon to get more tips about how you can train your GSD.

Train it

One option you have is to train it to do things such as to sit or to stay so that you can get it to behave the way that you want it to when it starts following you.

It would also help to train it to be less anxious when you are not around you can do so by following the tips in the video below.

Avoid rewarding it

As mentioned above it could be the case that your German Shepherd has learned that following you gets it things that it wants. Instead of giving it things that it wants when it follows you it would help to reward it when it is behaving how you want it to.

Give it exercise

German Shepherds are a very active breed and when they do not get a lot of exercise it can cause them to behave abnormally. If your German Shepherd is not getting much exercise then it would help to make sure that it does.

Depending on its age, you might want to limit the amount of exercise that it is getting.

Generally, it is recommended to exercise it for up to 5 minutes 2 times per day for every month of age. So, if it is three months old it would be recommended to exercise it for up to 15 minutes two times per day. It is also recommended for adult German Shepherds to get at least an hour of exercise per day.

Avoid allowing it to be near you at all times

In order to get your German Shepherd puppy to be comfortable when it is not around you it would help to avoid letting it be around you at all times.

This means that it would help to not let it sleep where you sleep and to try to have multiple people feed it, walk it and train it.