Over protective of owner
 

My mail GSD is a little over 1 year old. He has been a very well behaved dog and I can take him everywhere and usally do. I take him to the hardware store and all the girls fawn over him and give him treats. We go to our local Dog park and he is fine with other dogs, he will romp and play with them and is not agressive in any way. If two other dogs go after each other, he just stands and watches.

My problem is he is over protective of me, in that if I try to interact with another dog he will jump between me and the other dog. I can bend over and start petting another dog and he will see it from the other side of the park and come running. He used to just jump between me and the other dog, and if I stop paying attention to the other dog he goes back to normal. I don't want this to escalate into a bigger problem and I love interacting with other peoples dogs, which I can't do right now. I have never seen him get aggressive with another dog unless I am involved.

I don't have any friends with will behaved dogs that I can get with to work with him in a smaller controled environment. Anyone have any suggestions?

stop petting other dogs.

if you can't work on it then thats your only option. Otherwise, correct your dog for the behavior.

Over protective of owner
 

That would be the obvious solution. Fiona's sister, Gilda, lived with us for a month while my mom was visiting. Fiona would pounce on Gilda the second I gave Gilda any attention. The trainer said to put Fiona in a down stay when I wanted to pet Gilda. It kind of worked. Fiona would only stay a few seconds and then pounced. I had to sneak pets in when Fiona was otherwise occupied.


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For my dog I take him into obedience training. It ensures the dog will not adopt unwanted behaviors.

Re: Over protective of owner
 

Kaiser was attacked by a dog who was protective of his owner because he (kaiser) just happened to walk between the owner and dog. We had to pull them apart, I was bit (but ok), and now kaiser wants to kill that dog every time he comes into sight (we obviously try to avoid using the park at the same time). The owner was of the nonchalant opinion that the dogs would work it out and that oh by the way his dog was protective of him (not ok to resource guard anything, much less a human) and it was definitely not ok for what kaiser saw as an unprovoked attack.

You need to address this issue now.

Over protective of owner
 

Do not allow your dog to dictate who you touch and what dogs you interact with. Correct the behavior now. Find a trainer that can help you, they may have appropriate dogs for you to work around.


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I had a dog that did that. I would block him immediately with the first sign of being possessive, because that what it is, not protective; he owns you in that situation. Dogs that are being possessive over toys do that too. If you pet the other dog you need to position yourself between the two, as long as it is safe, or put yours in down stay. Then give both dogs treats if that's OK with his owner.
Not petting the other dog will prevent trouble but not teach him.
As a trainer I work with dogs like that, using my own dogs in a controlled environment. Maybe you can find a trainer that will help you.

Finn did this when we started getting young animals in the house; he'd move between me and who I was petting to get me to pet him first. I didn't stop petting, but I told him to "get" and he'd move away. Once he moved away, he'd get a treat. We moved up to putting him in a sit before or during petting another animal. He kind of enjoys it now when he sees me petting someone else...he knows he'll get a treat out of it!