German Shepherds Forum banner

Female, dog aggressive especially around nervous dogs

1K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  Nigel 
#1 ·
This is going to be a little long winded.


I have a female white GSD, I have no clue if she is pure or not as we got her from the pound when she was 2 yo. When we first got her she was unfixed, and had dog aggression very quickly when we tried taking her to the dog park. When that went badly, I decided to wait until she was fixed to try again. We started with short trips there as to not overwhelm her and things got mostly better.


She has this habit with nervous energy dogs, the ones that bark out of nervousness/ or have those weird personalities/traits that I can't really explain but you can feel it when the dogs are around you.


We decided because she would get bored and obsessively lick our couch when we were away, to get her a playmate. First one we tried was a 1yo aussie, which was really an over sight on my side because I should have know with the energy level of aussie, that it would not have worked. She tried correcting his nervous barking at first, then we got to the house. It turned into a nightmare. She would beeline for him to pin him and fight every chance she got. The aussie wasn't a good fit anyways because my bf was not a huge fan of the energy level, so he went back to his old family.


We waited a little while after that because I was starting to think she was just going to be a only dog. After I saw mastiff/mix puppies though I impulsively decided to give her one more chance at a sibling, so we brought the 8 wo puppy home. These two are now inseparable. The pup ended up being a very submissive temperament anyways so they have bonded very well.




I have been reading on here some and came across a post about setting your dog up to fail by trying to force a GSD to be like a golden or husky, which made perfect sense to me. I do not think that Tal is ever going to be a dog park type of dog just because of her aversion to certain dogs, and owners with that one kind of temperament. That being said, I really do not want her to be bored or cooped up.


She has a natural instinct for protection, like a very strong one. She patrols the house, is reactive to guns/switch blades, and is already leery of strangers in the house. Because of this I was thinking about putting her in protection classes. I am used to herding breeds in my life though, where if they have the instinct you train them to do SOMETHING so that they don't go mental not knowing what to do with their instinct.


I guess my question is, would protection classes make the aggression worse? Or give her the understanding to only react when instructed? Or should I stick to something like agility? I want something to mentally stimulate her, and am hoping that whatever she does do will give her more discipline and help her in other areas.


Sorry for the story about my life. I have worked with GSDs before, but never owned one myself. Having a dog that is not friendly to everybody is new to me.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
I agree with your concern that protection classes could possibly make her aggression worse. The agility class seems like a better option. You may also want to consider obedience or tracking classes.
 
#6 ·
You might want to start with a good foundation of obedience first. Not just sit, down, ect.. but being able to do those commands under distractions and her follow direction at distances. Many dogs know these commands, however you add some space between handler and dog and it all falls apart. Agility requires your dog to be off lead so you need control with other dogs around. Your girl sounds as though she "attacks weakness".
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top