Lead walking woes.

[Lazarus]

Hi there, this is my first post (please be gentle!),

I am the proud owner of a 3 year old Male GSD. I've had him since he was 8 weeks old, I've grown up with German Shepherds so as you can appreciate I know the breed well and absolutely adore them. Beau is very well behaved in the house, at other people's houses and at the park I take him to.

The reason I'm posting is because he's not so good on the lead. Don't get me wrong he walks to heel perfectly and sits at the kerb when we have to cross the road but the problem I have is if someone is coming towards us on the path I'm on with him. He barks and "lunges" at the person in question. Obviously this is not good.

I've tried various tactics including complete avoidance (crossing the road before they come to us) but I'm really at a loose end here. As time goes on I feel I might feed this aggression or fear or whatever it is he is feeling by worrying and avoiding these situations.

I really want to nip this in the bud but I feel that it may be too late.

Thanks in advance for any advice/tips.

[Emoore]

Hello and welcome! What you're referring to is actually a fairly common behavior with German Shepherds, and most people have solved it using the method of training the dog to make eye contact with the owner when a person is coming towards them. You gradually get closer and closer, always staying within a range where the dog can be successful. This is done over many weeks of training sessions. It's not really something you can learn on a forum, though; so I would suggest hiring a trainer for a session or two to show you how to do it.

[Lazarus]

Thanks a lot for the reply, I'll have some googling around for that specific thing, must admit haven't heard of that before so thank you.

[Emoore]

Is your dog food-motivated at all?

[Lazarus]

Originally Posted by Emoore

Is your dog food-motivated at all?

Unfortunately not. He never takes treats when we're out of the house, he just drops them on the floor.

[Emoore]

What motivates him? What is he willing to work for? A ball or squeaky? Looks like he likes his ball.

Also, have you tried bits of hot dog or cooked chicken?

[Anthony8858]

I agree with the other poster.
I have a 4 month old pup, that started doing this. If she sees someone walk by, she would bark and lunge.

I brought this up with our trainer, and she instructed me to divert her attention.

My pup knows "watch me" very well, and she responds well to high value treats. When I walk with her, and I see her focusing on something like you describe, I ask her to sit and "watch me". I reward her, and do my best to put her in a calm state.

Why don't you stage what you describe, and carry some steak or hotdogs?
Try doing this before feeding, and make sure he's hungry.

In class, we stage this by walking past some toys, and in some cases, something that smells good in a bowl on the floor. We encourage the dog to keep walking, by getting their undivided attention.

[Lazarus]

Originally Posted by Emoore

What motivates him? What is he willing to work for? A ball or squeaky? Looks like he likes his ball.

Also, have you tried bits of hot dog or cooked chicken?

Yeah he does love a ball, maybe can try that as a kind of distraction thing.

His favourite thing is mini sausages, goes absolutely wild for them. The weirdest thing is I take them to the park or out on a walk and he looks as them like they are the most disgusting thing ever.

The only thing that he's ever shown any interest in food wise whilst outside the house was a lady at the park a couple of weeks ago who had boiled up (and chopped up) a lamb's heart - you got no chance me doing the same!

Originally Posted by Anthony8858

I agree with the other poster.
I have a 4 month old pup, that started doing this. If she sees someone walk by, she would bark and lunge.

I brought this up with our trainer, and she instructed me to divert her attention.

My pup knows "watch me" very well, and she responds well to high value treats. When I walk with her, and I see her focusing on something like you describe, I ask her to sit and "watch me". I reward her, and do my best to put her in a calm state.

Why don't you stage what you describe, and carry some steak or hotdogs?
Try doing this before feeding, and make sure he's hungry.

In class, we stage this by walking past some toys, and in some cases, something that smells good in a bowl on the floor. We encourage the dog to keep walking, by getting their undivided attention.

thanks for the advice, will look into the watch me thing. I've been doing "look" all afternoon and he's so intelligent picked it up already.

Will test it out in a walk around the block later.

[Emoore]

Just make sure you set him up for success. Don't try to get too close to the other person at first. Baby steps, making sure he succeeds.

[Anthony8858]

Originally Posted by Emoore

Just make sure you set him up for success. Don't try to get too close to the other person at first. Baby steps, making sure he succeeds.

This is SO important.
Never set him up to fail.

As soon as you sense that he's about to go nuts, wave that sausage under his nose, put it to your forehead and say "Watch me" or "Look". Start small....at first, I used to get a split second glimpse from my pup. That's all I wanted. Now I can get her to stare at me for a very long time.

Try to work on the "look" command at home for a while. Then slowly take him into a more challenging environment.