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Rescue GSD behavior, PLEASE HELP moved to gen beh

2K views 11 replies 5 participants last post by  onyx'girl 
#1 ·
Hey everyone, I posted on here like 2 weeks ago after I rescued a year old GSD, slowly but surely he has come out of his shell and is crazy little boy and getting happier and happier he has a home. Thanks for all the tips and what not, we have bonded a lot more than i would of thought in two weeks.

BUT, today at the dog beach he was running around and ran up to a little dog, a shih tzu I believe, and the little guy didnt wanna play with him. Gunny, my dog, tried to play with him again, than grabbed the little guy by his scruff and kinda flung him...:shocked: I immediately yelled his name and yelled no, he looked stunned like he had no idea what he did wrong, he did not chase the dog as it ran off but kinda of put his head down as I walked towards him.

At no point did he aggressively bark or growl or act out like that. I put his leash on him and made him sit for 5 minutes.

When he plays with bigger dogs he does sometimes grab their scruff and than the other dog gets mad and he looks at them like "what I thought we were playing" And often when he gets excited he does bark at random people an pull on his leash. I should mention I have two cats and completely ignores them, I havent had one incident with even chasing the cats if they run by him, both of them arent very fond of him.

So any insight would be great. This is my first rescue GSD but I did have two growing up, we just got them as puppies.
 
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#3 ·
thank you for both of those! And the thing is when we're on walks and he meets other dogs hes pretty decent with them, and we've go to the dog beach a bunch of times and hes been pretty good. This was the first real incident. Any insight why he did that but is completely calm with the cats?
 
#5 ·
he was found on the streets on Indianapolis, a man found him but kept him outside and then decided he didnt have time for him, the rescue where he was from had 20+ other dogs and no cats. He really is a big sweetheart, thats why i was so surprised today.
 
#6 ·
Cats aren't fun if they don't run. Young GSDs play by biting eachother on the neck. Venus is 16 months, she's always hanging off Otto's neck. He doesn't seem to care just like Morgan didn't care when Otto did it to her. Otto and Venus spend several hours a day chewing on eachothers heads, necks and feet, they don't care.

Other dogs care. I agree with Jane, don't set him up to fail. If he can't play without grabbing other dogs by the neck or tossing little dogs like a salad, he can't play. If you snap the leash on quick when he does it and then leave, he'll learn, oh yeah I'm not supposed to play this way.
 
#7 ·
Thats what i tried to do when i told him to stop. I put the leash on him and made him sit while other dogs passed. And that makes sense about the neck biting he does it and barks and does the "juke" thing and the other dogs are like "what the ****, youre not playing right" It just scared me cause today that could of ended a lot badly, if he decided to shake the little guy like a toy.
 
#9 ·
are you planning on any classes soon? That will help with your bond and allow you to get to know him better. You may also find someone with a GSD that you can have play dates with(opposite sex is best!)GSD's have a very different style of play than most dogs, and herding is usually a given.
 
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