Sarge scared me

[Ambrola]

My dog Sarge is about 10 months old. He has never shown any signs of aggression, but yesterday we were outside when one of the neighbors came walking up the road pushing a stroller and had a toddler walking with him. Sarge started growling and was walking towards them. His hair was standing up and I think he meant bussiness. I got him under my control and apoligized to the neighbor, but felt like a jerk. This has realy bothered me.

[Wolfiesmom]

Was this the first time that Sarge has seen a stroller? It sounds like he was afraid of it. Wolfie acted that way the first couple of times he saw my granddaughters stroller when he was around 7 months old. Now he doesn't even give strollers a second look.

[Sunflowers]

Sounds like a fear response. You might want to take him to a grocery store parking lot and have him experience lots of things rolling around on wheels and making noise, from a distance.
Take lots of treats with you, and reward with them when he doesn't react.

[selzer]

I am not sure why you are so bothered. The dog is 10 months old. He is in the adolescent stage where he does not know whether he should be hiding behind you or protecting your property. He is a puppy and an adult, think of a 16 - 18 year old boy. He needs guidance.

The dog is a German Shepherd that has evolved into a sheep herder/livestock guardian, guard dog, police dog, service dog. You know this. You named him Sarge. He will be a formidable dog who will deter burglars. He looks great in his leather collar.

Only he doesn't know the difference between harmless neighbor with kids in tow, and big bad burglar-man. He needs guidance.

He is at home on his property, or yours, not sure if there is a difference in his mind, with his person, some dogs will be more protective of their domain than others.

What have you done in the way of socialization and training? Remember that babies walk and look and SMELL different than adult humans. If he has never encountered a baby or toddler before that can be your problem. A stroller might be another item he just hasn't encountered.

The thing is, up to this point, his puppy head was not concerned about the big bad world out there. But now, he is growing up, and things he has started to classify things as things he knows are fine, and things that need to be chased away. He needs guidance.

If you haven't taken him to classes, you need to get him out there and go. You need to be careful at this point, but you need to expose him to things safely. And it won't happen over night. Plan on him being a lot better in a year, but that is only if you make it your business to work through it.

[Castlemaid]

When I first got Keeta, she was very afraid of strollers and bicycles. Her response at the time was to run away and hide. In a fear response, don't make a bid deal out of it. Be solid and grounded (your dog will read your energy), and act like the stroller is the most boring thing in the world, and being afraid is ridiculous. Icontinued taking Keeta out for socialization to places where there where people with strollers (parks, big-box store entrance areas, etc ), and she quickly lost her fears. The more I socialized her, the quicker she lost her fear response to novel objects, and soon only showed interest and curiosity, instead of fear and avoidance, to anything new.

Sarge will need more exposure to strollers and things being pushed around. Be ready to redirect his attention to obedience exercises and other things he can do *instead* of acting defensive.

With Keeta, at one point, she realized that strollers normaly held little kids as cargo - well, she just LOVES kids, and after that, if she saw a stroller, instead of trying to run away, she was pulling towards it, tail wagging in excitement!

[FlyAway]

Those strollers are scary if a dog hasn't seen one before. Had it happen to me, too.

[Ambrola]

Sarge is took everywhere I go. He is always with me. He is around many dogs and people. He just never acted that way before? Mabey it was the sound of the stroller?

[selzer]

He's a pretty boy. He's just growing up and going through an awkward phase. Keep taking him out, keep socializing him. Do lots of training, so it builds the bond between you and he, and he will understand that you got things covered. He needs to mature. He needs to gage his reaction to your reaction, so if you are not confident he will be likely to over-react.

Wheels are tough for some dogs. They don't move natural like legs do, they make a sqeeeeee, the whirrrr, and they move like running almost. Some dogs will react to people on skateboards, bicycles, roller skates and strollers. If you have a bike path in your vicinity, it might be a good idea to go to the path regularly. At first on your walks, get totally off the path when you hear wheels approaching. Use your obedience and tell him to SIT. Correct for inappropriate behavior and move on. Praise any non-reaction and move on. As he becomes more familiar with them, he should settle down considerably.

Where did you get your boy, you can PM me if you want.

[Good_Karma]

When we took puppy classes, they actually used a stroller in the class with the puppies, so fear of them must be pretty common. I've also read that dogs don't really recognize kids and babies as human, they smell and move totally different so in a dog's mind they classify them as something "other." (See the books Dog Sense and The Genius of Dogs for references to this)

Anyway, basically your dog saw a big alien lol. No wonder he got scared. I have a scaredy dog too, and it can be frightening and embarrassing. What we did was employ a private trainer and we worked with her to help Niko increase his confidence and slowly get used to (at a distance first) the things that scared him. We worked for about two years and made some big progress.

[BAN-ONE]

Sarge looks beautiful.

I understand anyone wouldn't want their dog aggressive towards a toddler or child, but why is it deemed he is afraid of the stroller instead of just not knowing what it is and thus taking a protective stance to defend his owner?