What should I do? puppy agression?

[gsdraven]

Originally Posted by onedogman

I disagree with most of the advise here, so I may well be 100% wrong. I would work very hard at socializing him even more. Start with people he knows or will be around some of the time, and add some people that are alerted to his behavior. and aren't afraid of dogs. It is usually the little unconscious nervous signals that people do that sets a dod off.

Yes and no. Counter conditioning and socialization needs to be done but it needs to be guided by an experienced trainer/behaviorist in order to keep everyone safe.

Originally Posted by onedogman

One more thought, I think in this situation an electric collar could be invaluable.

Absolutely not.

OP, please do some educationg on canine body language; one of my favorites is

The Language of Dogs

The Language of Dogs

dvd by Sarah Kalnajs. Get a trainer/behaviorist that is experienced in dealing with these kinds of issues to help guide you. A muzzle and proper conditioning to it will be invaluable to saving your dogs life and your wallet from a lawsuit.

[blackshep]

Originally Posted by onedogman

One more thought, I think in this situation an electric collar could be invaluable.

That could make things worse if not used properly. Some dogs freak out with e-collars.

Has he always been like this? Is he currently on any medications?

If it's something recent, I think there are some health issues that can cause that type of behaviour, certain medication side-effects, and I think thyroid problems?

I might be wrong on those, but I seem to recall someone saying that to me.

Best of luck. I agree about having him muzzled if you're out and about or if someone comes to the door. I also think investigating a trainer who's used to hard dogs is a good idea, as someone suggested.

[Liesje]

I would try to find someone very experienced with the breed. Maybe a behaviorist, maybe not. Some are good, others try to solve every dog's problem the same ways and don't take into account how different breeds should act and be treated differently.

[holland]

I agree with not using an e-collar-I was told by an experienced trainer that it escalates aggression-I would try to find a behaviorist

[martemchik]

Spend months (preferably with a trainer) training your dog one on one, mainly working on focus. Make your dog focus on YOU, only YOU, at all times. Then once you're comfortable (again preferably the trainer would agree), you can introduce small distractions that he's comfortable with (so people he knows, other dogs that he won't freak out around). Slowly add more and more distractions, but always make sure he's looking at you and concentrating on the work at hand rather than the new distraction.

This way...you condition him to ignore things rather than trying to retrain his genetic response. I would not "test" this dog with anyone, not even people that aren't afraid of dogs. I'm not afraid of dogs...but my heart would skip a beat if a full grown GSD was coming at me barking and growling. Dogs sense those little changes in our behavior and they react to them. Do not under any circumstances allow this dog to ever lunge/run at anybody again.

[lesslis]

Call me dramatic, over the top or whatever, but this to me is when a reputable breeder steps in with honesty or admits placement was wrong and helps in some way either based on a contract or just for the health and happiness of the dog and the public. Sorry breeders but you started it so get in there and figure out what went wrong. Training, loose screw in dog, owner. The dog may be fantastic with clear, concise direction. Or not, but still say breeders need to step up in this.

[shepherdmom]

I see all kinds of advice from training to socialization. Why not just keep him away from others? Lock him up if someone comes over?

[Jag]

Originally Posted by brandongill1

Hi guys me again, so I am completely at a loss for words right now with Odin, with our family he's the perfect dog, calm, relaxed, and extremely loving, but with strangers he just pulls a complete 180, in the 10 months that we have had him, he has attacked 3 people, has never bitten anyone, but has jumped on them snarling and barking, WE HAVE gone through 3 obedience classes with him, but he is just so fearful of people he's never met before, always on guard, and never really fully paying attention, I am just so worried that one day he's going to cross the line and bite someone, and we would have to put him down, our breeder told us that if we did ever have problems with him she would gladly take him back, which now half my family is considering, I don't know what I should do, and what would be fair to Odin, the last behaviourist that came in here suggested that we put him on prozac to help calm him down,

What are your guy's thoughts?

You're speaking of 'the last behaviorist' so I'm taking that as saying that in addition to OB classes, the dog has seen behaviorists. Although I can't see your dog, I can can share my experience with you. I got a bitch many years ago. Before she was a year old (and her first outburst of any kind) she suddenly jumped up and grabbed an elderly lady by her shirt and flung her to the floor. I caught her as she was going for the woman's throat. There was no proceeding bark, growl, baring of teeth, or anything else that would have alerted me as to what was coming. The woman had been petting her without issue for a few minutes right before this happened. It was not at my home. Several behaviorists/trainers later, we were no better off. She attacked a few other people.. both in and out of my home. I worked with her religiously. It made no difference. The breeder didn't offer to take her back. After many, many years (when she started to have health issues as well) we said good-bye. It's still painful, like an open wound that won't heal. All I have to do is see her picture, think about her, or see a pic of another dog (mainly Halo) who looks like her and I start bawling. The stress our family lived under all that time was great.

If you are prepared to 'manage' the dog for the rest of its life, then keep trying different things. Accidents tend to happen, though, and it only takes one second for another attack to occur. If I were in your shoes, I'd return the dog to the breeder. Sometimes dogs just aren't "right". Probably because the breeder doesn't know enough about matching pedigrees, or is breeding dogs that have had issues. Only you know if there was something that happened that would've caused this. I didn't see you mention that, so I'm again assuming that the dog wasn't attacked by another dog or person in its young life. Management of this type of dog isn't something I'd ever do again. Once is enough for me. I wish you the best of luck. I really, really do. I hate reading posts like this.

[brandongill1]

Originally Posted by Jag

You're speaking of 'the last behaviorist' so I'm taking that as saying that in addition to OB classes, the dog has seen behaviorists. Although I can't see your dog, I can can share my experience with you. I got a bitch many years ago. Before she was a year old (and her first outburst of any kind) she suddenly jumped up and grabbed an elderly lady by her shirt and flung her to the floor. I caught her as she was going for the woman's throat. There was no proceeding bark, growl, baring of teeth, or anything else that would have alerted me as to what was coming. The woman had been petting her without issue for a few minutes right before this happened. It was not at my home. Several behaviorists/trainers later, we were no better off. She attacked a few other people.. both in and out of my home. I worked with her religiously. It made no difference. The breeder didn't offer to take her back. After many, many years (when she started to have health issues as well) we said good-bye. It's still painful, like an open wound that won't heal. All I have to do is see her picture, think about her, or see a pic of another dog (mainly Halo) who looks like her and I start bawling. The stress our family lived under all that time was great.

If you are prepared to 'manage' the dog for the rest of its life, then keep trying different things. Accidents tend to happen, though, and it only takes one second for another attack to occur. If I were in your shoes, I'd return the dog to the breeder. Sometimes dogs just aren't "right". Probably because the breeder doesn't know enough about matching pedigrees, or is breeding dogs that have had issues. Only you know if there was something that happened that would've caused this. I didn't see you mention that, so I'm again assuming that the dog wasn't attacked by another dog or person in its young life. Management of this type of dog isn't something I'd ever do again. Once is enough for me. I wish you the best of luck. I really, really do. I hate reading posts like this.

We have seen a behaviourist, one that was recommended by our vet, what she told us was that odin had a very low threshold for anxiety, and the smallest thing could set him off in a frenzy, she recommended prozac so we could train him to focus more on us, but she said it wasn't a guarantee it would work I am just so confused , I thought our socialization was great, and started training early as well, but this anxiety thing just popped out of no where, and its just been slowly getting worse and worse. I do love him and want to manage this, but I am always worried that something out of the blue will set him off.. and he'll be in get into a lot more trouble then just jumping on strangers

[Blanketback]

When does he get the opportunity to jump on the strangers? I know when my puppy was Odin's age, he liked jumping on people entering our home. So he was crated when they entered. And before he was let out, my guests were told to face away from him and ignore him until he was calm. Some people didn't listen to me (isn't that always the case, lol?) and those were the people he jumped on the most. Because he was being rewarded with their attention for doing it. Is this what's happening?