Tess - Lunging and Biting ME!!
 

I am worried about my almost 7 month old girl Tess, who as of late, turned into a dog I don't even know anymore. When my husband went out earlier this morning, I noticed he hadn't picked up the yard after Tess when he was out there playing with her. When I take care of doing this, I usually leave her in the house, in her crate, and go out and pick up her deposits...:rolleyes:

This morning, she had to go the bathroom so I brought her out with me, put her on a tie out so she could run around while I went to get the shovel to pick up her stools. Well as soon as she spotted the shovel, she came running after me and jumping up to get it. I tried putting her in a sit but she just wasn't listening to me at all, it began escalating as I began picking up her stools and placing it in the bag. She started jumping for the bag, knocking it out of my hand and running after it, and when I said "leave-it" and had to say it a couple of times, getting louder and louder, which I'm sure made things worse (my fault I know), but again she would not listen. I then tried to take her off the tie-out to put her in the house, and she began growling and lunging to bite me. It was a combination of the zoomies and my girl turning into a total lunatic. She really scared me, and I'm sure my getting upset didn't help the situation whatsoever. I managed to get her in the house and put her in her crate, she hasn't made a sound since and this was about an hour ago.

Tess knows most of her commands now but lately she's been choosing not to listen to them, unless I have a treat with me.....another mistake I made but didn't think I would need them because she's never tried to lunge and bite me before. Is my girl becoming aggressive towards me? Tess is my first GSD and I know they are a hard breed and need strong guidance, which I try to instill. I make her work for everything. I'm working with her 24/7, except for the time off she had during her recovery from be spayed.

I don't know, I'm at a loss right now and reduced to tears over this incident. I don't want to worry about my dog biting me. I thought this would be over by 7 months, at least I was hoping it would be over. Please, somebody give me some thoughts on this, I am so upset right now.

It sounds like she was in play mode, rather than acting aggressively. Does your husband play with her in a way that encourages it? Although a bite from a dog in hyper-play mode hurts just as much as a bite from an aggressive dog, the way you address the two are different.

What training have you done with her so far? My advice would be to really up her training, including training in distracting environments and to really up her exercise.

Try not to take it personally. I know, hard to do! But it is a stage we have all gone through to one extent or another. Increase structured training, increase exercise. Institute NILF and you should all come out the other side of her adolescence!
Sheilah

i think she was playing with you and you don't have control
over her. work with her daily and several times during the course of
a day.

Thank you, I need to hear that she was most likely in play-mode and yes it can get real scary when she does this. Usually, she will get the zoomies and run around like crazy but never lay her teeth on me, although she will lunge as she's running by but it's more like a scare tactic on her part. My Last dog did the same thing and he never ever bit me, not even when he was a puppy, just goes to show the difference in the breeds.

As far as training goes, I have worked with her on sit, down, stand/up, off, leave it and heel. She's still young so some of it doesn't always stick but I'm keeping it up daily and will work harder with her going forward.

My husband does tend to play rough with her at times and will get her all worked up, he also repeats commands over and over again and this really makes me angry. I ask him not to repeat them and to let her figure them out for herself. In other words, if I tell her to lie down and she doesn't respond, I will wait a bit and eventually she will do it without my having to say it again. With my husband, I hear, down, down, d o w n, DOWN. So I try to train her as much as I can by myself.

She has been off these past two weeks due to her surgery but I still worked a little with her every day after she began to feel better. I plan on taking her to Petco, along with her trainer and working on her downs/stays in distracting situations. That's next on our agenda.

After I got mad at her this morning and put her in her crate for a good hour and a half, she came out with a much better attitude. I worked on her training for a while and then took her for a nice long walk. She did wonderful on the walk, heeled right beside me today; where yesterday she started walking ahead of me and pulling a little.

So I'm really grateful to you for chiming in, it makes me feel a little better now. I know she is still young but never having a shepherd before, I wasn't sure about her behavior this morning.

Thank you doggiedad, I really do appreciate your response.

Tess goes on her first adventure tomorrow and I so hope it works out well and she comes back tired/exhausted at the end of the day. She never romped in daycare, so I've got my hopes up that this will help her socialize more with other dogs. She will go with a small group and a couple of trainers. There will also be a couple of other GSD's and one who is the same age as her.