Sorry for the book, as usual:
Our puppy has been growing wonderfully - at 19 weeks he's completely house trained, knows the commands sit, down, paw, speak, stay, and place (though the last two still need some work) and obeys them most of the time, though he's definitely not perfect. He loves people, he's playful, etc.
I've posted before about some problems with him refusing to walk at my work, and with the help of your suggestions, we've gotten past that issue. Unfortunately we have two bigger ones now. If my husband or I take him on a walk individually, he's quite nervous (much less so if we take him together). During the day it's not so bad, and he will still go to people for pets. This nervousness is amplified x1000 at night. Walking around our neighborhood at night, he is hyper-alert, and will panic at the slightest thing - a cat, a dog barking, a person carrying bags. He will literally try to claw his way back to the house -BUT he doesn't cower, shake or really tuck his tail.
Even when we walk him together, day or night, he is very reactive to other dogs on the leash. He takes three approaches to this:
Fear - he runs as far as the leash will let him, and hides behind our legs
Barking - he will bark at the dog before it can approach. He randomly started doing this if we are eating at a restaurant and a dog walks by - something he completely ignored since we got him until about 3 weeks ago.
Looking then ignoring - this happens sometimes, but less than the other two. Sometimes, he will try approaching the other dog to say hi, but he seems kind of socially awkward, if that makes sense.
The thing is, there seems to be no real pattern in which of the three responses he will choose. We live in the city - we have to walk past other dogs. I don't let dogs approach him on the street except in the few cases where he wanted to approach, and I try to avoid walking near them, but sometimes we have to. As far as we know, he never had a bad experience with another dog. We've never taken him to a dog park, are forced him to be around another dog.
Lately occasionally a person walking on the street will also make him nervous when one of us is walking him alone, though no barking, which is strange because normally he LOVES people, and wants everyone to be pet.
Off leash at the park (about 4 times a week) he is much more relaxed about meeting other dogs (only one at a time ever, and only if he seems interested). He's usually scared if they approach him really fast, but then immediately turns around and wants to play. But at the same time seems like he kind of doesn't know how. He play bows, and whines at them, or just looks kind of awkward. Sometimes he gets the hang of it. In general off leash he's much more relaxed.
On my own, I would think this behavior is not ideal, but just to continue exposure, let him investigate things he's afraid of. I'm less sure about how to approach the dog issue, especially the barking at passing dogs at restaurants, and the night walks in our neighborhood are nearly impossible, though I still contribute some of that to just disliking leaving home, since if we drive somewhere he walks ok - night walks at the park are fine, where there's many more people and dogs.
The reason I'm worried is that our trainer seems very concerned - she's told me he's extremely fearful after seeing the night walk, (but noted that he doesn't shake or tuck his tail to the extreme during those times) and implied that she has no idea why this is besides genetics, and it's very abnormal. She's told me that with a lot of work, maybe we can improve his behavior, but he will never be dog friendly. She has GSD experience, but is a positive reinforcement based trainer, and she's making me feel like our puppy is basically a lost cause that we can attempt to do a ton of rehabilitative desensitization work with.
She's suggested things like having a specific mat that he's trained to go to place on, and then we will take the mat outside in the areas he's very nervous, and give him a marrow bone to chew on on the mat, to try to desensitize him to the environment. Is this an approach other people have taken, and has it worked?
She also said to ditch the flat collar, and get a front clip harness, and until then to use a regular harness, because she thinks the leash pressure on his neck when he pulls away in fear is making him more nervous. Has anyone here found this to be true?
I'm guessing the nerves are just a genetic flaw - though we researched his lineage before we got him (pedigree here), and talked to the German Shepherd club here who recommended the litter, but is it really as a dramatic of a problem as she's made me feel that it is?
My husband thinks it's a puppy thing and that he will mostly grow out of it as he gets older, and he's very relaxed about it. I also didn't see it as a severe issue until the trainer made me feel it was. I really like her though, and that's why her opinion worries me so much. Any experience with this type of behavior/recommendations? Is this partly a fear stage, since some of this nervousness is about things that didn't bother him before? Should I be as worried as I am?
I feel like I'm failing my puppy! :frown2:
Our puppy has been growing wonderfully - at 19 weeks he's completely house trained, knows the commands sit, down, paw, speak, stay, and place (though the last two still need some work) and obeys them most of the time, though he's definitely not perfect. He loves people, he's playful, etc.
I've posted before about some problems with him refusing to walk at my work, and with the help of your suggestions, we've gotten past that issue. Unfortunately we have two bigger ones now. If my husband or I take him on a walk individually, he's quite nervous (much less so if we take him together). During the day it's not so bad, and he will still go to people for pets. This nervousness is amplified x1000 at night. Walking around our neighborhood at night, he is hyper-alert, and will panic at the slightest thing - a cat, a dog barking, a person carrying bags. He will literally try to claw his way back to the house -BUT he doesn't cower, shake or really tuck his tail.
Even when we walk him together, day or night, he is very reactive to other dogs on the leash. He takes three approaches to this:
Fear - he runs as far as the leash will let him, and hides behind our legs
Barking - he will bark at the dog before it can approach. He randomly started doing this if we are eating at a restaurant and a dog walks by - something he completely ignored since we got him until about 3 weeks ago.
Looking then ignoring - this happens sometimes, but less than the other two. Sometimes, he will try approaching the other dog to say hi, but he seems kind of socially awkward, if that makes sense.
The thing is, there seems to be no real pattern in which of the three responses he will choose. We live in the city - we have to walk past other dogs. I don't let dogs approach him on the street except in the few cases where he wanted to approach, and I try to avoid walking near them, but sometimes we have to. As far as we know, he never had a bad experience with another dog. We've never taken him to a dog park, are forced him to be around another dog.
Lately occasionally a person walking on the street will also make him nervous when one of us is walking him alone, though no barking, which is strange because normally he LOVES people, and wants everyone to be pet.
Off leash at the park (about 4 times a week) he is much more relaxed about meeting other dogs (only one at a time ever, and only if he seems interested). He's usually scared if they approach him really fast, but then immediately turns around and wants to play. But at the same time seems like he kind of doesn't know how. He play bows, and whines at them, or just looks kind of awkward. Sometimes he gets the hang of it. In general off leash he's much more relaxed.
On my own, I would think this behavior is not ideal, but just to continue exposure, let him investigate things he's afraid of. I'm less sure about how to approach the dog issue, especially the barking at passing dogs at restaurants, and the night walks in our neighborhood are nearly impossible, though I still contribute some of that to just disliking leaving home, since if we drive somewhere he walks ok - night walks at the park are fine, where there's many more people and dogs.
The reason I'm worried is that our trainer seems very concerned - she's told me he's extremely fearful after seeing the night walk, (but noted that he doesn't shake or tuck his tail to the extreme during those times) and implied that she has no idea why this is besides genetics, and it's very abnormal. She's told me that with a lot of work, maybe we can improve his behavior, but he will never be dog friendly. She has GSD experience, but is a positive reinforcement based trainer, and she's making me feel like our puppy is basically a lost cause that we can attempt to do a ton of rehabilitative desensitization work with.
She's suggested things like having a specific mat that he's trained to go to place on, and then we will take the mat outside in the areas he's very nervous, and give him a marrow bone to chew on on the mat, to try to desensitize him to the environment. Is this an approach other people have taken, and has it worked?
She also said to ditch the flat collar, and get a front clip harness, and until then to use a regular harness, because she thinks the leash pressure on his neck when he pulls away in fear is making him more nervous. Has anyone here found this to be true?
I'm guessing the nerves are just a genetic flaw - though we researched his lineage before we got him (pedigree here), and talked to the German Shepherd club here who recommended the litter, but is it really as a dramatic of a problem as she's made me feel that it is?
My husband thinks it's a puppy thing and that he will mostly grow out of it as he gets older, and he's very relaxed about it. I also didn't see it as a severe issue until the trainer made me feel it was. I really like her though, and that's why her opinion worries me so much. Any experience with this type of behavior/recommendations? Is this partly a fear stage, since some of this nervousness is about things that didn't bother him before? Should I be as worried as I am?
I feel like I'm failing my puppy! :frown2: