Hi all,
This is my first post here. Maybe my last? I hope not but I really need some help with my new puppy. My husband and I got her from the breeder 4 days ago. She is our 5th GSD. We are having some normal puppy issues with crate training, biting/nipping, etc but the biggest problem we are having is her barking and lunging at anyone who walks by the front of our house when we are out in the front yard. I say "yard" but its really more of a patio. We live in a townhouse so we just have this small 10x10 grassy area in front of our house that is enclosed by a wrought iron fence. The fence just has posts so you can see through the bars and there is a sidewalk directly in front of the house that is very busy. There is also a school across the street so there are lots of little kids around all the time. Our puppy lunges and barks furiously with her hackles up and anyone who walks by but she'll also bark the same way if there's a person across the street too. She continues barking and lunging long after the people have gone and she seems completely stressed out. I have tried a couple of things to get her to stop by I can't get her attention when she is so revved up. We called the breeder and were told not to let her bark like that, but that appears to be easier said than done. I am really concerned by the fact that we can't get her attention while she is barking and her hackles are up. One of my previous GSDs had a severe dog aggression problem and the main reason that we couldn't correct it was that he was too far gone to listen to us once he started barking. He was from a GSD rescue association and we didn't get him until he was 1-1/2 years old though so we assumed that something had happened to him previously. We had to manage him so much that it was exhausting and we don't want to go through that again. It was actually our main motivation to getting a dog from a breeder this time.
So do any of you have suggestions to help with this behavior? Is it normal? Am I doing something wrong? After having dealt with a dog with serious aggression issues in the past, I know that I am not up for doing it again. I may be overreacting as it's been about 15 years since I dealt with a GSD puppy but I never had aggression type issues with the two dogs I had from puppyhood. They definitely were a handful but nothing that concerned me as much as this does.
Thanks in advance for any help. I really don't want to give up so early but I also don't want to do any damage to this dog if she would be better off in another home.
This is my first post here. Maybe my last? I hope not but I really need some help with my new puppy. My husband and I got her from the breeder 4 days ago. She is our 5th GSD. We are having some normal puppy issues with crate training, biting/nipping, etc but the biggest problem we are having is her barking and lunging at anyone who walks by the front of our house when we are out in the front yard. I say "yard" but its really more of a patio. We live in a townhouse so we just have this small 10x10 grassy area in front of our house that is enclosed by a wrought iron fence. The fence just has posts so you can see through the bars and there is a sidewalk directly in front of the house that is very busy. There is also a school across the street so there are lots of little kids around all the time. Our puppy lunges and barks furiously with her hackles up and anyone who walks by but she'll also bark the same way if there's a person across the street too. She continues barking and lunging long after the people have gone and she seems completely stressed out. I have tried a couple of things to get her to stop by I can't get her attention when she is so revved up. We called the breeder and were told not to let her bark like that, but that appears to be easier said than done. I am really concerned by the fact that we can't get her attention while she is barking and her hackles are up. One of my previous GSDs had a severe dog aggression problem and the main reason that we couldn't correct it was that he was too far gone to listen to us once he started barking. He was from a GSD rescue association and we didn't get him until he was 1-1/2 years old though so we assumed that something had happened to him previously. We had to manage him so much that it was exhausting and we don't want to go through that again. It was actually our main motivation to getting a dog from a breeder this time.
So do any of you have suggestions to help with this behavior? Is it normal? Am I doing something wrong? After having dealt with a dog with serious aggression issues in the past, I know that I am not up for doing it again. I may be overreacting as it's been about 15 years since I dealt with a GSD puppy but I never had aggression type issues with the two dogs I had from puppyhood. They definitely were a handful but nothing that concerned me as much as this does.
Thanks in advance for any help. I really don't want to give up so early but I also don't want to do any damage to this dog if she would be better off in another home.