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Hi! I am curious if anyone else has had similar problems with their German Shepherd or if anyone has advice/feedback. I currently have a 7.5 month old male puppy. We attended puppy class when he was younger and we started private training classes at around 5 months and we have been working with a trainer weekly. I understand he is just a puppy but I am starting to have concerns around his behavior. Side note: I would almost go far enough to say my pup is spoiled with exercise, training and socialization too. We introduced the prong collar around 5 months which helped with the excitement around dogs and people on walks. I have continued to use positive reinforcement during his training sessions and on walks. He walks great around people in the city and is aloof/tolerates strangers in an appropriate way when they run up to him unannounced and not asking to pet him first.
My pup definitely seems to feel threatened by visitors/strangers when he is stationary (lying down, sitting, etc). He usually does fine sitting outside at stop lights and crosswalks around strangers though. The issue is when we are visiting someone in their house or having people come over to our house. The other day I took him to my parents house which he has been before. He did great with them at first and we went for a walk together. However, when we got back to the house - when he was resting he got up and charged my father walking back into the kitchen from other room. He got so close lunging and barking that he looked like he was almost about to bite him and tried nipping at his legs. He realized it was my father and felt awful afterwards. He sat there with his head down. My father left the house and came back 30 minutes later and my puppy went over to my father and sat there again, almost looking for forgiveness. He always feels bad about it when he realizes the person he reached is someone he is generally friendly with (which is basically always the situation - it's never someone new to him as he has met our close friends and family since a young age). I have noticed that this behavior escalates with doors opening (not knowing who is coming from the other side) or someone leaves the room and walks back in. He doesn't react to me this way but only strangers (visitors, friends, extended family). Also, I want to note that this happens when we are at a friends house or in our own house.
Thank you so much for any insight/advise! I am starting to feel extremely stressed with his behavior and I just want to nip this behavior in the butt early on so I don't have issues later down the road.
My pup definitely seems to feel threatened by visitors/strangers when he is stationary (lying down, sitting, etc). He usually does fine sitting outside at stop lights and crosswalks around strangers though. The issue is when we are visiting someone in their house or having people come over to our house. The other day I took him to my parents house which he has been before. He did great with them at first and we went for a walk together. However, when we got back to the house - when he was resting he got up and charged my father walking back into the kitchen from other room. He got so close lunging and barking that he looked like he was almost about to bite him and tried nipping at his legs. He realized it was my father and felt awful afterwards. He sat there with his head down. My father left the house and came back 30 minutes later and my puppy went over to my father and sat there again, almost looking for forgiveness. He always feels bad about it when he realizes the person he reached is someone he is generally friendly with (which is basically always the situation - it's never someone new to him as he has met our close friends and family since a young age). I have noticed that this behavior escalates with doors opening (not knowing who is coming from the other side) or someone leaves the room and walks back in. He doesn't react to me this way but only strangers (visitors, friends, extended family). Also, I want to note that this happens when we are at a friends house or in our own house.
Thank you so much for any insight/advise! I am starting to feel extremely stressed with his behavior and I just want to nip this behavior in the butt early on so I don't have issues later down the road.