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Hello All,
I am new to this forum. So a new guy recently moved in to our house. It is a 4 bed room and he occupies one of the rooms. He has a 1.5 yo male German Shepherd (named Rocky).
I am not particularly afraid of dogs, in fact I love dogs and I am a dog person. I have been around a few dogs and also my sister owns a 5 year old pretty big guy (not exactly sure of the breed, but he's agile and easily a 70-80 pounder) with whom I've spent a ton of time. Now I do know that GSDs are not the regular lab/retriever type, where everyone they meet is their best bud. I also know that they are very skeptical about strangers.
Having said that, I feel pretty bad for Rocky. The sooner he befriends us and sees the others living in the house as allies, the better it is for him. Coz he's a pretty big guy and my new roommate has no option but to leave him locked in the bedroom when he goes out for school and stuff.
So, I did offer to spend some time with him and my roommate obliged. However the first meeting ended up in him being on a leash and trying to charge and bark at me while I stayed put.
The second time was yesterday. I went home for lunch and my roommate was in the hall and Rocky was roaming around freely as none of the others were in home. However, the moment he saw me entering he started coming near me and aggressively barked for a while as my roommate was trying to calm him down. He eventually sniffed my hands and feet and face (which he also licked a little) and decided to calm down. I went to the kitchen to heat up my food and he kept following me around curiously, with the occasional bark or two. Then I sat down and had my lunch and he was calm for the whole time. Then the moment i got up to do the dish, he started barking again (As though he met me for the first time). I decided to ignore this and kept going with what I was doing and eventually left for work. I again came home in the evening after work and he barked as though he saw me for the first time. But calmed down in a bit.
The third big meeting was this morning. So my bedroom is located upstairs. When I woke up to make my breakfast he was already awake with my roommate in the kitchen. He heard me closing my door and walking towards the stairs to make my way down, he came charging at me with barks and kept going back and forth. My roommate didn't seem to bothered and asked him to calm down every now and then. It did freak me out being alone with him in the stairway. I stayed put and slowly made my way downstairs. He kept barking aggressively for a little while even after I came down. But I felt a lot more confident coz my roommate was around. Then eventually he calmed down after a few sniffs of my hands and face. He was a touch less curious than lunch yesterday although he kept sticking close to me. But there weren't any extra barks thereafter. I did feed him a couple of wings after asking my roommate if that was okay. He grabbed them out of my hand when I offered and seemed to like it and had a second serving too. Then he stayed close to me when I was having my breakfast and even spent sometime alone (just staying around) with me when my roommate went into his room to do some work.
Then I got up and washed my plate and said goodbye to the big man and left for work. He did not bark when I left and seemed pretty calm.
Is this a sign of progression? I wanted to know your opinions after reading this post. Do you have any pointers on how I should move forward in this relationship. I do want to be his friend. How long do GSDs take to fully trust people? Is his behavior normal? Why does he act like he is seeing a new person every time he sees me? To be honest his barks are a little intimidating and freaks me out inside. But I try not to show it to him. I want him to stop barking at me at some point. How do I get there ?
I am new to this forum. So a new guy recently moved in to our house. It is a 4 bed room and he occupies one of the rooms. He has a 1.5 yo male German Shepherd (named Rocky).
I am not particularly afraid of dogs, in fact I love dogs and I am a dog person. I have been around a few dogs and also my sister owns a 5 year old pretty big guy (not exactly sure of the breed, but he's agile and easily a 70-80 pounder) with whom I've spent a ton of time. Now I do know that GSDs are not the regular lab/retriever type, where everyone they meet is their best bud. I also know that they are very skeptical about strangers.
Having said that, I feel pretty bad for Rocky. The sooner he befriends us and sees the others living in the house as allies, the better it is for him. Coz he's a pretty big guy and my new roommate has no option but to leave him locked in the bedroom when he goes out for school and stuff.
So, I did offer to spend some time with him and my roommate obliged. However the first meeting ended up in him being on a leash and trying to charge and bark at me while I stayed put.
The second time was yesterday. I went home for lunch and my roommate was in the hall and Rocky was roaming around freely as none of the others were in home. However, the moment he saw me entering he started coming near me and aggressively barked for a while as my roommate was trying to calm him down. He eventually sniffed my hands and feet and face (which he also licked a little) and decided to calm down. I went to the kitchen to heat up my food and he kept following me around curiously, with the occasional bark or two. Then I sat down and had my lunch and he was calm for the whole time. Then the moment i got up to do the dish, he started barking again (As though he met me for the first time). I decided to ignore this and kept going with what I was doing and eventually left for work. I again came home in the evening after work and he barked as though he saw me for the first time. But calmed down in a bit.
The third big meeting was this morning. So my bedroom is located upstairs. When I woke up to make my breakfast he was already awake with my roommate in the kitchen. He heard me closing my door and walking towards the stairs to make my way down, he came charging at me with barks and kept going back and forth. My roommate didn't seem to bothered and asked him to calm down every now and then. It did freak me out being alone with him in the stairway. I stayed put and slowly made my way downstairs. He kept barking aggressively for a little while even after I came down. But I felt a lot more confident coz my roommate was around. Then eventually he calmed down after a few sniffs of my hands and face. He was a touch less curious than lunch yesterday although he kept sticking close to me. But there weren't any extra barks thereafter. I did feed him a couple of wings after asking my roommate if that was okay. He grabbed them out of my hand when I offered and seemed to like it and had a second serving too. Then he stayed close to me when I was having my breakfast and even spent sometime alone (just staying around) with me when my roommate went into his room to do some work.
Then I got up and washed my plate and said goodbye to the big man and left for work. He did not bark when I left and seemed pretty calm.
Is this a sign of progression? I wanted to know your opinions after reading this post. Do you have any pointers on how I should move forward in this relationship. I do want to be his friend. How long do GSDs take to fully trust people? Is his behavior normal? Why does he act like he is seeing a new person every time he sees me? To be honest his barks are a little intimidating and freaks me out inside. But I try not to show it to him. I want him to stop barking at me at some point. How do I get there ?
