Our 4 yo, female, AKC GSD is highly socialized and interacts with people of all ages without incident. She generally trots up to visitors sniffs around, then carries on with her own interests (chasing frisbee, etc), and otherwise acts aloof. So, yesterday she and I were coming in from the backyard towards the house when we both saw the UPS delivery man walking down the entryway steps after dropping off a package at the door. She raced ahead (despite my commands to her to do otherwise) and approached the delivery man who smartly didn't panic, but instead stood still and made the back of his hand available to her as a gesture of greeting. She took up a position about 4 feet from him, remained on all fours, and barked as if alerting on him and letting him know that he did not have her permission to leave. She did not jump or lunge, show her teeth or growl. Her tail was up in the air wagging, back and forth like a happy / excited wag but she wasn't budging and neither was he. I'm sure I didn't handle this correctly as I gave her a lot of loud, stiff "No's" (to no avail). It wasn't until I caught up to the two of them (standing on the terrace) that I was able to apologize to the driver, and engage her directly and re-direct her to relax and continue our game of frisbee.
So what did I observe? Is this normal? Is it aggression? Why in this circumstance and not in response to other delivery drivers?, postal jeep in driveway. etc; as in these cases she generally trots out to see the person, allows a little engagement and carries on with her (other) interests. The only thing I can figure is that in this case the person was at our door, so in a sense he had "possession" of her house, as opposed to her coming out of her (our) house to meet him.
Thoughts, comments and feedback welcome.
So what did I observe? Is this normal? Is it aggression? Why in this circumstance and not in response to other delivery drivers?, postal jeep in driveway. etc; as in these cases she generally trots out to see the person, allows a little engagement and carries on with her (other) interests. The only thing I can figure is that in this case the person was at our door, so in a sense he had "possession" of her house, as opposed to her coming out of her (our) house to meet him.
Thoughts, comments and feedback welcome.