How should the other members of our family behave with the dog? How should we introduce additional family members as pack leaders?

Question

We are a family of 2 adults, and three children ages 7, 14, and 19. We bought a male German shepherd from experienced breeder about 8 months ago. He is developing pretty normal. However we have number of points of concern. He had been biting us from a very young age. We read that it may be normal in young puppies. But this behavior had been persisting occasionally until now. It looks like a game, no one gets hurt, but some times it's pretty painful. He couldn't be admitted to an obedience course when he was 5 months because the trainer told us that our puppy was aggressive.

He is barking at our neighbors and our relatives when they come to visit us. We live in a house in a quite suburb and probably that's why he didn't get much socializing. It looks like our dog has low self-esteem. Despite the fact that he has never had been hurt by other people and dogs, he is scared from strangers of all ages and other dogs. He expresses it like a fearful-aggressive behavior. He begins to bark and his fur stands up not only on strangers, but also on any unfamiliar moving objects.

Otherwise, we don't have significant problems with him. He learned housebreaking really fast and he more or less obeys simple commands such as sit, down, come, and stay. However, two recent episodes in a veterinarian office, and when we tried to bring our puppy, Rex to a cannel were pretty fearful. Rex growled on the people and tried to attack them.

We watched your DVD 'Establishing pack structure with the family pet'. We have started to establish pack structure as your recommended. During the last 3 days only one person contacted him, and Rex began to recognize this person as a leader. But our question is, how the other members of our family should behave with the dog? You mentioned that all members of the family may be pack leaders regarding the dog. But you didn't recommend how to do it practically. Should Rex be in a COMPLETE isolation from everyone else except for one person for a week or longer? How should we introduce additional family members as pack leaders?

We think that our dog has softer and weaker personality, rather than dominant and strong one. As general rule should we allow him to escape from fearful objects, or should we force him to overcome his fears.

We hope to hear from you soon.

Best regards,
Natalya

Accepted Answer

I think I would suggest that one person does the primary handling and pack structure with Rex.  Once he is in the routine and doing well (this can vary from dog to dog) then I would incorporate other family members.  The problem with letting too many people do this all at once is that it can be confusing to the dog if everyone does and says things differently.  Our main goal is to give this dog security and structure in his daily life.

I also would never try to force any dog to anything he is afraid of.  If you have any fears yourself, you know that if someone drags or forces you to be near something that you are really afraid of, it does NOTHING but make the fear worse.  Build this dogs confidence in himself and in you as a leader.  Leaders don’t terrorize their subordinates by forcing them into situations that they can not escape from.

I would use marker training to make your dog more confident in situations that scare him, we show that being used in the Pack Structure dvd for nail trimming or ear cleaning.  It can be used in just about any situation to make the dog more confident.