My 10 month old German Shepherd is a service dog in training and has started guarding his dog bed and becomes defensive to anyone outside the family, any advice?

My 10 month old male wl GSD has started to show signs of resource guarding his cot and beds from anyone outside of his family. He is perfectly fine with me and my husband touching him/being around him no matter where he is or what he is doing but he has started to guard them from strangers.

A little info; he is my service dog in training and I have had him and have been working with him since he was 8 weeks old. He has completed both basic and advanced training. He has been socialized (no direct contact, people watching) since he was fully vaccinated and has never shown this behavior before 10 months. Now if anyone other than family approach him on his cot or cooling mat he starts to show defensive signs and while on them this is the only time he demonstrates this behavior. Since he has never been this way with us we didn’t know this was going to be an issue. I want him to be comfortable and not feel like he has to defend his sleeping places from strangers. Any advice?

Cindy's Answer

Many herding/working breeds start to show this type of behavior in adolescence and it's quite normal for many GSDs. In what situations are people from outside your family approaching him on his bed and why? How do you respond when he does this?

I would be concerned about having a service dog prospect with this tendency especially if you will need this dog to work in public venues.

We've bred, trained and lived with working GSDs and Malinois for over 40 years and they are 2 breeds that I usually deter people from raising as service dogs unless the owner is an experienced service dog trainer and the dog comes from a line of dogs bred specifically for these tasks (i.e. Fidelco Guide Dogs) Some of the strong protective, territorial instincts that come natural to GSDs make service work difficult, if not impossible, depending on the experience of the trainer and the tasks the dog will need to perform. Some dogs are fine in certain settings and struggle with working in public.

With all that said I would suggest you find a legitimate service dog trainer and get a one-on-one evaluation since I can't advise without seeing you and your dog in person. I wish I could but this is a more complex issue based on his potential career as a service dog.