My 16-week-old German Shepherd puppy barks at people and is scared of cars when we are out on walks. Do you have advice?

We have a 16 week old male GSD, (we picked him up at 12 weeks old), he’s great at home a great demeanor, playful.

When we take him for walks, he barks at people. Strangely, in a couple of situations, when they came close with open palm and a non-threatening demeanor, his bark changed to a whimper, almost as afraid.

We have been crate training Max and working on establishing the pack hierarchy. Please note, when we arrived at the breeder and initially met him, he did not bark at us, but did as strangers passed on the street where the breeder was located).

He barks and squeals at people, dogs when they approach. He gets scared when cars pass us (not fast) while on walks. We just had an evaluation done by a reputable trainer who shared with us that it may be genetics since he had no prior training and no known bad experience.

No temperament testing was done by the breeder.

What advice would you have on how to address this? Thank you.

Cindy's Answer

This is a very normal GSD behavior that we often see happening around 4-6 months old. The key right now is to stop taking him on walks, you don't want him rehearsing this. Puppies bark out of uncertainty and if you continue putting him in the position to be worried and then he barks and the problem goes "away" he's actually going to do this more and more. It's much harder to fix if he's had a lot of practice.

I see you already have the Michael Ellis Raising Your Puppy course that talks about this as well as a lot of other great info that should help. You will want to work with your puppy at home and teach him engagement with you and how to redirect his attention to you in the case of a distraction or something that worries him.

Put all walks on hold, work engagement and redirection without ANY distractions and build your relationship with him for now.