Just wondering if maybe some of you have had a problem like this.


I have had several situations with my mother in law and my 2 year old GSD. First off let me state that my female bitch GSD and my mother in law get along great, she listens to my mother in law, takes command's, they are well socialized with each other. I wasn't home for any of the occasions but today she came down stairs dressed up with perfume on and luckily my female GSD was in the cage and my mother in law told me that she started barking very badly at her, growling, showing teeth, banging herself up against the cage to try and get to her. She tried talking to her but it seemed to make things worse, so she ignored her and went about her business and she would walk by the cage while my GSD was trying to make hard eye contact with her. This is the third time this has happened, just not too this extreme, the other times my mother in law would talk to her and my GSD would calm down while making low and high pitch ( kind of I am not too sure, confused little low barks) and I have not been here to witness it at all but instead just heard about it second hand. Its hard for me to try and figure out the problem, I do have her caged while strangers are in the house and she doesn't act that bad and even my mother in law stated that she has never seen her act that aggressive before. I was just wondering if you have heard of similar situations like this.

I have seen dogs that have weird issues with various external things on people like hats, beards, perfumes, coats, and big clothes. For whatever reason, they find certain things threatening and they react accordingly. When the person takes off the offending item, the dog is just fine with them. I always wonder if something happened at some point early on that made them that way, but for some dogs there is no reason, they just don't like certain things.

 Quote: Joe Chevrier

She tried talking to her but it seemed to make things worse... This is the third time this has happened, ... the other times my mother in law would talk to her and my GSD would calm down while making low and high pitch ( kind of I am not too sure, confused little low barks)

I can only comment on your MIL's attitude. If I were you I would ask her not to talk to the dog when she's like that. Maybe the first time it happened your MIL tried to calm her down but instead nurtured this behavior by 'baby' talking to her. I would try to recreate the scenario while you're home so you can correct your dog if this happens. Even if the perfume 'triggers' this behavior, you have to let your dog know that it's unacceptable.

Joe, similar incident with my GSD as far as a scent is concerned. Sometimes I rent movie DVDs, put them on the coffee table, he'll sniff them but no problem. Except one particular DVD case set him off barking. Only thing I could figure is he picked up someone's scent he didn't like.

Others may know more about exactly how perfumes affect human scent to a dog; I'm wondering if the scent threw him off enough to not realize it was your MIL at first. After she spoke to him, the scent was still the pervasive factor and he couldn't calm down...?

 Quote: Sandy Moore

Joe, similar incident with my GSD as far as a scent is concerned. Sometimes I rent movie DVDs, put them on the coffee table, he'll sniff them but no problem. Except one particular DVD case set him off barking. Only thing I could figure is he picked up someone's scent he didn't like.

Others may know more about exactly how perfumes affect human scent to a dog; I'm wondering if the scent threw him off enough to not realize it was your MIL at first. After she spoke to him, the scent was still the pervasive factor and he couldn't calm down...?

When this happened my MIL did try talking to her and this made it worse so she stopped and everytime she would walk by the cage she would act out.

Update: It happened again today and I am pretty up at arms as to what is doing it. My MIL came down the stairs today and my GSD was in the cage again and she just crouched down very low according to my MIL and started with a low growl which got a little bit worse and my MIL 100% ignored her and her trying to make eye contact and went about her buisness, 1/2 hour later she seemed fine and my MIL let her outside to go to the bathroom and she was fine. They have been living together for the past 9 months and my GSD has never showed agression towards her in any way, My MIL lets her out for me, takes care of her when I am not around so its not like she is a stranger to her. I need to figure out whats going on here..

Joe, in your initial post you said, "I have had several situations with my mother in law and my 2 year old GSD."

What were the other situations?

 Quote: sandy moore

Joe, in your initial post you said, "I have had several situations with my mother in law and my 2 year old GSD."

What were the other situations?

I did say this, the only situations that I have gone on between them just this type of situation, but milder versions. She would come down the stairs and my GSD would growl, bark, like she didn't recognize her and my MIL would talk to her and she would be fine once she heard the voice. But the other day and yesterday was different because of the length of time it went on and also she wouldn't calm down when she heard her voice.
Like I stated above though, my MIL completely ignored her while getting stared down and growled at. Other then these cage instances there hasn’t been any other problems. They get along very well. There has never been a behavior problem between the two of them outside the cage.