I have a 9 month old GSD male. He is pretty much a normal GSD. He however won't play tug. When he has something in his mouth if I try to play with him, he drops it immediately. However, when my wifes daschund and him play, he will play tug. When walking he does not cower from strangers, he also does not bark at them. However, today when some teenage boys came to the door, he saw them, peed on the floor and ran and hid under the table. I have not seen him exhibit this behaviour before. So my question is, how can I go about fixing this and building some confidence in him?

Thanks for your help,
Joe

I am assuming you want him to play tug? What do you use to play tug with?

Not wanting to play tug and dropping things, the behavior you describe, he sounds like a submissive dog. Submissive dogs are very hesitant to play tug with the alpha. Duke would do exactly as you describe, if he realized that you were still holding something you gave him he would spit it out immediately, avoiding conflict.

What I did was start him on a bite rag attached to a long boot lace so that the toy was not very close to my body or my hands. Prey movements, making him interested, allowing him to grab it and chew and making it wiggle and tugging a little bit to test the reaction - he was hesitant at first but his interest in this item was greater than his concern that the alpha was 3 feet away.

Once his interest grew and he would tug and play more with me being further away I shortened the line a bit, and more play, and shorten the line a bit, more play. All the time encouraging and keeping him engaged on the rag, verbal reward "good boy. yes, good boy" etc until he was comfortable and knew that this was an OK game to be playing. Now he tugs like a demon and is progressing to regular tugs. Ah, an orbee or ball on a string with a longer string, 2 feet or so, or put it on a short lead would work also. Duke does not like balls, though so I had to be creative.

This in itself will increase confidence, even though in the end you get the toy, he fought for it and tried for it and was not beaten down.

I would keep him on a lead in the house, especially if you know someone is coming over. If he shows nervousness or avoidance don't have them approach but have them stay put and try to redirect the dog if you can but don't allow him to run away. If he knows the look at me game and focuses on you well you can have him in a front with your back to the new comers and you back up towards them while blocking them with your body and rewarding the dog for eye contact/front possition. If he is not comfortable don't have them touch him, after he has advanced and is still focused on you you can move him away.

I will say never drag him to meet anyone this often causes a dog to be handshy when stressed and refuse a recall/hide from you.

You can have him approach them with their back turned or with them crouched down so he can sniff and assess without being pawed at.