My 5 month pup has an issue with the 14 stairs in my house as well as the wood floor on my deck, but he is fine on the slippery kitchen floor and over sewers. Last night I took him out on the deck, I sit on the ground and played with him, his tail was wagging and he moved around on his own but I could tell he was still hesitant. Also on the stairs, I placed hot dogs on each stair, he would go up maybe 4 or 5 but would then go back down. Is this normal behavior? He is becoming territorial, garbage man walked in yard he approached him with a deep bark but just didn't take the bite nor did he back down, will also bark at people along the fence line while wagging tail. Help with this behavior please. In the 8 weeks to 8 months video, it talks about the diffrent sounds during barking and this is not the yelping bark.

As for the stairs, take him halfway up the stairs and set him down and then encourage him to come down each stair,praising him as he goes.

The main goal of a young dog is to socialize him everywhere and with everyone. Every dog has a different nerve level. While this is a genetic factor that cannot be changed socialization can be used to help the dog deal with their nerves. Pampering their fears with the attitude of “It’s all right I’ll help you” is the biggest mistake made in socialization. The dog MUST work out its fears on his own. You can only praise for forward movement NEVER for trying hard. It’s your job to ensure the success of the task. This is done by making the task easy enough to succeed and then slowly increasing the difficulty. I.E. Do not start with 20 stairs. Start with two and then find 4 and so on. Why a dog is fine on slippery hardwood floors but not tile or the examples that you gave is a mystery to me and anyone that I ever talked to. Without being able to talk to a dog we may never know. But it still is a nerve issue. At this age you must let your dog know when it is expectable to act aggressively towards someone. If he barks at people walking by the fence and this is unacceptable you must let it be known.

Thanks Vince,
I did not think it would be alright to take him up a few stairs and let him run down, I thought that would be more stress. He follows the kids up a couple of the stairs so he is bringing his hind legs up, so I see your point of working it out on his own. I also received a suggestion about placing a piece of steak at the top of the stairs after letting him taste it while he is hungry. If he is able to over come these fears are you saying that these are still signs of weak nerves? or are these things just puppies overcoming his fears as he grows up the same way we did as children (the try it once and never worry about that again thing)

With the right encouragement the pup will will come down the steps, no problem. And then the next time will be even easier. At least that's the way it worked out for me and my two pups. Now if 5 minutes after putting the pup there he was in absolute avoidance to move then I would pick him up and try it again the next day. Don't let the dog fail but at the same time give him a chance to succeed.

A dog’s nerve level is a genetic factor that cannot be changed. It can only be masked. Under extreme levels of stress a dog always falls back on its genetics. No dog has perfect nerves and some trainers would pass on one that did. So don’t take a dog’s hesitation on particular floors as the end of the world.

The nature vs. nurture debate can always raise its ugly head when talking about nerve strength. A good example is a dog and its brother that were raised under exactly the same conditions that I selection tested this fall. The dogs were very very alike in drive, appearance, rearing, everything. When tested one dog passed the slick floor issues and the other did not. It was poor nerves causing the failure nothing else.
What are often called good or bad nerves are a big part of why many dogs can be trained to demonstrate a skill and never be practical at that skill. It is the first thing looked at when looking for working dog candidates for police, S&R, detector work, etc.
Nerve strength also can exist with low levels of drive (look at seeing eye dogs).
Certainly during repeated conditioning to a particular environment or scenario you can fool the dog with poor nerves into performing, but change something critical and it becomes a wash, as if the dog wasn't "trained".
Breeding for working dogs should not neglect looking at the dog's nerve strength. Unfortunatly, it is only partially addressed by the dog sports (some better than others) and it must be left to the breeders to check their breeding stock for soundness (ability to express drive and ability to be out of drive and be neutral to particular environments) on slick floors, unsure footing, noises, etc.
There is also the issue of critical periods in the dogs growth. It is imperative to place the dog into new environmnets in the first few weeks after getting the new puppy, in fact there is evidence that the dog NEEDS to be stressed by environments so that it can handle stress later on. You cannot discount the critical periods in development but they are certainly not the only or even the greatest issue in nerve strength. I have reared a few working dogs that had everything done correctly and they just didn't have the nerve strength. Ed has a good example in the building search tape I helped him with, a malinois that on the field or outside would bite like an aligator but curls up in a ball inside buildings.

Thank you Kevin.

Regarding the malinois "wash outs" because of slick floors. (and to anybody who has seen a lot of them)

Are these dogs that have shown to be strong in lots of different situations otherwise? IE; They will bite under the stress of different localities (excepting slick floors); and they will bite under the stress of extreme pressure from a helper. Is "slick floors" something that just has not been bred into them yet? More importantly, do people think that breeding this into them has the potential of taking away from them in other regards? It seems to me that people love to tap into the relative "wildness" of the mal, but then they get all bummed out when their cheetah is not comfortable performing in ice skates. How many mals (PSD candidates) does this appear to be their only problem? And what percentage have "good nerves" in all regards including slick floors?

I will likely breed them one day so I really need to get a better understanding of this.

Unless I understand you wrong Jason, you are looking at slippery floors as the trait and not the symptom. Performing poorly on slippery floors is a symptom of poor nerves. Poor nerves are what you are trying to eliminate. I have seen dogs with poor nerves work on slippery floors before.