IF THIS POST DOUBLES THIS IS THE RIGHT ONE

I have a 10 mth old male gsd & I hope to pass a canine good citizen test. But here is my problem. He's fine about being around people & dogs. in fact he'll accept people easier when he's off leash than on. meaning if he's off leash on a heel he act as if they are not there,and doesn't mind or make any noise.But he will not let any one pet him on his head unless he approaches them, sniff them on his own after seeing i'm cool with them.(YES I CAN SHAKE SOME ONE HAND WITH OUT A FUSS).He rarely bark unless he's outside by him self and some one's approaching the property.If i try to force a petting experence he''l back away & move like he's worried or scared. Is this because at an early age i encouraged personal protection training attributes & alowed no petting?????. like haveing my friends act as if they were harming me now he doesn't let any one get to close to me or he'll growl & i can't calm him. But he's not really sure of him self cause he's not chargeing. umless he feels intimided.He's fine with group walk etc,but no petting.He might even try to play with you after he see it ok. O why doesn't he bark?? 0NLY GRIZZLY BEAR GROWLS & YOU CAN'T CALL THEM VICIOUS GROWLS, JUST WARNINGS SAYING I'M HERE, BACK OFF.LIKE I SAID THEY ONLY BECOME VICIOUS IF HE FEELS THREATENED. Can i changed this?? I got him for protection purpose.Should i say to hell with cdx because i might confuss him?

Richard, maybe you want to field this one??

You have a lot of issues here. I think you are messing up by doing your protection work with your 10 month old. Stop doing that first of all.

Sounds like you’ve created your own monster. Puppy socializing and behavior imprinting accounts for a good portion of what a dog amounts to in it’s adult life. It sounds like you’ve encouraged your dog to be cautious of people and generally unsociable.
“Is this because at an early age i encouraged personal protection training attributes & allowed no petting?????. “

Now your trying to put a CGC on your dog when you’ve created just the opposite. In effect you’ve taken your personal protection tool, the dog, and reduced his ability to work for you in all situations. This dog might have problems being in situations where people are approaching quickly, like a sidewalk or a park with little children running around, etc. A dog that can be comfortable, confident and approachable in any situation yet turn on like a light when needed is a more useful tool in personal protection.

If you want to turn this one around should start right before your 10 month old gets any older and any bigger. You’ve got to get him to like people by socializing the crap out of him. You need to get him to think that most people are good and that they aren’t a threat to him. The number of people that will be a threat are few in comparison to the total.

I’ll leave the question of nerves and the tricks to getting him to accept people to who may want to comment.

Ok i like help.,i must say he trust kids quicker than odler folks.YES socializeing has been my goal for this last month.

Vondermuff,

It sounds like you may have moved to defense too quickly with this pup. You are also describing what would be a proofing exercise for defensive behaviors in a 10 month old. The combination of having people act aggressively towards you and not allowing the pup to interact with people has taught it that people are not allowed to touch him and they are fundamentaly bad. I would not expect the pup to be very confident in this set of circumstances.

When starting any dog I prefer to keep training and real life seperated until the dog is further along in it's training. This is especially important with pups because if the dog is going to be able to function as a PP dog it needs to be able to associate with friendly/neutral strangers. If the level of suspicion is so high, the dog isn't going to be able to do that.

To change what you have done I would work on the socialization issue and train (in prey only) until the socialization issue is resolved. If necessary, you may have to stop any bite training until the socialization issue is resolved. Definetly stop doing the defense work with the dog. Once you have resolved this issue and the dog appears confident then move back to the defense work and make a descision as to how you want to train to teach the dog the difference between biting specific people or biting for behavior. This is either done by introduction to friendly neutral people after the dog has calmed down from an agitation session, or interacting with the agitator acting friendly. The biggest thing to make sure the finished dog understands that it is the behavior/command, not the person, that triggers a response.

Yes a thought that that's why i've been asking for ipions. I wanted to make sure that the changes i would be doing with him would be the right one. off the socialize

You might want to start getting tapes on the site.

I will soon get me one of those tapes. There so many to choose of interest that i want. How ever i joined up with the local top gun jason sample. he said that it not as bad as i make him sound.We'll be joining his camp this sunday. this guy shows in street ring/french ring/ durn it i for got the other.Any ways i'm happy to have found his number.I had at lease 20 people pet him today from pet smart,to the neighbor hoods, ect. He's cooling down a bit & always been a fast learner.He's actually wanting to play now with these people kind of testing them out wanting to jump up on them. So i put in in a sit & have them approach him.LOOK LIKE HE WASN'T SO HOT HEADED AFTER ALL.GUESS IT'S NEVER THE DOG JUST THE OWNERS!!!!LOL