I have had Chief for about ten months, he is a year old. He is a very good and obedient dog, however he has some minor issues that I would like to keep from getting worse.

While on walks, Chief pays little to no attention to humans. At the most he might try to sneak in a sniff if we pass close to someone on a narrow trail, but he never pulls toward them as we approach. However, if someone approaches him directly, he growls. He doesn't show teeth and the growl is low almost like a grunt. He does not want to be petted by strangers(I don't allow, but you get the occasional person who will try anyways.)

During my Farther-in-law's recent visit, he growled for two days before he finally accepted him.

If I am talking to someone he will sit or lay at my feet with no problems, but if that person directs their attention to Chief he growls. Also, he is fine in line at the pet store with people in front of and behind us.

Any help on ways to stop this, or tips on how to figure out if this is out of fear or aggression would be greatly appreciated.

What do you do when he growls?

Daniel,
Have you been training him in any ring sport? What training has he had?
Does he exhibit any body language with the growl. Low tail, flattened ears, lowered head, stiff legs, anything?
Does he know the leave it command, and if so does he comply?

I'm sure you'll get many more questions, hang with us.

If my dog isn't learning, I'm doing something wrong.
Randy

 Quote: randy allen

Daniel,
Have you been training him in any ring sport? What training has he had?
Does he exhibit any body language with the growl. Low tail, flattened ears, lowered head, stiff legs, anything?
Does he know the leave it command, and if so does he comply?

I'm sure you'll get many more questions, hang with us.

If my dog isn't learning, I'm doing something wrong.
Randy

No training in any ring sports.

Basic obedience using the DVD from this site, and I am using the "Building Drive and Focus" DVD. I also used "8 weeks to 8 Months."

Body language:

He goes from relaxed with his mouth open and ears normal to tense mouth closed ears are normal to a little outward. He stands his ground. If the person offers a hand he stretches out to sniff, and from there he either growls or goes back to doing what he was before.( mostly growls) The other night at a park a lady wanted to pet him. I told her he didn't like to be petted and she respected that. She sat down next to me on a park bench and we talked for about five minutes. She ignored chief. For no reason at all he got up walked to her, sniffed her leg, and came back to me and sat down with a very proud look on his face. (no growling)

Leave it:

I use "yuck" and he complies very well. Don't know if that is the same.

What I do when he growls:

I tell him in a firm voice "knock it off". If that does not work I will give him a leash correction, and make him sit. I have been using a prong collar lately, and i would say on a scale of 1-10 (1 being lightest and 10 being hardest) I use about 2-3 level of correction if a leash correction is needed. Most of the time it is not needed because he responds to verbal commands well.

If there are any more questions let me know I will answer to the best of my ability.

Yeah Daniel,
Yuk works for leave it, shoot you could use 'marigold' if thats your leave it command! As long as it does the job.
From the sound of your post the dog is very familar with people. Hmmm, what I mean is, people are not something strange to him. So he was socialized, right?

Has the growl ever manifested to a actual threating movement toward anyone? If not, take that to your credit with training.
I think you're right to be concerned, and wanting to figure it out. He's only a year old, it's bound to start becoming more pronounced as he gets older. Is a one on one with a professional out of the question? It may be your best bet.....It doesn't sound fear based to me, it sounds more like 'wtfaydims', 'oh okay, dad says yuk, yeah go away a^% h*^#e, cool, I would've kicked your a*% anyways'.

Do you have any plans for the dog in the future?

If my dog isn't learning, I'm doing something wrong.
Randy

Ps.
Oh yes, how is the interaction with the rest of the family?
And Daniel fear and agression can come together and usually does. It's not one or the other.

Daniel,
Hang in there, the real experts will be chiming in soon.


If I'm not learning, I'm not paying attention.
Randy

Chief is around random people a lot. Never around the same people very often though.

As far as socialized correctly... "Correctly" would be the key word there. I socialized him, and i think I did it right, but i am a newbie to GSDs. Nobody at the Vet's office has ever been growled at, and she told me she considered him a "B" personality. I take him for walks in the park and hikes, and because I live in the city there are always people around. He makes frequent trips to the pet store and is well behaved. I used to let people pet him, but after finding this site I stopped that.

He has never lunged, pulled or tried in any way to actually get to a human. He has pulled to get to other dogs. Not to be agressive though.

I am afraid that it will get worse with time. And no, a professional is not out of the question. I just don't know who to trust here in San Diego.

As far as plans, I am afraid I am not very good at teaching him. He is far better at learning. I would like to do some scent based stuff, maybe tracking, because since he was a puppy he could find a ball in the bushes even if he didn't see me throw it. He will not give up on a scent. It will be for fun though because I am a beginner too.

As far as the other family members, well, its just me and Mrs Young. We have a cat, and a lab mix he loves my wife, is curious about the cat, and gets along great with the lab mix. Once or twice he has lunged at the lab. Once was my fault for letting the lab get to close to his food, and the other time he was "guarding" his crate. Both times I corrected him verbally and it was over. He does not guard his food from me or my wife. I can reach into his dish and let him eat out of my hand. I do not take his dish after I have given it to him until he is done eating.

As usual, I have more questions than answers (while we're waiting for the experts to show ).

First, what age did this behavior start at? Is this new, or it cropped up some time ago.

Second, does your dog tend to lay down or sit with his back to you, facing the new person?

When he was younger, he would bark at people sometimes. It was totally random though, and I never found out why he would bark at some and not others. I guess the growling started about 3-4 months ago. Like I said we are around people often, but really the only people that have had any real interaction with him, other than me and my wife, are the vet staff. They always make it a point to comment on how well behaved he is.

As for which way he sits when I am talking to someone, I haven't noticed a trend. The other night in the park with the lady I mentioned above, he sat back to me, but not facing her. I think it varies.

-Dan

You say if someone is approaching him directly, that's when he growls. If they're approaching him directly, are they staring at him? Have you noticed a trend in that regard? Does it seem like if a stranger is approaching you and looking at the dog, that's when he growls, whereas if they ignore him initially (like the lady in the park)he's fine with them? I'm not one of the experts, but I recall Cesar Milan saying whenever he greets a new dog he'll watch it out of the corner of his eye but he never stares directly at it for the first moments of meeting. It's considered challenging to the dog.