I recently adopted a 5 yr old female, adult GSD. She's a beautiful girl, and very sweet, but minimally socialized. From what i've seen thus far, she has a great temperment EXCEPT for her shortcomings in socialization. What are some recommendations for socializing her without putting her, myself, or anyone else in danger? When my mother (a professional hunting dog and search and rescue trainer) comes to visit in December, I'd like to not have to worry at all about her taking to my mother. I had a german shepherd growing up who was minimally socialized and became a "fear-biter" and I absolutely do not want to deal with that.

What exactly are the shortcomings? Fear? Holding back? What?

How long have you had her?

don't even have her in the house yet. She was purchased as a puppy from Breahead kennels, (great breeder, I love sue ewart and her dogs) and about 3 months ago her parents got divorced. Without the time to care for her, she went back to Breahead as stated in the puppy contract. She's been there for two months and i've visited her multiple times. We go out on walks and such, (I try and have some alone time with her everytime i visit) and she'll be officially coming home on the 21st. I have high hopes for her as shes a very sweet girl. She's just very unsure of herself. Her original owners and Sue have both commented on how undersocialized she is. I'm just hoping to have some safe ways when she gets here to make her comfortable in our household, and outside of it. When I first visited her, "Koda" barked and barked while I was in the house, but as soon as she was allowed to sniff me she calmed right down. She's just a very big girl and I'm very aware of the dangers of an undersocialized German Shepherd. I'd like to safely improve it as quickly as possible. I also firmly believe a socialized dog is a much happier dog. Hope that's enough background info.

Well, I know that socialization for an adult rescue for me generally means doing two things concurrently: Starting upbeat basic training at home immediately (and marker work increases both the dog's confidence and the bond with me) and taking the dog everywhere.

The second part tells me where we have work to do, and usually I have some idea by the time we are back from the first walk.

"Socialized" for me means that the companion dog experiences everything, and is indifferent, pretty much, to non-household members. So socializing is geared toward any parts that stick out of that pattern.

If the dog is afraid of strange dogs, we will have work to do there, and so on.

So when you had walks with the dog, what did you see as potential problems?