A while back I posted concerning my GSD's agression toward strangers. That issue has been worked out by tons of socializing in different scenerios. Now however another issue has cropped up. He goes balistic if someone comes close to the vehicle he is in. If for example we go through the pharmacy drive through, something he has done many times, he goes balistic when the employee approaches the window. Another example is someone wanting to talk to me while I am in the vehicle, I roll down the window , they approach the window, he goes ballistic (hackles up, ears foward , deep bark). If they back up a few feet all stops and he settles down. This is the same image I see of him if a stranger tried to enter the yard without permission. It appears as though he has become territorial of the vehicle. He is 11 months old. Any suggestions in dealing with this?

Territorial aggression is difficult to deal with in my opinion. Because you have no control over the drive reward, i.e. people backing up, leaving area, getting the hell outa there. That is the reward for the dog. He is only 11 months old? Yikes. . .

You can do the same type of work that you did with the socalization. Have everyone that approaches the car be a treat machine. Same type of concept here as with any other type of social work. I would caution against using corrections to stop this behavior. It may be something that you like in the future. I know that I really don't mind it with my two kennel dogs. They watch over home base.

I have considered people giving him treat but did not want to take the risk of one getting bitten. I also don't necessarily want to curb all his territorial behavior. What I have thought of doing is teaching him the leave it command. With other GSDs I have worked with I have always taught them the leave it command. Once taught , the GSD would abandon whatever it was after, be it a object on the ground or an unknown substance, a cat across the street or whatever. I usually waited until they are a little older to teach the leave it command. Anyone else try to teach the leave it command and try to apply it when a dog is in a territorial mode?

I don't use "leave it" in this situation but I think that it would work. I use "quiet" (as in shut the hell up). Quiet or Hush. Got to train that when you say quiet, you mean like a mouse, no growling or whining either. He can be as mad as he wants but must keep it to himself.

I trained Quiet to my loud barky dog at about 8 months and started mildly correcting for disobeying after a few weeks. Take time to work up from a few seconds to the amount of time you think he should keep quiet for after getting the command. About 3 minutes in extra-stimulating situations is all I expect from my dog - but that is plenty of time for him to calm down.

You would probably need to have him in a seatbelt in the passenger seat in order to be able to correct him for ignoring the quiet command.

I see your concern about not wanting people to get bit. You might try carrying treats yourself and giving them when strangers come near (maybe right after saying quiet if he listens). My mom's bank drive-through gives her biscuits for the dog, and the dog associates biscuits with any kind of drive-through, even though it is my mom that hands them to her.

the quite command did not come to mind but it is a thought. The difference between the leave it command is that it can apply to anything be it a cat, another dog a snake or anything I want him to lose interest in. Basically the leave it command is more of a disingage in what you are doing right now. He is not a incessant barker and is very discriminate when he does bark (as in someone at the door, the mail, etc). However in the situation of the drive through a quite command might not be enough. If he acts that way at the drive through and I give him a treat would that not reward his behavior?

It's all in the timing. If you treat the dog while he is behaving territorially, then yes, you would be reinforcing the behavior. You have to catch him when he's NOT behaving aggressively.

For now, I would recommend not taking him through drive throughs at this point, until you get a handle on his behavior. Every time you put him in that situation and fail to modify his behavior, it is reinforced. I'd suggest that you attempt some desensitization. As an example, what I have done with my dog who has displayed some territoriality in the car, is sit in a busy parking lot for 30 minutes or so twice a week, appearing to calmly ignore all people, and yawning and stretching frequently. If the dog behaves well, i.e., only showing mild interest in a person, or even ignoring them, I would praise and treat. If he "woofed" or hackled up, I would distract him to focus on ME instead of the person outside the car, by issuing a command and rewarding his compliance.

You might have to adapt your technique, as it sounds like your dog has a much stronger territorial response than mine.

I think that, with the way I use "leave it" with my dogs, telling them to "leave" the situation of being in a car with a stranger approaching would be asking too much, you know? I tell them leave it, like you, with a cat or a snake or something they are chewing on, or if they are sniffing someone and bugging them. It means they must not pay any attention to that object and must look right at me. Telling him to "leave it" while in the car seems in a way like telling him to shut out the world. Not that he shouldn't be willing to do that if you ask, but it is a lot to ask to ignore what is going on. So you would have the challenge of making him do something hard, in an inconvenient situation, to deal with, and besides that, it would ultimately be preferable for him to alertly observe the situation but without showing aggression, right? And if he is not barking, growling or snarling, he is not showing his aggression. And with socialization, he will stop feeling the aggression, too, hopefully.

Originally posted by VanCamp:
Territorial aggression is difficult to deal with in my opinion. Because you have no control over the drive reward, i.e. people backing up, leaving area, getting the hell outa there. This is a good point. The rest of VanCamps post on how to deal with it is pretty good too. I do think though, at some point one has to come to the conclusion that not everything can be made into an ideal situation. I once had a Lab who did this. This dog was the biggest baby in the world. Would not hurt a fly. Come near my car though and this rough tough display was shown. I tried all sorts of remedies and nothing completely stopped the behavior. The end result was that no one came too close to my car when my dog was in it. Bottom line is unless someone is stupid enough to stick their hand in the window or unless the dog is going to jump through the window, it may just be something that you'll have to live with. You may be able to calm things down a bit, but you may not ever totally eliminate the behavior. The advice given above is good. Certainly worth a try.

I agree, Chuck. Some things are such an innate part of a dog's nature, that you really can't eliminate the behavior completely. Dogs are territorial animals, period. I think the best you can expect is to raise the dog's threshold of tolerance for different situations through socialization and desensitization, but each dog has a different threshold, and there may be limitations on what you can accomplish. Fortunately, this dog is young, and I think a lot of progress can probably be made, if the proper work is done.

One thing I should also mention is that these incidents occurred at night when he seems to be the most intense and alert. Should I try going through the drive through during the day and see if he reacts the same? If he should react differently, say passive during the day, then how should I deal with this? I will also ask the breeder for she seems to always have the right solution for resolving issues with GSDs she produces (this being my 2nd GSD from her, she is also a Koremeister and actively competes in schutzhund). BTW I do appreciate you guys for all your help you have given me.