Hi!
My family and I are new GS puppy owners. Josh is 11 weeks now, he was 8 weeks when we got him. We've rescued 6 animals before this (3 dalmatians, 2 ragdoll cats, 1 ragdoll/snowshoe mix) our youngest animal to this point was 1 so this puppy stuff is all new to us.

When we got Josh he was pretty fearless. We went to the vet the day after we got him, there was a full grown lab that walked in after us and was just going nuts trying to attack Josh, he looked at him for a minute then barked a little puppy bark then ignored him. Then one day when he was 9 weeks old my husband and Josh were walking and they were ambushed by 2 off-leash little yappy dogs. They didn't attack him (because Ron picked him up right away) they just scared him, so much he urinated. Since then he's scared of other dogs. He puts his tail between his legs and slinks by them.

I've been looking at the streaming video on counter conditioning and wonder if we could do something like that to help Josh. Not far from here there's a pet store that sells dogs (bad, I know) they have little yappy dogs there behind plexiglass. I thought maybe if I can get his attention and feed him (he is a food HOUND) while they're yapping he would realize they can't get him and gain some confidence back.

Do you think this would work? We're hoping Josh will be a tracking/narcotics dog someday. He doesn't need to like other dogs but he needs to be confident.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

Hello,

Congrats on the new puppy!!
My suggestion is for starters, definitley put josh in a good puppy class, where he can get as much socialization with other puppies as possible. if you look around, you should be able to find a good one, sometimes even for free.
When josh is cut off the lease and not restricted and go and interact with other puppies, he will loosen up real quick to them.
Another good thing you can do is institue leadership with your furry little buddy.. by this, I mean little sutle things that dogs relate to, like controlling all the possessions in the house. just remember the Alpha always has the right to unclaimed posessions and right to initiate.
Just by your dog looking at you as a solid leader, he will feel more at ease around other dogs.. he could be thinking that he has to step up and that is could be why he has a fearful response..
I would need more details to completely disect the problem, but for starters, I would definitley enroll Josh in a puppy class.
I Hope this helps for now!
Thanks
Chris

"I've been looking at the streaming video on counter conditioning and wonder if we could do something like that to help Josh. "

Judy, have you seen any of the desensitizing threads here? Yes, I think you are thinking in the right direction, but you have had him just three weeks, right?


I'm not a big fan at first blush of the behind-glass thing because it sounds so much like TV (or am I reading it wrong?) .... as opposed to the real thing that's carefully outside his reactivity zone. (NOT in his face.... )

But after just three weeks, I'm thinking that holding off on the desensitizing/counterconditioning worries for now might be appropriate. He hardly knows you, he's hardly settled in ....

And yes, as Chris said, he needs to see you as the leader/protector/indicator-of-calm. Have you seen the podcast about puppy leadership?

Have you done any simple marker work -- even the very first fun-puppy things like "look at me"? Marker training (at that age, really just play) is hugely confidence building to dogs.

I know I'm jumping around, but I'm thinking that maybe you might be seeing a big problem where there really isn't one yet.

I know puppy experts will add more.

http://leerburg.com/dogtrainingpodcasts.htm

See #9.

 Quote:

Chris is a Certified "Foundation Style Dog Trainer". This is the most prestigious of training styles there is

I missed something somewhere. Who give out this certification Chris?

I don't know that I would want to flood him with a bunch of yapping dogs or that I would turn him loose in a puppy class to possibly get bullied by other pups. My goal would be teaching him to be neutral and indifferent to other dogs, especially if you have plans for working him in tracking or detection of any kind.

The puppy class we attended had us distract the pups from each other and focus on their "trainer" for the first few weeks, then we allowed minimal interaction among the pups. Worked well for us.

Yes, we started marker training as soon as we got him. We picked him partly because he has great focus. We've been following this litter since he was 5 weeks old. Even at that age he had some focus which we thought was remarkable. He almost knows his new name. He knows "sit" with about 90% reliability. Right now we're working on getting his name down and "come".

He was the 3rd born of the litter but the alpha male of all the puppies, he seems to be submissive to us though. He's working out his place in our pack, right now my husband and I are alpha, our 17 yr old has taken an interest in training him as well and she's doing pretty good, our 13 yr old who hasn't done a lot of training with him is there to jump and chew on so we need to work on that. He's on lead with us all the time unless he's in his crate or x-pen (we have 3 cats). The cats are curious about him but not openly hostile. Between the cats and dog I can't tell who's going to be higher in the pack.

I'll look for the podcast on puppy leadership. You may be right, it could just be part of that fear phase. I'll keep an eye on it.

If you've started marker work and he has that kind of focus, then you have the perfect material for desensitizing.

Mariellena's puppy class sounds (a) unusually good (but unfortunately also (b) unusual). I've sure seen some free-for-all puppy classes. Like Steve, flooding the puppy is not what I'd personally choose to do. Outside his area of reactivity to start is critical for me.

But I would give it a little time, I think. And we can definitely help with desensitizing as a big step towards a neutral and non-reactive pup.


You will like the Ed-Cast.