My GSD pup is now 3 months old. The day we got her, at 9 weeks, and introduced her to our two dogs, she was a bit afraid at first. Not of Cassie, our other shepherd, but definately at Annabel, the newfie.
She's a wonderful lil pup, and I've been taking her to the mall and everything to socialize her. She's great with people, wants to say hi to everyone, but when she sees another dog she gets very upset. Her hair stand up on her neck, and if they get close, she flips out and starts barking and backs herself into a corner, very upset. This happened today at the mall. She sees strange dogs from a distance and never really pays them much attention, but up close she doesn't want them to get near her.

Big dogs, small puppies, it doesn't matter, she has the same reaction. I didn't let any of the dogs get close to her, not withing 5 feet maybe, and none of them reacted agressivly towards her, they were all being friendly or at least indifferent.

Djenga has never been attacked, unless it was before 9 weeks. Should I keep taking her to the mall and exposing her to other dogs? We have two friends with young labs, would it be a good idea to borrow these dogs (one at a time of course) and take them on walks with her? I don't need her to be a social butterfly, but I don't want her to be out of control in the presence of other dogs, and I know I need to start now to get the best results.

Also, how should I react when she does this? I know I shouldn't tell her it's okay because it just reinforces it, and I know I shouldn't punish it, so should I just ignore it?

Meghan - Most people don't know if a dog is serious. I figure if they're willing to go thru a large barking dog they can have whatever is in my house.

No you shouldn't ignore her react to the other dogs, but don't get excited try to reassure her that all is well.

Now using the Labs might be the way to go, but don't walk them together yet because she will probably still just flip out.

I'd set up a test were the Lab's owner walks their dog on leash and you walk yours on leash.

At a distance start a greeting and have them just walk by at first, you kneel down and reassure her if her hair starts to stand, brush her sides and whisper softly its ok or you can distract her with play with her toy or treats to look at you and play. As they walk by.

I like to address the problem with assurance and her watching them walk by, were the reaction settles into, "Ok that wasn't that bad", I guess they are ok. The next pass her tails wagging and wanting to smell each other. Of course it doesn't
always go like this. You might have to go slow.

Build on this with the next test which is for the teams to be 10 feet away and you greet each other. Talking and acting friendly your dogs should be in a sit. Slowly progress closer and closer giving assurance and praise when needed. Take it slow until you can get 3 feet away and their both stay under control, showing no aggressive actions. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

How much off leash time has she had with other dogs? You might want to set up some playdates with other friendly dogs one on one in neutral territory. Frequent, positive off leash encounters with friendly dogs will build her confidence around other dogs.

What I would suggest for the on leash is whenever you see another dog while out in public and not part of a training setup, just say "Come on let's go" or something to that effect in a happy, upbeat tone of voice, and move her far enough away from the other dog that she won't have a fear reaction. Be sure to reward her with toy/food/whatever she REALLY likes so that she feels REALLY good and can begin to associate the presence of other dogs with good things.

I'm with Lisa...if you can find a good "uncle" dog who is excellent with pups, it can make a world of difference very quickly. But it can't be with one that likes pups but tries to initiate play by leaping suddenly or putting their paws on the pup. That just scares them. Several good up-close meetings/play sessions with a calm, imperturbable adult can really turn their attitudes around.

I do disagree with Don's remark to "reassure" and pet a pup if it gets stressed as a strange dog appears. All that does is reinforce the behavior. Dogs don't understand that you're trying to tell them there is nothing to be afraid of; they take it as reinforcement...that you LIKE this behavior of being fearful.

Maybe but I don't trust off leash stuff with puppies because even a fun loving big dog can like you said be frightening to a smaller puupy that already a little defensive. This can cause the situation to worsen. It takes time to find a Uncle Moe type dog.

I do think that letting the dogs work it out is less stressful and it takes all the guess work out of it for the owner/trainer. But it does present the big "WHAT IF"!!! I trust my dogs and me, but I don't trust other peoples and their dogs.

My dogs would not be a good candiates for this puppy, one wrong move like going under his belly and it would get barked at, or Just for fun get played with roughly by the bitch. I would almost bet on those reactions.

So you have to question what if they are alright with every dog but they play rough?

Now there are some dogs that are like you said Uncle Moe or Auntie Joe dops, wouldn't hurt a fly, maybe? But they are far and in between.

I like control/leash then letting them play, off leash weeks laters. But do what works for you.

Hi Meghan:

Sounds like your little pup is wonderful. It is difficult to know what your pup's experiences with larger dogs was before she was purchased by you. You might want to find out what her litter rank was like. We find that one pup is usually picked on much more than the others. Even if this pup grows larger than the others, it is still picked on. Nature is ugly. Find out where in the ranking your pup was. It could explain a lot.

If your pup was last in line she may feel that every time she sees another dog she has to fear for herself and fight to keep herself at her present level. It puts a lot of stress on a pup to occupy the last rung of the ladder, so to speak.

With some pups it is good to have pass by encounters set up with an adult dog who is easy going and NOT overly playful. These types of encounters will gradually increase your pups confidence and as she ages she may well feel confident enough to approach other dogs. Make sure you don't force her into situations that frighten her, but neither should you coddle her if she retreats. By pampering your pup you will give her the wrong impression (i.e., "Yes, you're correct to be afraid," is the likely message the pup will get).

Our practice has been to carry treats with us and when we see that a 'situation' is coming up that our pup is unsure of we begin to slowly feed the pup and act like everything is normal. Don't even look at the other dog like you are concerned, because if you do, your pup will know it. Then, it will wonder if something horrible is about to happen. Once the other dog passes by stop the feeding.

If the pup goes beserk even with the feeding (we use Jenny-O brand hot dogs--less fat) when the other dog goes by, stop the feeding. If you continue to feed you encourage the fearful reaction (the dog can't figure out human logic and will think it is being rewarded for being frightened). You can always start with dogs passing parallel to her at a comfortable distance and then move them in closer while you feed the puppy. This should help with her fear of other dogs.

I feel that keeping the pup on a lead is a good measure to take. I wouldn't turn my pup lose around other dogs, especially without knowing what they are like. Whatever you do, don't take her to a dog park atmosphere. It will really freak her out. With patience and training she will get better. The questions is, how much better, and no one can answer this.

Take care.

Don,
You can really do a lot to reassure a pup in that circumstance by having fun yourself. If you're just standing by nervously waiting for something "bad" to happen so you can run to the rescue, it will. But if you're having fun too, laughing, speaking in really happy tones, encouraging puppy to play, and laughing off any small scares ("Oh that's so silly!!!") and encouraging puppy to get right back on that horse, the pup will learn from your example that this is fun....and a friendly older dog will understand that it is just a puppy and will not react aggressively should be pup be frightened. I do like the idea of using one of the Labs, provided that they are well bred, well socialized, good representatives of the breed. If so, then they should be good with pups.

Hi, thanks for the replies.

She wasn't the low pup on the totem pole in her litter...she was always right in there with the action, playing and everything. I did notice the 2 pups that were always left out, and she wasn't them. Also, she plays with our 2 girls, and won't give in. If Cassie has a toy, she'll try to steal it and if Cassie growls or snaps at her, she'll just bark and bite at Cassie, totally oblivious to any reaction.

The labs are just pets, not especially well behaved or bred, but they're well socialized. I think I can have my husband take the lab on a prong and play with him, and then i'll have Djenga on a leash and feed her or play with her till she relaxes, as far away as it'll take. I don't trust most of the dogs over here, most are really dog agressive, so she never gets near any dog I don't know. I guess no socialization is better than bad socialization, but I was so suprised at her reaction! She didn't roll over on her belly, she just backed up and barked and cried and screamed (quite embarrasing in the middle of the mall!).
And she was so confident about everything else...nothing phases her, I continued to be amazed at her...I knew it was too good to be true! Oh well, I think we can work it out to a manageable level.

Meghan - It seems that she plays well with the Shepherd (Cassie), but I question has her relationship with the Newfie improved any and is the description of the dogs that she responds fearful of large black dogs? How well has she adjusted to Annabell? Maybe here is the source of her problem?

Is Annabell's reaction to the puppy too forward, pawing or imtimating I want to play type actions?

She seem to have had some off leash socailization, you have to make sure it positive. And build up to dogs outside the pack.

Lisa the Good Citzen approach has worked for me on leash and controlled, are my dogs totally passive to a aggressive dog, no they will repsond to this if the dog gets too close me, but they can be asked to ignore them and they will. I don't want my dogs to turn over on their back submissively to a aggressive dog.

Mehgan,
There are plenty of dog aggressive dogs out there who are perfectly fine with dogs in their own pack. Playing with your other two in no way counts as socialization, IMO. The time to attack this problem is NOW, while she is young. She needs repeated positive experiences with other dogs up the yinyang. Once every couple of weeks will not cut it. Even if you socialize her every single day from now until a year from now, she may still have dog aggression issues; sometimes genetics can have a more powerful influence than all the socialization in the world. At this early stage, I'm not sure that there's any way to tell, so I would just socialize the crap out of her in hopes of tipping the odds in my favor if I were in your shoes. I would find as many friendly dogs as possible and arrange as many off leash playdates as I could fit into my schedule, if not more.

Lisa the Good Citzen approach has worked for me on leash and controlled, are my dogs totally passive to a aggressive dog, no they will repsond to this if the dog gets too close me, but they can be asked to ignore them and they will. I don't want my dogs to turn over on their back submissively to a aggressive dog. Don, I'm confused. In my previous post I was talking about off leash socialization with a 3 month old puppy, but you're talking about on leash with adult dogs, right? They're not really the same thing. I never said anything about what you're talking about....so if we are arguing, could you clue me in as to what we're arguing about?