Well I'm no sure if the title is right as it wasn't really an attack, i stopped it before anything major could occur and I'm not sure if anything major really would have happend had i not.

Here's the story. I spent the night at my house construction site with my 17 month old male GSD as company. Construction site theft is big in the area and i figured his barking would scare away most would be theifs. In the morning I left the door open for tradesman to come do their work. Unfortunately at one point i was doing something downstairs when the flooring guy opened the door (without knocking) and walked inside.

Blitz bolts up the stairs before I could grab him.
Takes a look at the guy and hesitates for a bit, starts barking and growling and the guy backs up. Instead of backing up out the door he backed up inside the house and this combined with his unsure motions seems to have triggered something in my dog. Fortunately Blitz doesn't know how to attack a person and he went for the guys legs and feet but didn't cause damage as he seemed unsure of how to bite!! I pulled him off as soon as I got upstairs and forced him to sit and come down.

I neither discouraged or encouraged the behaviour as it seems like he was doinng his job. Thing is that whenever he sees this guy Blitz starts growling and barking as he seems to remember him.

How do you guys reccomend I handle this sort of behaviour?

Just wanted to add that I've never seen Blitz be aggressive outside the house to another human UNLESS the person moves in a weird way. i.e. For some reason he doesn't like jerky, twitchy or repetetive hesitant "strange" motions from people he doesn't know.

He's also never shown any aggression to family or friends.

Eddie,
The workman would be well within his rights to sue you.
If you weren't sued, you were really lucky - learn from your mistake there, I'm serious. Next time you may not be so lucky.

I know here in Florida, even though you are paying for the construction, the house isn't "yours" until the house has final closing and a certificate of occupancy so the worker was within his right to come in as an employee. Next time leave the dog at the already built home.

Substitute a child for the workman. If the child had run or screamed, the prey drive would have really kicked in. You could have had a complete disaster on your hands. You were lucky, this was a warning of things that could happen.

It may be hard, but try to learn from this. You owe it to the "public", your dog and yourself to never put anyone (yourself & dog included) through this again.

Good luck.

I see what you guys are saying but at the same time it seems like there is a fine line between guardian and suck dog who likes everyone. If I were to completely desensitize him how could I ever expect him to chase off someone who really SHOULDN'T be around.

He's been raised around kids and I don't think the situation would be the same had a child entered the house. I'll take a cue here though and do my best to make sure he is desensitized as much as possible to children. What sort of techniques can I use to make it unlikely for him to ever view "little people" as a threat?

In those times when this behaviour is unacceptable, what sort of punishment or reinforcement works in these situations? I'm looking for specifics here not the "keep your dog in control or you'll get sued", that doesn't help me in the slightest. I know the consequences of a dog drawing blood in a bite. I also agree that it is my fault for not locking the door and having the dog leashed but then again that advice doesn't help me after the fact.

I mean its easy enough to have him pissed off at the end of the leash or locked in another room. That would classify as under control but as soon as the door opens or the leash is off there goes the control. My dog usually is under control unless very specific situations arrise. What I need is specific behavioural adjustment type of training advice if possible.

Regards,
Ed

Eddie

Relax, Mike told you what you wanted to know. You need to work more obedience into the dog. To reiterate what Mike said if the dog was well obedienced trained then when you said 'No, Come Here' he would have stopped and came back to you, and work man would not have been bit. It's that simple.

Read your own words " I have never seen blitz aggressive towards other people unless they move a wierd way" So you can't say never !! everybody is wierd to someone and that goes for dogs to.

So if your dog listened to you and came back to you when said to, then you are telling him I am in charge and will handle this. If it was the middle of the night and you wasn't expecting nobody and are so concerned about thieves you could have let him go like he did, then you are telling him you can handle this one I will back you up! But then again remember thieves can sue too.

Funny story, when I was younger and hangin out in bars chasin' kitty cats 'like most dogs it's hard wired in me <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ' Some guy told me I was wierd and started getting aggressive with me .... I had to kick his @$$

I got kinda scared when you said that he wouldn't have reacted the same if a kid had walked in...
yikes, it could have been much worse. A stranger is a stranger, but how they react to the dog is what may or may not lead to a worse situation.
IMO, a terrified child would bring out the monster
in your pup.

My 21 mos. GSD has been going to work with me since 8 wks...you'd think he'd be desensitized by now, with 7 other employees in the shop, plus delivery guys and customers coming and going- he's seen literally hundreds of people by now, but he still acts up at the odd person. I really
don't think a GSD can ever fit the 'suck dog'
description, it just isn't in their nature. No
matter what, they think for themselves. When my dog was younger a stern 'no' was all he got. Now
he gets the 'no' and also a tie-down when he barks
unprovoked. If it keeps up he'll get more... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
I don't think this will spoil him as a guardian,
in fact I think it will fine-tune his 6th sense
as far as deciding what a true danger is, as opposed to just another person only minding their own business.

Rob & Cynthia thanks for your comments. I wasn't trying to be tempermental =) just looking for ideas. I'm going to have to come up with a punishment technique that works in these situations. One good one I know of is leashing him and keeping him on the ground with one foot on the leash close to the collar for 10 - 15 mins. He dislikes this and it works far better than pain.