need a little help determining what's going on with my pup and what i can do about it if it's a problem. i'll try to keep it short as possible:

i have a male GSD pup - he's 19 weeks old. when he hit @ 15-16 wks he would sometimes get his hackles up a bit and 'woof' when he saw other dogs or sometimes people (especially a group) from a distance. he never acted afraid or aggressive, in fact if i let him approach he would start wagging his tail and want to sniff and play. with continued work (on not pulling the leash and 'leave it') he has been getting better about ignoring all others when we're out, but sometimes still will want to go and investigate.

in the last couple weeks, however, he has started barking at noises, etc. a lot at home, especially at night. he'll alert and bark if he hears another dog and sometimes people outside (i can hear the tags jingling) and i have been working on getting him to 'quiet' or i distract him with an obedience command.

here's what concerns me:

1) one night one of my girlfriend's friends came to pick her up. the dog and i were on the patio and i told her to go on in. at the same time, he saw her, started barking and went inside to the front door. he got there before i did, his hackles were up and he was barking at her (the best way to describe would be if he were trained and a lot older he did a pretty good bark & hold). as soon as she started talking to him (after the intial 'oh my') and i got there (he's doing pretty well with basic obedience, but he's not ready for that much distraction yet) he started wagging his tail, etc. and was fine.

2) i had just put him in his crate (the next night) for bed when someone knocked on the door. he went apesh*t inside his crate, barking and pawing the door. as soon as the person left (very brief visit, didn't even come inside) he quit. if he was out i'm sure he would have been right at the door again. i let him out of his crate and he was wagging his tail and acted like he hadn't seen me all day.

what's going on here? he's too young to be protective. his hackles indicate fear yet he went right up to the 'intruder.'

is this normal? is he going through a phase? is it fear aggression? and if it's problematic, what do i do?

he's always seemed pretty mature - he started lifting his leg pretty regularly around 10-12 wks.
i read ed's article on teaching dogs to bark and based on what he's done on walks before i'm sure he would do what is described in the 2nd part.

since he was @ 9-10 wks old i've always taken him everywhere i could for socialization with people, other dogs, weird 'stuff' and he's always done well and had no negative experiences.

sorry this is so long, but any insight and advice would be appreciated.

I'm no expert but it sounds to me like it could be territorial, which is a leadership issue. What other signals, besides raised hackles, is he displaying?

Are his ears forward or back?
Is his tail held high and stiff, or low, possibly even tucked under?
Is his body posture standing up, or crouching down?

I would suggest, for starters, that you redirect him through obedience. For example, move him away from the person and put him in a downstay. Take charge and have him do something other than aggress.

At almost 5 months he not too young for reactions like that, even though he's still a baby. My question is how much prompting have you done to make him answer the door bell like that? Sometimes you can turn them on and it takes awhile for them to work out the bad and good people or times when and when not to bark at people at the door.

I would calm him in a sit and make smoothing contact slowly stroke his sides and rub his chest, tell him he a good boy once he is quite.
Have your girl friend bend down and stroke him, after you clam him down, let him know she is one of us (bark at everybody else <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> . The barking at the door bell and intruders, you can use later when he's older.

The dog thing could be he has been attacked or growled at or you have been and he is trying to beat them to the punch. Even at that he is too little for that. Take control of the situation if another dog starts getting aggressive. Protect the puppy try to make sure he's never attacked.

Start taking him around other people and things socailize him as much as you can. Get him use to being around well behaved dogs or puppies so he understands every dog is not an aggessor.

Watch his reactions to thes new and interesting things, if he contiune to hackle up, he may have been messed with or in worse case sceniro has weak nerves.

If he accepts these new things and situation he may be a strong puppy that was reacting to your aggressive prompting. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

he was inside and around the corner from me pretty quick, but his head and ears (as much as they can - he's still teething) were up as he went, tail normal (at least not tucked ), and he moved very confidently. when he was actually barking his head dropped a little and his ears were back, then he sat right in front and barked up at her and then circled around, but never tried to or acted like he was going to bite. and no growling, just a rapid-fire barking.

i'll try to watch closer if there is a next time...

also, his bark isn't the high-pitched excited or scared bark. it's his best "i'm a big boy" bark considering he's not even 5 months.

thanks for the reply. he's never acted like that outside of my home, so it makes sense. i'll keep working on the obedience.

thanks, don.

he's always been almost TOO eager to play with other dogs. it seems that the farther away they are (or darker it is) the more likely he is to hackle up. almost like he sees the movement but isn't sure what it is? if another dog is close by, he almost always wants to play (bows down, bats a paw, etc), and always does great with friends' dogs i let him interact with more than the obligatory sniff and say hi.

as for the door, he's always just gone running and wagging to it (like when me or my girlfriend come home), and only started the real barking thing recently. we always just tried to get hold of him so he wouldn't jump up on them or get out (or give their shins a tail-lashing).

i've tried to socialize the heck out him everywhere i could go, and except for a few instances (kid on a skateboard, for example) he's never reacted negatively to other people. and then he hackled a little, barked once or twice and then forgot about it as i made him keep walking.

maybe he's just not used to enough people coming to my door? there's always been people stopping by occasionally, but do you think it would help to set up some extra visitors?

in the meantime, i'll keep an eye on everything for more detailed reactions.

and the worst case scenario...then what do you do?

It sound likes he might be getting territoral like Lisa said. It usually starts happen between 9 months - 1 yr. a puppy starts getting possessive. Its just he really can't back it up now. Don't let him get in a situation were he could lose confidence. You seem to be doing the right thing by holding him back.

If he is to be a semi-protection dog then I don't think satting up a group of friends to let him know they are alright is a good thing. I'd let him work that out later, your friends should be Ok, when you are around.

Only you, immeadiate family and maybe your girl friend should able to enter your home when you are not there. One reason being is "Most rapes are by people that the woman knows."

If a drunk friend comes by and you are not there he should be greeted at the front door, by your girl friend holding back a barking, snarling dog. Until she says its ok, and that should be after he leaves.

If you just want a pet then socailize him like you been doing. I'm not in favor of your dog being freinds with everybody or all your freinds, if thats his nature then its ok, a pet should be just a pet. If you have some other plans for him he doesn't need all those friends, unless they are trying to be decoys/fighting friends/helpers.

It really hard to tell but it sounds like he just a tough pup staking out his grounds. Waiting to be trained. Question do you want or like that way he barks at the door bell? Do you want him to be a protector of the home? You handle a pet differently then you would a protector.

Worse case sceniro you got a nice pet. But it sounds like (preliminary over the net) you got a tuff little pup. Maybe? Lets wait for his ears to stand, I'm just being cute (don't want to start a debate on looks and effiency), I mean lets wait for him to grow up before we assign him the title of the 2nd Rin Tin Tin. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

thanks for the advice.

and yeah, i can't wait for his ears to come back up either (they were kind of up, almost crossing over a little before he started teething, so hopefully...)

i was afraid everyone would jump on and tell me i had a psychotic killer waiting for his adult canines on my hands. glad to hear he might be ok.

as for my plans, yes, home protection would be nice, i just don't want to end up with a dangerous dog. i'm training based on the methods found here and other sources and plan on seeing what he can do in the schutzhund ring. the local club liked what they saw as far as his food drive, prey drive and confidence (they all got a chuckle when he started lunging and barking at the sleeve when the helper brought it out and laid it on the ground nearby) at @ 12 weeks old. if he doesn't have what it takes he'll at least get the obedience end of it.

in the meantime, i'll keep working on obedience and let him know someone's ok when we say they're ok.

what else should i do?

Just because he doesn't have the skill to be a SchH class competitor doesn't mean he can't be a good protection dog, tracker, Obedience, or Agility .... The GSD is reputed as being the most versitle dog in the world.

The SchH field looks for a certain type dog, (In my mind, I'm being snide and I'll probably get some slack for this comment, but whats new, they are looking for the Super Dog with manners) They want you to bite just so, Track just so and Heels just so. All this perfection is not necessary if you just want to have a well trained, well behaved dog.

Having a SchH trained dog is not the Ultimate in dog training, it could be argued that its the Ultimate in sport training and breeding programs.
Theres a pradox here, some SchH trained dogs can't really do real protection or Patrol work.
Lots of prey drive but no fight drive.

Your little bugger sounds like he ready to go, like he knows he belongs on the training field. I thought that was cute at 12 weeks barking at the sleeve. My Rottie didn't recognize the sleeve as prey without a lot of coaching.

I think the GSD seem to have it built in, my GSD seem to take to bite work like a duck to water, the first time he did the decoy run away he was right on cue, hitting the sleeve and fighting for it. Your pup seem to be right on track, I don't know about a SchH title (lots of money and training, but its possible), but he could be a great dog in many other fields. Take it slow and don't let anybody or anything break his confidence right now, everything should be having fun and winning right now. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

He started lifting his leg at 10-12 weeks old?
That sounds WAY early... has any one else heard of such a thing?
Do you have an adult male that he has copied?
If not I would start thinking about hormonal imbalances here. I have never heard of a GSD lifting his leg under 3 months old...

If its not hormonal, he sounds like he's just probably a real toughy -a born protector. My Giant Schnauzer was like that (I thought it would be hell to get him to be a little more easy going) but he calmed down through training and maturity and aquired amazing judgement as my PP dog. A maniac disquised as a gentleman. My kind of dog.

Teach him the 'quiet' command with nice praise when he obeys but reward the barking when he was "right" about it. Its up to you to think hard about when its right. I would not reward him barking at a stranger talking to me (anywhere) unless the stranger was a threat (angry at me, wouldn't leave, had a weapon etc) but I would praise a good bark to people right outside our property (NOT dogs -people). Praising now and then get the dog thinking about making good judgement calls and it vital for a good guard. Otherwise he will a) ignore your 'quiet' command and do as he pleases or b) stop barking all together. If he is as brave as you describe and as protective, you must take living with him VERY seriously and put alot of time into training in obedience. Always remeber pp work (with decoy and all) comes AFTER obedience and socialisation. Good Luck!

Originally posted by Stella L. Margaris:
He started lifting his leg at 10-12 weeks old?
That sounds WAY early... has any one else heard of such a thing?
Do you have an adult male that he has copied?
If not I would start thinking about hormonal imbalances here. I have never heard of a GSD lifting his leg under 3 months old...
My GSD Linck (now 8 months) started lifting his leg around 8 or 9 weeks.... I have raised Dobermanns for years and have had several that started lifting their leg to pee early. Maybe at 9 to 12 weeks..I had a GSD litter 12+ years ago where one of the males was lifting his leg at 6 weeks...what a knucklehead he grew up to be!!

The common thing all these dogs share is that from an early age I see what I have come to recognize as the puppy stages of sharpness.. It may be seen as territorial or even fearful behavior by some, but after you have raised upmteen pups and watched them grow to adulthood you start to see what these early signs become as they grow.