I think Max has the long down part solid, some of my daughter's gymnist class mates tossed stuffed animals at him and he didn't budge. My son walk/ran circles around. rode bicyles past him etc. The down in motion is sloppy but getting better, re read Ed's "Down in motion article" well golly, surprise surprise, it works <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> But I don't know how to train for the crowding part. He doesn't warm up to strangers to begin with, any suggestions would be most helpfull.

Oh I forgot to ask: How do you pronounce Begleithund?

beh GLIGHT hoont

beg-lee-ite-hoond - or at least that's the way i've always heard it.

here's one idea: get some people and some treats. have him sit next to you and have the people slowly and casually press in around you without staring at the dog and offering their hands with the treats to him. then back away - you praise non-reactive and accepting behavior. slowly add more people and close the distance.

depending on how shy your dog is - and whether or not he gets aggressive or just acts scared - this could take awhile to get used to.

Thanks Chris, don't know if I can find any volunteers, "Hello, can you help me train my 80Lbs GSD with a nerve problem?" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
This is an excellent reason why clubs are so important. I think I can get a little help from my son's BSA troop and my daughter's Gymnist friends, they've helped before. I've done the treats routine on a one on one basis, I'll just have to get a bigger treat bag <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Thanks again

Not that your dog cares, but if you want to use German, you might as well pronounce it correctly, so let me indulge my tendency to pedantry here (and get some use out of my long-ago college German classes).

The Germans love to string words together to make new words. In this case, Begleit = companion, hund = dog. The word should be capitalized because in German all nouns are capitalized.

To the best of my knowledge, begleit would not be broken up as "beg lite" but "beh glight," but I could be wrong. However, I do know that in German "e" is pronounced "eh;" all double vowels are dipthongs (that is, they're one sound), so "ei" is pronounced like the "i" in "flight" (or the "ei" in "Frankenstein," notwithstanding Mel Brooks <g>; consonants are generally harder (esp. in Hochdeutsch) and, since this is a compound word, the "t" before the "h" in "hund" is fully pronounced (there is no equivalent of the English "th" sound in German); "u" is pronounced like the "oo" in "woo;" and "d" is pronounced like the English "t."

Thus, beh GLIGHT hoont.

However, over here we generally pronounce it Bee Aytch. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />