Hi everyone. The other day my father in law was at the house. I wasn't there but my wife was. Our 11 month old GSD (Bruno) was in the room with both of them; he loves both my in-laws (he stayed with them for a day when he was a puppy - I think it really helped him bond to them). Anyway, Bruno comes and greets Father in law in the usual, happy way, then acts startled and barks at him. My wife lets Bruno outside with no further incident.

Bruno was suffering with Pano at the time (thanks to the Leerburg article on Pano, after one week of in home treatment his limp is gone!).

So I know that any number of things could cause a dog to get startled and bark. I'm wondering what the best thing to do afterwards is. Should you correct the dog, console him, act neutral and crate him, or something else? And should you make the dog "be nice" to the person they just barked at?

This is a nerve issue and hopefully the dog can outgrow it.

Can you and your father in law take the dog for a walk?

FIL shouldn't show any attention to the dog.

Make a few stops and let the dog make the first move.

If you stop then let your FIL offer a treat in a neutral manner.

In other words, not shoving it at the dog or hoovering over the dog.

When I run across a dog like this I kneel down sideways to the dog, no eye contact.

This is much less threatening then standing over the dog.

Others here that are more adept at working with nervous/fearful dogs will hopefully offer other suggestions then mine.

Also, does your FIL smoke, use a strong cologne, wear a hat, speak loudly, move with a lot of energy?

Lots of things can trigger a dog's excitement or nervousness.

We've run into the same thing with our dog a few times. On two occasions, it was with a relative or a close friend. At another time, it was with a worker who had been at our house daily for about 3 months doing a remodeling project and had gotten to know us and our dog well with no issues.

We found as close or as friendly as those people were to our dog and as relaxed as things seemed, she never lost sight of the drive in her to herd these people if they got up or moved suddenly or to protect us if they moved toward us. It was my failure as her handler to recognize they might have been making her a little nervous with their sudden movement, loud voices, or assertive mannerisms. Looking back, I would have been smarter to ensure she was on a leash when laying down next to us during these people's visits or to crate her and remove all concern.

Thanks for the replies. What about follow-up from this kind of incident? Should you correct the dog, console him, act neutral and crate him, or something else? And should you make the dog "be nice" to the person they just barked at?

In all those cases, we didn't have her on a leash so a proper correction wasn't possible. When you think about it, she didn't do anything wrong other than to be protective, which she felt was her job, for lack of better direction from me. I might note that we did not train her for protection in any way.

The only thing we did was to give her a command to down, which she did immediately, and then we gave her a recall command, which she also did immediately. We praised her for following the commands and then simply and calmly put her on a leash, in the case of the relatives, and in her cage, in the case of the worker.

Later, when I was sure she could be calm, I let her interact with those people again and there was no problem. She never was very comfortable with one of our relatives though so we didn't encourage her to interact with him again. Far as I'm concerned, she could have eaten him and it would have been OK if it prevented future visits. The other, she was fine going up to them and being friendly so I allowed it.

Thanks again Greg. Maybe you should "accidentally" let your girl out to greet your relatives tomorrow!

"What about follow-up from this kind of incident? Should you correct the dog, console him, act neutral and crate him, or something else? And should you make the dog "be nice" to the person they just barked at?"

Correct? Depends. Did the dog take a chunk out of the relative? Did it lunge at the relative? Failing those, a NO, COME, SIT or PLACE might be enough. I, personally, don't care if the dogs want to avoid someone. They don't need new best friends, even if they might be relatives.

Act neutral? If the dog's actions got your attention, and you were made uneasy or don't want the dog acting out, then call the dog and have it follow your commands. Seems like you wouldn't want your dog to seem aggressive toward a relative, so you call the dog away, under your control.

Crate him? Why? If the dog is otherwise not having issues, and you control the dog, putting it in a crate might be a punishment, and a crate shouldn't be used as a punishment, in my opinion.

Something else? Put the dog in another room if it makes you more comfortable, or put the relative in another room, after all the dog is family and the relative is visiting.

Make the dog be nice to the person? Why? The dog doesn't need a new best friend. You are the dog's best friend. The dog is probably a good judge of character and characters. Why try to make the dog be nice?

I'm not a fan of trying to make my dogs like someone. Heck, I don't like most people, when it comes right down to it.

Probably bad advice but there it is.

Two cents.

I tell my dogs to knock it off and then put them on a Place cot. I also keep them leashed when company is over. I use rope drag leashes with no handle.

No forced interaction.

Actually excellent advice Mike!

Thank you Bob.

Snow is almost melted. 2+' Monday. Lake effect. Probably bare ground again by next Tuesday. I see muddy mutts in my future.

Mike