My female GSD (whom just turned 5 months old) Bit me 2 times today!
I was digging up Potatoes for supper and she was "helping me" (digging furiously at the potato plant's) This lasted about 5 minutes. I praised her for her help and we set off for the house. We were almost in the yard when she jumped up, I gave her the ol' Knee in chest and tried to continue to the house. She looked at me and jumped up again, this time biting me on my arm . I tried to grab her and correct her but she was too damn fast and nailed me again, this time on my thigh. At that point I GRABBED her and gave her 2 BIG corrections on her prong collar while yelling NO(twice, one NO for each correction). That was the most severe correction I ever gave her...she wimpered on the first one and just lowered her head for the second. Umm Im sorry but I am soo confused!! My pup has never done anything like that before. Whats it all about? She is well bred and genrally respects the rules of the house. When she did this all I could think about is *My dog is turning on me* Lol well not literally but it sure felt like it!
Im just glad she is a baby still <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />. Her bites HURT like a B**** but thankfully did not break the skin, HOWEVER the did leave 2 wicked sized bruises,

I guess Im just aww struck. If this happens again how should I handle it?
What made her react that way? Could it mean she has weak nerves? This is my first GSD and I intend to work her in schutzhund (infact we go to the local club 2 times a week to "watch" and socialize) I just want to do the best for her and prevent any behaviour problems.


I guess I should mention that she bit me when she was younger I was taking a bone out of her mouth becouase it was chewed too much and she BIT me and broke the skin....those damn puppy teeth.

Could this be the beggining of handler aggression? Or a tempermant problem?
The people at my club said I would have my hands full...so far she's been pretty good. Obeys commands HIGH prey drive genrally a good dog, I dont know what I would do without her.
Her mom is Czech and her dad is DDR if it matters at all <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />
Looking forward to some help and opinions..

Well , that is something most of us would need to see happen before advising you.The dog could have been worked up in prey or acting defensively or just playing.If you have a high drive dog that sort of thing is going to happen and I dont correct my pups for it.Just be careful and dont let it happen in the first place.
It doesnt sound like handler aggression.It sounds like you may have more dog than you were ready for.Get some advice from several knowledgeable people before you go correcting her like that again.She is just a pup.Hell , ask Will how many times Fetz bit him when he was a pup!

Thank you Thank you Thank you!!
I really dont want to ruin this dog...I appreciate your advice. I just wanted to make sure she wasnt some Cracked out GSD puppy with a bad tempermant. She is a sweet dog and very smart!! Stuff like this is VERY rare. As long as its Semi-Normal Working puppy behaviour then I feel better about it.

Well, like I said before .I really need more info about the dogs behavior to assess the situation.Was the tail up or down ?Was the hair on the back up or flat.Was she showing a lot of teeth ?Did it seem like she was defending herself or was she trying to establish dominence?Or was she just really worked up?
My 8 month old Mal will bite me if I dont really watch him when he gets worked up and frustrated.My 12 week old Czech pup will bite the crap out of me just because he can.He has a fair amount of social aggression.My Dutchie at 6 months will nail you if you give him too hard of a correction,and it doesnt take much let me tell ya.All is typical working dog behavior ,for me anyway.Some will probably disagree though.

By the way, I still dont correct for most of that behavior.After all most of it is my fault and the dog doesnt understand they are doing anything wrong.Welcome to the world of working dogs!

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Well, like I said before .I really need more info about the dogs behavior to assess the situation.Was the tail up or down ?Was the hair on the back up or flat.Was she showing a lot of teeth ?Did it seem like she was defending herself or was she trying to establish dominence?Or was she just really worked up?

Well on the first bite I wasnt really paying attention to her, I was trying to walk to the house...mind totally blank, I never would have thought to "watch her".
But the second bite I saw her, her tail was UP (she almost had a gay tail) but it was wagging. She almost looked like she was "smiling" at me I dont think she was snarling or trying to be aggressive. She didnt seem to be wound up and I dont see why she would be worked up and excited that I found 12 potatoes *lol* <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> I wasnt making any noise or even looking at her! Thats what kind of worried me..I did nothing and she just all of a sudden got me. I dont rough house with her or anything so I dont know where she got the whole "lets tackle mom and bite her" thing. She is not allowed teeth on skin(I have a baby boy so I dont think that its appropriate)

Does anyone have a good website or ideas/tips on raising a working dog in a family household? Is this even feesible...or am I way out their to think I could have both? Ed probably has it on here and Im just missing it.

Sounds like a nice dog to me.
It sounds like she was playing to me. She is a high prey pup as you said and she jumped on you. You then kneed her off which made her play harder back. It's the same response when I play rough with some of the dogs I've had thta are high prey. They would jump at me just playing around with or without a ball or tug, and the more I pushed them off or deflected them to the side they would come back even harder. I think you sent the dog the wrong message...you were attempting to stop the dog from jumping but she took it as an invitation to play.
If you want to stop jumping then Ed had a good technique in his Puppy video 8 weeks to 8 months by pinching between the toes.
Thats my take on that.....without actually seeing what occured.
Also I'm just curious why you have a prong on a 5 month old puppy?

Pat

Yup,It sounds like she was just playing.Typical working dog behavior.I wouldnt ever leave a dog like this alone with a young child.In fact, Id be very careful about having this dog around young kids.
As for the prong on a 5 month old Im not getting into that discussion.You can PM me if you want my personal view on the prong and puppies.

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Also I'm just curious why you have a prong on a 5 month old puppy?

Pat

I was told to by my trainer. Eva is fearful of dogs and will try to lunge/bite/bark/growl and otherwise attack them for no reason. She does this out of fear. My trainer told me this behavior NEEDS to be corrected, and her flat nylon collar just caused her to do it mnore. We tried a choke chain and she just choked herself until she gagged.......so my last resort is a prong. It just so happened that we just finished a training session and I hadnt taken it off yet!

I was considering getting her a harness so she wouldnt hurt herslf, but that dosnet correct the behaviour. I tried just letting it go, but people dont take kindly to my dog (who does not look like a typical 5 month old puppy *well she does but not to the public*) Barking and snarling at their little maltese's. I would'nt tolerate it either, she is 42 lbs and 20 Inches at the shoulder....not very big yet but big enough to cause serious damage to a small breed dog or another puppy, if I were to lose control of her while she had this tantrum. I know its out of fear and we are trying to get through this. I have conflicting emotions about it though...I mean if she is SCARED of the dog and is reacting out of fear a correction would just associate the dog to something painful. But If I LET her get away with her fits then Im rewarding that behaviour. I dont know what to do. I tried distracting her and pulling her away form the other dog but its NO USE, she could careless about anything when a strange dog is present. This is something we are working on at the club...most of the older dogs just kind of look at her like "what the hell are you doing little puppy?"

Any help with would be appreciated as well. I heard dog-dog aggresion is common in Czech dogs is this true?


My dog is my world...so whatever problems we have we WILL pull through. Were learning together ! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

P.S sorry about the grammer mistakes...Im typing really fast <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Dog aggression can be worked through but its not an easy fix.IMO its not always because the dog is fearful of the other dogs.It is correct that if you had a flat collar on the dog and tryed to pull her off that it could make it worse.
You need a very good trainer to at least give you pointers on this problem.There should be some old threads on that here somewhere.
To me that is a much bigger problem than her biting you.