A couple questions about my now 1 year old GSD.


My dog is generally solid with noises and situations that might spook a dog, but lately there are 3 things that have got him very reactive.

1. All these new Scarecrows and Grim Reapers, etc. in peoples front yards. The first scarecrow he saw he went nuts and I let him run all the way up to it and investigate. He sniffed, backed up and barked, reapproached. After about 4 passes over as many days he now ignores it, but new ones keep popping up and he has had similar, but less escalated reactions.

2. It has been raining in SoCal lately and their is an underpass that goes under the highway between my neighborhood and the park. A couple of homeless people have started sleeping there because of the rain. He goes nuts when he sees them and his prong collar doesn't phase him. Is this because he is a good judge of character or what? He reacts assertively when he sees someone suspicous in the park but when we come across homeless people he just goes nuts.

3. Coyotes. He goes nuts when we run into Coyotes in the mountains. We go hiking everyday either at dusk or dawn and they everywhere. I'm not sure if this acceptable behavior because I wonder that if I allow it that he might start acting that with other dogs he sees?

He is definitely more reactive than any dog I've ever had, but he is also fearless in approaching the things that set him off and if he investigates them and finds that everything is Okay he lets them be, but with the 3 afforementioned situations he really goes crazy and ignores my leave it commands and my prong collar corrections.

Fearless meaning that he goes nuts while walking up to them, backing off and it takes how long for him to get over it????????????????? What is your definition of fearless??? Not trying to slam here, just you describe fear in your dog and then say he is fearless.....see my point?

We have a dog in our ring club that is afraid of the trash cans that evilly show up every monday, yet if you push him in the bite work, he will really bite hard. This is a similar situation as yours and until you join a ring club you will never know. VIVA LA REVOLUTION!!!!!

I cant comment on your dogs " nerves " but whatever you do dont let your dog chase coyotes. Coyotes will " suck in " a lone domestic dog and get him alone and attack him. I dont care what breed you own. 3 coyotes working on your dog will hamstring him and kill him or severly maul him.

I think my boy was about 9 months old last halloween, I walked by someones yard with some type of witch or something on the front porch, he went nuts barking at it, whenever he does that to something (it happens once in a while, like my neighbors have a new tree in their back yard that in the dark could be mistaken for a person with 10 arms) I'll tell him "go look!!" n he'll go up to it, somewhat cautiously, n sniff at it. I don't think much of it, maybe he can be put into avoidance once we start real defensive work, maybe he's harder than I think - to me, the fact that he will go up to it makes me feel better than if he were to tuck tail n bolt hehe. He also barks at people who have stone statues of dogs or lions in their yard, same deal, but hes less cautious with those because they look more familiar - tell him to go look n he runs up to em.

By fearless - I mean that the things that alarm dont cause him to go into avoidance. He runs full speed ahead (sometimes barking) to investigate. When he gets there he sniffs all over and not getting any reaction fom the inanimate object he will sometimes jump back a few feet and bark for less than a second and then right back at it sniff and barking.