Well my pup no longer barks at strange people he now very calmly walks beside me but he has started barking at every dog we meet, even though he has been exposed to dogs from day one. He has never had a bad experience with a dog, he even barks at puppies. He pulls on leash, ears up , tail wagging, deep bark, no hackles. He never backs of even when other dog would bark back or attemp to come closer. My questions is should I be correcting for this, right now I'm just trying to get his focus back on me, but this usually doesn't work, he is so focused on the other dog.
Any suggetions, if he were just a pet I'd be correcting but I would like to do schutzhund with him in future. He is a 14 wk old GS. Help please!!!

I don't know about a 14 week old pup, but I correct my dog for focusing on other dogs. I'm getting a little concerned with my dog though, he's developed some dog aggression, I'm not sure if it's because he's being corrected everytime he pays attention to other dogs so has started associating them with corrections, or because he's gotten so irritated by my friends dog in the past for always bugging him when he wants to be left alone that he gets annoyed now when any other dog gets in his face for more than a few seconds. He used to be fine around all dogs, he'd be an excited puppy that wants to sniff every dog, now he's showing some serious aggression when another friendly dog (in a controlled leashed situation trying to get him to be neutral to other dogs) puts their face up to his - at first he seems fine tail wagging etc sniffing in all the right places, then all of a sudden BAM snarl snarl snarl snap snap, at which point I instantly give him a level 10 correction on the prong.

Sorry don't mean to hijack this thread, but I figure I'm ahead of you in my dogs age so if I can figure out what I did wrong, you can avoid getting in this situation yourself <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

One of the reasons I go to group dog classes, and have my pups around other dogs/pups from the day they come into my house, is because the world I run in is FULL of other dogs and I want mine to learn that it's 'normal' and 'common' and 'no big deal'. As in walking down the street and we see a sign, a phone booth, a car, another dog. NONE of that should be a big deal.

I know many people feel that isolating their dogs from others is the best thing so they stay focused on us. But I have found that makes other dogs SO exciting, and SO appealing, and SO wonderful/new/interesting.

Additionally, pups have to 'learn' to act appropriately around other dogs. NOT to stare at a new dog, NOT to run right up to them, NOT to stand stiff and erect, and if they aren't given the opportunity to learn to do it right (and act like 'a dog') then when they are adults they do tend to start more 'sudden' fights and not get along with other dogs.

I like this article that discusses how important littermates and the dam is to the proper development of a puppy http://www.dogstuff.info/inapprop_aggress_responses_puppies_macdonald.html and I think that when we get the puppy into our home, it's my job to continue with the good job that (hopefully) was done by the breeder. They can come with a good basis on how 'to be a dog' but if we then don't get a chance for them to continue to build, develpe and hone their skills, they won't do as well as when we got them and problems start cropping up).

I don't necessarily want my dogs to think all the other dogs in the world are their best friends EVER. And though they tend to act that way when they are younger, it's interesting how they get alot more discriminating as they get older and just naturally start with the aloof thing, IF OTHER DOGS ARE A NORMAL part of their life and not a huge exciting big deal.

Since 8 wks I have been walking, socializing ect. with this pup, Nothing has fazed him so far, buses, trains, heavy traffic and people, you name it we've been there and he's fine. Then a couple of weeks ago he started barking at
certain people, but after a few days of making him focus on me, he is fine now with people and just walks by my side basically ignoring them. Now I didn't have him around dogs too much under 12 weeks because he didn't have all his shots, but at the vet when there were other dogs there he would basically ignore them. Now all of a sudden he is acting like a lunatic, I put him in a controlled puppy class last week for more exposure to other dogs, and other puppies are less intimidating then full grown dogs. Unless
I constantly have him sit, come ect. and feed him his treats he barks and barks and barks. So my question was do I correct for this behaviour and if so how? Or should I just continue to expose him to other dogs and see if this behaviour corrects itself? Jenn I really don't see how that article will help my situation and how then do you teach your pups not to stare at other dogs ect? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Please hijack all you like. I'd be interested to hear from others on what they think of your approach since basically that was my question. Correct or Not Correct? Since I have been doing the same socializing with both pups and Niko is fine around other dogs I would think it's a bit of a nerve issue with Chevy. Which is a real surpise because he is such a confident little guy. Stairs, inclosed places, uneven surfaces, loud noises nothing has bothered him up to this point, he investigates every thing with confidence!

I'm sorry, the point of reading the article was so you would see how important dogs being around dogs, learning from dogs, socializing with dogs, is so that they grow up happy normal and don't act inappropriately. If you read again about how important the littermates, bitch, and continued socialization with other dogs are, those are the parts of the article I thought would help in your situation.

You seem to be doing well with many other aspects of socialization, and that's great. I HAVE TO STRESS (before anyone else comes down on me for this!) I am not saying our dogs have to be best joyful buddies with any and every dog they meet. I AM saying, that for our dogs to act normal (to the other dogs) and confident when around other dogs, they have to learn certain behaviors as well as learn to read those behaviors (or the lack of those behaviors) from the other dogs. There's alot of subtle 'dog stuff' going on among dogs all the time and we humans tend to only see the really obvious things like the growling, barking, and tail action.

Other issues we work with as our puppies grow is they have different mental and emotional stages they go thru, so while one week they do fine in Situation A, a few weeks later they may act entirely different. Reading up on these stages also help us be a bit more prepared as to what is normal (even though it may seem sudden and not normal at all) and how to guide them back to being the puppy we wanted.

Puppy Development

SENSORY, EMOTIONAL, AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE YOUNG DOG

Early Life Management I like the way this site talks about getting a confident dog.

Understanding Your Puppy

Inter-Dog Fear Aggression

Thanks Jenn, I will certainly look into those sites you listed.

Hi Petra, i don't know if it's right or wrong, but here's what i've done with my 7mo. old, when he barks i give him the "watch" command so he looks at me and then i reward him, it puts his focus on me and gives reps on the command, but..... now he gives one woof at just about everything and stares at me waiting for his reward <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />, good luck with 2 pups at the same time <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />, AL

Al, from what I found out at my schutzhund club your doing the right thing, the only diffence being if pup still continues to bark and ignores you, your to do a scruff shake, your command, and when pup looks to you reward, definetly do not correct first, but if command fails then correct. With a pup your age perhaps a prong correction would be better then the scruff shake.

I have a 15 mth GSD that I socialized with other dogs from the start. He got ambushed by a Malamute when he was about 11 mths. Now he goes crazy when he sees another dog. I'll give him a huge correction and it justs seems to build up the aggression. Now we just hurry on by and get him to down to get some control. Still have a hard time him to not look at the other dog. With some hard corrections he will look total opposite direction in avoidance. Sometimes. He's still intact, dominant and is a "hard" dog. He's a great working dog but I would sure love to break that dog aggression issue.