My experience is like Jenn's. I have a 2-yr-old GSD that I got from rescue about 6 mos. ago. She showed numerous signs of human/dog/fear aggression at the start. Along with daily walks. we've been going to the beach 2-3x a week to a 2 mi. stretch near the water where there's heavy 2-way foot traffic and lots of dogs being walked as well. In 6 mos., she has become pretty indifferent to most of the dogs we encounter, a huge change from the early days. We'll stop now and then briefly and exchange sniffs with the few that seemed well behaved.

Along with her improvement, I've become better at reading other dogs and adjusting our encounters accordingly. A lot are behaved and friendly. Some appear that way at first, but turn aggressive quickly. Mine now reacts to most of those with a "What the hell's wrong with you?" attitude. On rare occasions, she start to reciprocate the aggression the other dog starts, but I control her and we move on. I avoid the nasty ones, e.g. some of the small ones that are charging and straining at the end of a flexi lead that's stretched like a piano wire. I don't know the reason for their aggression, but avoidance is our way to deal with them.

I think success in the socialization process depends mostly on the efforts the owner puts into monitoring and controlling encounters with other dogs. And your dog needs to respect you as the leader who will not put up with any crap from them but will also be protective when other dogs become aggressive. You need to be calm assertive as someone said. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> It's an on-going process that builds on itself as we both get better at managing our dog-to-dog meetings.

I agree, Mike, that stupid old saying of "emotions travel down the lead" is most definetly true! My old GSD was indifferent towards other dogs. Never rude, never beligerent, just ignored them & I believe it was because he played with me, not them. We had a couple instances of rude dogs approaching him, but I just kept moving, kept my cool, & he did the same. It is scary if someone elses' dog does something stupid, but any reaction on your part will magnify it in your dogs' eyes, so you must keep your cool & keep going <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />I'm going to train the new pup the same way, (this is what I've done with all my gsd's.