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Her first was police K-9. Don't know why she was sent to her next owner.

Wait..back up the truck......

Hon, I just had surgery..the background that you descibe changes alot and you and the dog need to be evaluated further.
Order the vids, but I'm gonna go get one of the mods..she can help and direct you to others that can too..
I'm just so groggy from the surgery...
I can say that you NEED NEED NEED NEED to find out why she washed out from the police..you need to know how she was trained.. you need to know if she is properly fully bite trained..or crappy bite trained or or partially bite trained.or if she was only a drug dog....if she was untrained to bite..what her drive requirements are......EPPPAKKKKK..gasp gasp...ok gonna go find a mod....
Willie

Okay Willie,
You now have me nervous. I hope your surgery went well, I know how meds affect, my husband had surgery last week. Hopefully you are home which means all is mostly good!

We love this dog and she can be fixed! My kids adore her and she adores them!

I am not a trainer, and not a new dog owner. I have had dogs all my life, successfully. Kinsa has taught us a lot and we are willing to learn more. I want to rescue and rehabilitate dogs, so I know that Kinsa was meant to be with us to teach us more. Please let me know more about what you are talking about.

Again, I am not a trainer, but my gut tells me this dog was taken from her litter too early. She was forced into training before she was ready. I don't know what you are referring to about K-9 training. How do I find out?

Another thing I know is that she will act like a female dog in heat, flag and all, but will not allow penetration. Have you ever seen the documentary of the lioness? I feel this is my Kinsa. She is so nurturing, she loves small children, any small children. She has the most issues with adults mainly men.

After we first brought her home, she aggressively barked at my husband daily when he came home from work. As soon as she got closer to him she would back down. We questioned her sight and smell wondering why it she attacked to the point of three feet. Why didn't she know it was him? She still does it occationally. Her sense of smell is not good, and we try to encourage it by having the kids hide and her seek them out. We also hide treats. She does find them but it may take some hints. We try to bring out the dog in her all we can.

Pleae explain to me your concerns.

Willie,
On another thought, can you direct me to a trainer in my area for further evaluation? I live in southern Maryland. Most of the trainers I have found will not come to my home or are specific to a training method. I would like someone who is open to all training methods and is willing to come to our home.

You cannot fully understand her unless you see how she is in our home. Outside of our home she is 99.9% obedient. She does not mind other dogs unless they are in attack mode.

She also knows German, English, and some Greek commands. She wasn't spoke German to for at least two or more years and when we took her to a trainer and told him she may know German, he taught us and she responded immediately. She instantly knew(don't know if my spelling is correct)foos(heel), las es(release), gib lait(speak),sitz(sit), here(come), plots(down stay) which she will do indefinately unless a stranger is around.

She also is great in the car. She instantly goes to a down stay without any direction. No barking or fuss while we are away and no fear issues.

Thanks for your input.

 Quote: Wendy Bumbernick

Another thing I know is that she will act like a female dog in heat, flag and all, but will not allow penetration.

Wendy,

I assume this is info you received from the breeder. But in case you were thinking to breed her....DON'T. It sounds like you love her very much but fear is genetic and it is likely she would produce pups even more fearful than she is.

With her 1st owner; was she a police dog or a companion dog owned by a K9 officer?

Where are you located? Maybe someone can recommed a trainer. I strongly suggest calling in a professional.

One concern that Willie has is that if this dog was actually “taught” to bite, and especially if she was trained in defense, as a nervous dog there will be extra liability on your part.

As a rule we don’t teach nervy dogs to bite because once they understand that biting a human can be successful, they can revert to that when they are uncomfortable. They are specifically taught bite inhibition with regard to humans. Also, often the manner in which dogs that are not keen to work with a helper are trained to engage is not pretty and can cause them to get even WORE in regards to the nervy-ness. It is like trying to teach a shy child to fight by having a big scary stranger back them into a corner and scare them into striking out; it can very easily make them MORE scared and shy, but now they know they can be aggressive and the scary guy will go away. But the child is now looking over their shoulder all the time incase the bad guy comes, and eventually, if not helped, the child can turn and attack anyone that is not familiar.

We don’t know if she was trained in defense, or in more appropriate ways, or even to bite at all! She may have been washed out of the system for her nervous temperament before any training ever happened. But for safety sake, keep in mind how that child I talked about above would feel about strangers, and relate that to your dog. The fact that she has been trained in German means that she has at least some sport training (most train their dogs in English unless they are involved in bite work sport training) and may have some form of bite training as well.

What she needs is to have her life structured and controlled (and working in-home is GREAT for that ) and made to feel safe and that life is predictable. If she is not crate trained, think about doing that and get her used to being crated up at random times so that when she is crated while you have guests over she will be content. Give her a stuffed kong or a knuckle bone to keep her occupied. But always put her up before your guests are allowed in the house so she does not get all worked up before being crated.

The fact that people tried to breed her frankly makes me very sad. This type of temperament is often passed to puppies, if not from genetics then from watching mom and learning that that is how to be a dog. It is not fair to create other pups that will grow up to be stressed out all the time. From that stand point, it is probably a good thing she never had viable pups. But the fact that she will flag and not breed, and that her two pups died young points to a possible medical issue.

This bitch is at a great age to be spayed if she is not already. Each heat she goes through at her age has a higher and higher chance of polymetra, a very serious infection. Many breeders will spay their bitches around this age for this reason; they are past the age that they should be bred again (usually, there are exceptions) and the physical stress of a heat cycle is more than they should have to go through. And there is the increase of incident of breast cancer… I am anti pet altering as a matter of course, but there are situations where it is warranted, and this is one of them.

It sounds like she is a great dog! And one that you can be proud of. Just be aware of her reactive nature. By taking her to a trainer (or having one come to you), what do you hope to achieve? If it is the ability to be around strangers safely, then your sights may be a bit high for this particular dog at this point in her life. Aiming for a happy and safe life within your family unit is about all you may ever get, and that is a very nice life for a girl that has been passed around as much as she has. I am on the wrong coast to be of much help with the trainer aspect… Sorry…

 Quote: sheila buckley

 Quote: wendy bumbernick

Another thing I know is that she will act like a female dog in heat, flag and all, but will not allow penetration.

Wendy,

I assume this is info you received from the breeder. But in case you were thinking to breed her....DON'T. It sounds like you love her very much but fear is genetic and it is likely she would produce pups even more fearful than she is.

With her 1st owner; was she a police dog or a companion dog owned by a K9 officer?
Where are you located? Maybe someone can recommed a trainer. I strongly suggest calling in a professional.

A mistake people make is assuming that because a police officer has a dog, that dog must be a "police K9." If this dog was trained by a police dept,I have a hard time believing she was placed in civilian hands, if the police officer attempted training on his own, for personal use, perhaps, but owner 2 or 3 could have also attempted this. When dogs are taking in as rescues, any dog, we never truly know what training it has had.

Shelia...thank you...true true..

Jessica...will you marry me?...lol...fantastic fantastic post...thank you!!!!!!

Tammy...You are right....but...unfortunately it is quite possible that this dog could be a former police service dog...the original program placed her in a qualified home....then that person broke the deal or didn't and passed her off to a qualified person...as much as she has been bounced about its totally possible that she "slipped out" of the system as it were.....

Wendy:
Spay her.....once those hormones are gone it will help.

I am going to pm you my phone #...please call me.
Typing with the bright screen and my fingers not listening to my brain is a major major chore.

I might be able to help...one of my good friends from way back was the capt. of the ....gahhh..my stupid brain...he was in charge of the dept that is in charge of the swat division and the k9 units and all that for Fairfax county.....he might be able to hook us up with someone that knows what they are doing...I do know that there are A LOT of knuckleheads in that area.

Do please call...
Hugs
Willie..
PS..I'm a gal with a tomboy name if that makes calling more comfortable for you.

 Quote: willie tilton

Tammy...You are right....but...unfortunately it is quite possible that this dog could be a former police service dog...the original program placed her in a qualified home....then that person broke the deal or didn't and passed her off to a qualified person...as much as she has been bounced about its totally possible that she "slipped out" of the system as it were.....

Anything is possible, sadly, they did not sound like qualified homes if they are breeding a nervy dog.

Sooo true...my drugged brain hadn't processed that either....
All of which makes me hope all the more that this OP really follows this through and gets it sorted out....
It would be great for the dog to finally be able to settle and relax.....

I am by far less informed than most of the folks on these forums, but i do have experience with a police dog washout. Our previous GSD got the boot and bounced around until she landed with my Brother in Law. When he got her we stopped going over to visit, she would jump up in our faces snap at our arms if we moved too fast etc. She was just scary to be around.

Then two weeks after my second son was born my husband brought her home. Apparently his brother couldn't take it anymore, she'd ripped up all their newly installed carpet so he was going to have her put to sleep. I was not at all thrilled with our "new addition" but i figured at the very least i would be sure she was a lost cause before we had her PTS.

After two weeks of never letting the "evil dog" out of my sight (she could eat the kids!) and learning that she needed a very hard correction to "get it", she became a different dog. I will admit it took about a year before i was willing to let her have run of the house on her own but it was absolutly worth it. She was and is still the most amazing dog we've ever owned, she was so great that after 3 years my brother in law wanted her back.

Stick with it, and def. invest in the dvd's, best of luck, you may have won the doggy jackpot