Quote: Tracy Collins

Just rambling. But It seemed worth discussing.

Ummm... yes, it does. Good catch Tracy.

ETA... are these older kids coming home later in the day? Younger ones? Can you think of what might be changing in the dynamics aside from just four more humans? (Which could be a lot just on its own...)

More yelling/playing/arguing??? (Normal family stuff - not implying anything negative!)

The boys are 7,8, 10, 13,16 and 19.

Eva comes with me in the van to pick them up from school. Upon coming home, they run with her and then get into the house to take their school clothes off and do some homework (for those who have it). The ones with no homework generally play with her inside when the weather is poor and outside when it the weather is fine.

The noise level isn't that bad, but there is always people walking around and at times running around the house. The kitchen, living room, and one bedroom is always with people being active.

Eva came from a home that had one child and about 10 dogs. She was supposed to be their pet, but the other GSDs were more dominant than her and from what they said, there was fighting between some of the dogs and herself.

When we got her she was bone skinny and smelled like wood chips (not a normal smell from a dog that is a house pet).

Both of my herding breeds are most calm when their "flock" (the rest of the family) are all in one place. My GSD will actually park himself on the landing of the stairs in a position so that he can see one person upstairs and the other downstairs--but he's happiest if everyone's in the same room, or at least nearby so that he can keep track of everyone.

Again, just rambling--but could it be that the additional people/spread out activity later in the day add to your dog's self-imposed "responsibility" of trying to manage everyone? You say, "When the whole family is home, she is being played with, loved on and talked to a lot. But when the kids are doing their own things she will pace back and forth always ending with pouncing on her shadow."

I don't know how to fix it, other than to perhaps give her a different job, or up your leadership posturing so that she doesn't feel the need to manage the herd. But maybe thinking about the situation from this angle might help understand what she's seeing.

ETA question: is she the only dog in the house?

 Quote: tracy collins

"This is how she acts:
When the house is calm, she is calm ... there is no problem. Once the children come home or if there is a lot of activity in the house ... she begins to pace. So this means that she rarely paces during the day when I am home with my husband and 3 children, but she paces like crazy when my other 6 children come home from school."

Does this clue sound like it could perhaps be anxiety rather than lack of exercise (if those are, in fact, different things)?

The fact that she can self-calm when the house is calm seems relevant. Could 9 children provide more stimulation (not less) than she needs?

Would she benefit from additional quite time in a crate--assuming that she's getting all this exercise, maybe she just needs some "me" time. I've also read good things about compression shirts that can help some nervous dogs self-calm.

Just rambling. But It seemed worth discussing.

Hi Tam,

I agree with Tracy. I feel your dog is getting over stimulated, just like kids become when there is too much going on. I have a preschool from my home, large groups of children in/out. If I did not remove my dogs, both large and small breed, from all the activity, they would be wired.

Herding them yes.

It also sounds like (from the description of her former situation) that she's a fairly passive dog that lacks confidence--but is now in a situation where she feels like she needs to do something to control all this activity and all these people. She's stressed at the prospect of having to lead.

Who would you say the dog looks to in the family as the unquestioned leader?

Edited by Aaron Myracle (02/07/2011 09:42 PM)
Edit reason: Spelling/Grammar

Wow.

I am her leader. My 16yr old son is second in charge from the way she treats him.

She is the only dog. The responsibility issue makes sense considering when the guys are outside shoveling snow, she is pacing from one person to the other to the other.

She is not a dominant dog, neither is she timid. She is pretty much middle of the road. The only thing she fears is the smoke coming from the car exhaust when it is cold outside. She seems quite confident other than that.

She is good with the small children, allowing them to fall on top of her acting like nothing happened, allowing them to climb on her etc.

The only inconsistency in all of this is when she comes into my room. It is a very large room and she has never once calmed down in my bedroom no matter how peaceful.

Really good post Aaron.

Thanks Aaron! I didn't see your post earlier. I will take all of that into consideration. A lot of that makes sense.