hi, rex (a male 6mth working dog GSD) is a surprisingly aggressive puppy. for example, while in the house he is quite well playful and accommodating, the second he goes outside he runs out w/ his hackles up, running back and forth on the fence line barking fiercely- regardless of whether there are people/dogs/etc outside.

when i take him outside for walks, he is constantly on alert, bounding from bush to bush sniffing, etc and when he sees a person or dog, his hackles go up and he barks fiercely and ear up/tail up/hackles up/ aggressively approache them. when around people he will approach them boldly, and then smell them and then wag the tail and let them pet him (although his approach style is quite intimidating to others).

when around people, i am now making him go into a down and people will pet him no problem, i let him up and people pet him no problem (he comes up and starts licking/etc them) but when they turn and walk away, his hackles come back up and he starts barking and trying to go after them.

i ve used the pinch collar on him and have done sharp corrections on him, and that seemed to work but i think the pinch collar may be too much for him at this age as now when he see me w/ the collar and leash, he tries to run to his crate and acts quite submissive. w/ out the collar no problem but w/ the collar he is quite submissive to the point of i want to stop so i don't break him or turn him into a submissive/cowering dog. so i m trying to find the right way to deal w/ him w/out breaking him.

i m currently using the pinch collar w/ both rings connected, so it doesn't pinch, and while that seems to have some impact, its not nearly as effective as a pinch collar used on only 1 ring.

what to do? and why do you think he does this ? he has never had a bad experience w/ a person or dog to date, and he is quite good/friendly/loving to our other older female gsd.

thanks for any/all advise

keith

by the way, rex is not afraid of anything (nothing scares/shocks/bothers him) so its not fear-related aggression

Why do you not have him on a Leash in Public Places,

hmmmm of course i have him on a leash, sorry i thought that went w/o saying

i was referring to him bounding at the end of his leash, maybe that was the confusing part

Keith, he sounds a little like my dog was at that age. Big bravado thing going on. But friendly when he actually got to meet a person. I was a bit unsure about how he would react when meeting people, so only did it about half the time, usually only after I was talking with someone at a comfortable distance, hand securely on leash, waiting for him to calm before he got to meet anyone. His curiosity usually got the best of him and he would calm down. (Edited to say: I did not let him meet other dogs though.)

Like you, I didn't want to do a lot of corrections for this so I didn't. However, I did teach him to "leave it" for things in the house and so used the same phrase when he started zeroing in on people or dogs. But it didn't always work right away . He did learn however.

He's not doing that aggressive thing anymore (17 mos old) and pretty much stopped all signs of aggressiveness toward people at about 7 months. Took longer towards dogs and is still not fail-safe, but for the most part he ignores other dogs (except within the last 3 weeks or so he has again started to take an "interest" in other dogs, not necessarily aggressive interest though.

Edited by Sandy Moore (11/29/2007 08:12 AM)
Edit reason: additional thought

thanks for that, i m thinking that its probably a function of his working dog lines, and i m not sure its a 'bad' thing. he is just full of bravado as you say and he is quite pleasant when he gets to other people. i don't let him deal w/ other dogs either, and when he gets 'bold' w/ people i try the word
'easy' which is what i use to try to calm him down. i m thinking its
an age thing but i guess i m just looking for some confirmation. on the other hand i once had a gsd that was a product of poor breeding and had weak nerves, submissive wetting, and fear aggression. i certainly don't want rex to be like that!

thank you again for your thoughts

lear is a great looking dog btw