Hi again everyone. For those of you who have read my post under "aggressive to humans" will understand my paranoia and why I question everything I do with my new pup.

Again quick synopis-4.5 (apprx) old GSD M from the pound. I've had him five weeks now.

He seems pretty self confident, but not very dominant. When I saw him at the pound I chose him because-he ran right up to me when they brought him into the interact area. Jumped on me, no mouthing. After a few minutes he went off by himself sniffing. After a few minutes I called him and he came racing back to me, sat leaning against my legs. I petted him, there was no mouthing. I gently pushed him into a down and rolled him over. There was no struggling whatsoever even tho I kept my hand on his chest to hold him down. The only thing he did that concerned me was he kept trying to hump me, but quit after being pushed off a few times.

I have been taking him to puppy kindergarten. He's not in the least bit afraid of any of the other pups or people. He'll play and when he loses interest he'll go sniff around by himself or find me for petting. He's also in a basic obedience class in addition. I know I shouldn't be hard on the obedience at this point. I'm not correcting when doing obedience. It's all food and fun.

I have him in these classes to get him used to different environments and focusing in on me because when I took him home at 3.5 mos he was 36 pounds, he gained 10 pounds in 10 days at the shelter I'm only 5'2" and 110 pounds. My vet, friends, etc. have money on it that he'll hit 100 pounds when he grows up. I feel I need to get in his head early on that he needs to listen to me. I doubt I'll be able to manhandle him when he grows up!

Anyway, this is the senario I have questions about: I have been taking him to my daughter's school a couple of times a week when I pick her up. He seems nervous (or is it excitement? I think it's fear/nervous because he ran behind my husband's legs) when he sees the kids swarming out. He's ok once they approach and start petting him. LOVES IT! I hadn't been reassuring him (it's ok, etc.) for his behavior, just ignoring, but now I'm not sure if that's the right thing. I don't believe he's afraid of the large amount of people as I've taken him to a parade and a local street faire where there were people and other dogs all over. The difference in the two senarios I see is: at school the kids are not already out, then they swarm out. At the parade and street faire the people were already there en masse and he saw them upon approach. Should I stop taking him to school? Am I maybe going to cause him to be afraid of kids instead of being good around them as it's intended?

Second question: Was this reaction ok? I took him to a baseball field. He was on leash. There were some teenage boys playing ball. The ball came rolling at us. A boy (tall lanky teeenager) came running at us full speed. Pup did not try to flee or advance. He seemed to "brace himself". Gave a pretty nondescript "woof". The boy stopped about 3 feet in front of us, picked up the ball, turned around and ran back to his pals. Pup immediately relaxed and went about sniffing. I praised. Was this an ok reaction from him? From me?

Good grief, I'm I the wordiest poster or what. Thanks in advance!

Question 1) Hiding behind your husband's legs was a fear response. I wouldn't say to stop taking him to the school neccessarily, but how about increasing the distance between him and the kids when they come swarming out? Maybe you could wait across the street or just a bit further away from wherever they come swarming out from. Walk toward them to meet your kid. It's much easier for a dog to be doing the approaching than it is to be approached.

Question 2) Why exactly did you praise him? The way I see it, the boy approached, the dog barked, the boy went away. The dog successfully "scared" the "intruder" away, then you praised him for it. This is more likely to encourage that type of behavior. If that's what you want, then you did the right thing.

But if you want him to be OK with strangers approaching at various speeds, then you did the wrong thing. Next time, put the dog in a sit and talk to the person in a friendly manner. Just a brief "Hello" or "Nice day, isn't it?" said in a happy tone of voice will give your dog the message that you are not threatened by this person, and having him sit will divert his focus away from the signals he may be sending to push this person away, so that when the person does go away, it's not reinforcing those signals.

In both scenarios, remember to keep your leash loose. If you feel yourself becoming tense, take a deep breath and exhale, letting your shoulders relax. If you want to move your dog away from a person, don't pull back on the leash, instead, turn him away sideways.

Roz-
I would bring him as many places as possible. If he shows unsureness at a place or situation I would show him he no reason to be unsure. He looks to you as guidence as alpha. Keep bringing him to the school and places like that until he realizes it's no big deal.
Puppys try things and see what they get away with. The humping of the leg is not sexual at that age...It's a dominance motion to them. They really have no idea what they are doing but if you dont stop it right away who knows what kind of problem you could have. I would'nt scruff him....just push him off pretty good with a fooey or no or whatever you use. Depending on the dog you may have to go a level higher if he tries again.
All of this stuff is common sense...and youll see that with obedience, etc as well. You have to think about what you are doing all the time and try to think how the dog is perceiving the situation. Now with the teen running at him and wondering if his response was appropriate. Yes I know it's a dog but put yourself in that same situation; You are in a strange place with people around and one of them that is much bigger than you starts running at you full bore. Now keep in mind that you are the dog at this point and you have no idea that you are in a "park" and you dont know what "basketball" is. How would you react??? Would you brace yourself and yell something at him to warn him or stop him?
Bottomline is I would not worry at this point about the pup. Nothing raised a red flag with me from what you said. It sounds like you are doing a great job socializing him. Keep it up and if you are imprinting obedience then di ti by yourself in a quiet place and only use the puppy classes for socialization.
Pat

Roz
You are getting some great advice <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I am sure your glad that you joined <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Like Patrick said "Socialize" I take my pup to nursing homes not only has this made him very social the people that live there enjoy seeing animals of all kinds. My pup is 8 1/2 months and we did the puppy class and are involved in a good OB group class. If you have read anything that Ed has written then you know it's imprtant to have things in place before you start a group class. Your pup should know basic commands and do them well. It's confusing to them to all of a sudden just be in a group of pups/dogs with no clue why they are there. You don't want to set your pup up for failure you want them to learn and like working for you. You pup is young don't get to impatient with your progress. What I do with mine because I have a young son almost 3, to make sure that my pups behavior is acceptable around my son and other children, is to make sure that all ineractions are supervised, they are short but frequent, and I make sure they end on a positive note. The best way for a dog to like children is for them to always have good interactions with them. I allow my son to give our pup treats with me supervising of course. If you dont have the tape 8 weeks to 8 months I would get it and the Basic OB tape to. I don't know what your plans are for your dog but any training tapes available here are great. Keep up the good work and don't sweat the small stuff enjoy his puppyhood but make him mind! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Hi everyone. Thanks for the advice.
Lisa-Standing across the street from school worked great! He heard the release bell and saw the kids coming out and this time I know it was excitement! He wanted to drag me across the street to get to the kids.
As for the ball field thing. I praised him because I felt his behavior was completely appropriate for the situation. I guess my real question was-am I encouraging him to escalate it into biting? Again refering back to my prior shep/akita-I don't want to do anything that will turn him into an unprovoked biter.

Patrick-I try to put myself in the dog's place. If you'll read my post under "dogs aggressive to people". The incident with the mail carrier I didn't put significance on because I could understand from the dog's point of view-HEY! Why is this strange dude coming onto MY property and approaching MY people in such an aggressive way? I would think to a dog a mail carrier seems pretty aggressive-the way they walk fast up to your property.

BTW-I've decided we're not going back to puppy kindergarten. I feel he's gotten all he's going to get out of it. Also, I don't like some of the things they're teaching. Today we did a thing called - pass the pup. Someone else takes the leash and your dog away from you and has it sit, etc. I thought that was stupid. I said allowing a stranger to lead him away was not something I wanted my dog to learn. He doesn't need to be taking command from anyone other than my immediate family either.

Some woman actually made the effort to cross the courtyard and whisper to me - I hope your dog doesn't bite someone one day. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> Idiot. She was there with TWO pit pups, brothers from the same litter, and her treats and clicker. :rolleyes:

Now before anyone gets on me about the pit and clicker comment let me clarify. Any 8 week old puppy is harmless enough. I like pits. I just think they're strong willed/strong minded. I just don't think she's going to be able to effectively handle those dogs in 6 months or so with just treats and a clicker. Am I implying they'll bite someone? No. Am I implying that with that woman they'll probably be unruley? Yes. I may be totally wrong!

Thanks again for all the advice. I feel better.
Hey a star! Thanks! Um. What does that mean?