I must second Roni's suggestion to never,never,never, sit a child on the floor with a dog you are unsure of, for many reasons. I agree with everything Roni stated. Would like to add that anytime an animal is afraid the potential of that animal biting, clawing, pawing,etc. is increased as their fight or flight instincts are more acute, therefore, they get defensive. Give your dog a little more time. There are training techniques that will hopefully help her overcome some of this.

Happy Easter Grandpa....life sure can get hectic at times. LOL

 Quote: Debbie High

Happy Easter Grandpa....life sure can get hectic at times. LOL

It sure can!

And remember to keep the chocolate eggs and bunnies way up out of dog-reach. Mail them all to me for security, in fact. Mainly dark chocolate.

Sam,

Sounds like our GSD pups are the same age (I have a 4 1/2 month old female). I also have two boys, one 11 -- calm -- and one 8 -- wouldn't know the meaning of walk or speak softly if his life depended on it.

I have experienced similar shyness, skittishness, bowing away when adults approach. I have read enough on this website to know to tell people she is wary of adults she does not know, to ignore her and to just talk to me while she assesses the situation. She will then usually smell their legs and then sit or lie down while we finish our conversation. After she is comfortable, I offer the adult a treat and then the adult either kneels down or sits on the ground (although I haven't found too many adults that will do that) and will offer the treat. I tell them not to reach overhand to pet her, just to hold the palm of their hand out to let her smell it if she chooses.

I take my GSD to our recreational park every weekend and two weekdays a week during soccer or baseball practices or games. I walk her around and let her see the kids running, screaming, kicking balls. Many kids ask to pet her and I will usually say to them "would like you to give her a treat?" because I don't want them rushing to put their hands on her. She has been absolutely fine with kids. But, I give her a lot of exposure to that age group.

I agree with whoever suggested you should get her out to a park. Question -- do your grandkids participate in sports? Could you take your dog on these socializing trips? I assume you will have to start small and go on walks at regular parks first, but if you take these steps, you should be able to introduce her to a recreational park in small doses, even if it is away from everyone, but where she can still see the activities.

Lastly, I understand how you feel about having to put the GSD up when your grandkids come over. If you are crate training, maybe you could move her crate into an area where she can observe the grandchildren's activities, get used to their movements and voices. That way, she is not completely out of the picture. As she gets more used to them, you could open the crate door (all under supervision of course) and see if she will come out. If not, don't force her.

When we first got our dog, my 8 and 11 year old were under strict orders for about 1 week to completely ignore her while we went through the isolation period (as Ed Frawley recommends), then they were allowed to slowly introduced themselves to her in short spurts for the next few days. Although your 9 year old grandchild will likely understand, I am assuming the ones younger than that will have a hard time understanding (which is where the crate has to come in, because you don't want to teach her to not like children; you want to teach her to tolerate them).

My experience (brief as it is) is that it takes this breed of dog a lot of time to warm up to new things, so it is better to take small steps, even if that means crating your dog when your grandchildren are over until she can get used to them. Have them over as often as you can, it will make this process go faster.

Hope this helps,

Stephanie