Hello everyone. Let me first say I don't think he is "Too aggressive to People", I just couldn't find a better suited forum group.
I have a male Doberman that is just over 1 1/2 years old and my question is what to do in regards to strangers he encounters. He's stand-offish when it comes to strangers, whether that be he sees them walking down the road in front of my house (usually barks at them from inside looking out the window) or them walking up to pet him (he generally steps back a couple of steps when they reach out to pet him; rarely does he bark at them, if I'm there.). Given a few minutes of him being able to sniff around the stranger (with me being there, he's never allowed a stranger to pet him when I'm not there, although that's only occurred a couple times in the past), he interacts with them as he does me; very friendly, ears down, tail wagging.

I've never rewarded nor corrected this behavior; I guess it's just instinctive. Part of me likes this trait and wonder if I can build on this to do some protection work. I think definitely he lacks some confidence and could use, at a minimum, some confidence building exercises.

Many thanks and best regards,
Craig Campbell

The best thing to build confidence is exposure. I don't mean that your dog should be put in a position where he's forced to be pet by strangers. He should be out and about, walking with you where unfamiliar folks are around, but essentially going about their business. This way he can experience being around strange people without having to deal with the pressure of being petted. It sounds like your dog is really uncomfortable being pet by people he doesn't know, and that's not unusual. Some dogs just don't enjoy being petted, it's just who they are. I would be inclined to just respect that. If your dog was becoming aggressive I might be more concerned, but he's not.

As far as barking at people from a distance or out of windows, I would consider that territorial and a training issue. It doesn't bother some people. I personally don't allow it because barking drives me nuts, but that's me.

It sounds like you have a fairly normal Doberman. I can't speak to protection training because I don't do it myself, but I do know that training in general goes a LONG way to building confidence. Hopefully somebody with protection training experience can help you out with that part.

I think aloofness is a breed trait. My vet's young Dobermann threatened to eat me, until his "mom" introduced us properly. Ever since then I've been his "friend".

Sounds like your dog is the same: suspicion until properly introduced. I think I would expect this behaviour from any dobie.

"It sounds like your dog is really uncomfortable being pet by people he doesn't know, and that's not unusual. Some dogs just don't enjoy being petted, it's just who they are. I would be inclined to just respect that. If your dog was becoming aggressive I might be more concerned, but he's not."

Big ditto from me. I respect it and protect the dog, while meanwhile increasing the dog's exposure to calm, casual, no-focus-on-dog human encounters.

Yep. Some people are huggers, some don't like to be touched. If the dog is not doing anything that makes you worry about his temperament except for this, I think you should respect that he is not a touchy-feely kind of dog and keep strangers from forcing themselves on him.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

Connie, what you say here about no-focus-on-dog is true with my dog. If you ignore him, let him have a couple sniffs and you'll be OK. Continue to try to pet him and he's not having it. No aggression, just more evasion.

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

Big ditto from me. I respect it and protect the dog, while meanwhile increasing the dog's exposure to calm, casual, no-focus-on-dog human encounters.

Thanks again.