We have a friend with a wonderful mature stable and totally non confrontational GSD. This dog is incredibly well socialized and while not submissive in the least is very apt at sending calming signals and does not feel the need to throw his weight around at all (which is considerable)

Loki, my 4 yr old hound has confidence issues. He is truly almost a perfect dog if we can boost his confidence especially with other large dogs.

So last weekend at the lake we let them be in the same room but well away from each other, this room is kitchen dining room and living room and probably 800 sq feet (the whole top floor of a house.)

We didn't allow any direct contact or sniffing, we just had them each lay by us and relax. At one point King ambled over and ever so gently sniffed Loki's tail, loki got wide eyed but stayed laying with his head in my lap.

It all went very well, Loki never hackled or cowered or showed any signs of fear aggression. king was relaxed and has exemplary doggie manners.

What would you all take as the next step with socializing them?

I want to keep things all positive, but I also know if I don't push Loki a little bit he will just hide and not ever come out of his shell at all. So it is all about finding balance!

I would keep doing what you are doing until Loki doesnt react when the other dog comes near him or sniffs him.
Then he will be ready for the next step.
I would do one of two things at that point. let them have more contact, sniffing noses and tails on leash. If that goes well, then let them play?
Or the other option..find another dog that is calm and repeat what you did with the shepherd....then let them snifff noses and tails.
Sounds like everything went great!
Good for you!!!!!
Willie

This is just my opinion, but if you are trying to build confidence I wouldn't allow an approach by ANY dog until there has been lots of exposure to different dogs without the social pressure of being approached, especially while laying down.

I may have missed this (in another thread or two perhaps?) but what other steps have you taken to build up to this?

The first thing I would do to build confidence is to expose the dog to lots and lots of other dogs without the expectation of any kind of interaction. Sometimes learning that they can just 'be' comfortably, without it having to mean anything else can do wonders for confidence. Once you add interaction and approaches by other dogs you are adding an element of pressure to being in the presence of other dogs. There are some dogs that are never comfortable interacting, and that's okay too, as long as they learn to 'be cool' in the presence of other dogs it's all good, imho.

Having an unconfident dog on the floor while being approached by another dog, even a familiar one, isn't something I would do, probably at any point in the training.

I agree with Kristel here.

One thing that's possible would be on leash walks with this calm dog, where neither actually has to interact with the other (and I wouldn't ask Loki to greet or interact with King in any way). I wouldn't even walk too closely together. Each handler pays attention to his/her own dog, perhaps chatting also, but just not having the dogs close or interacting. No big deal.

If you are hanging at your friend's place and keeping them separate, fine, but I wouldn't allow King to decide when to come up and check out your dog.

The thing about letting King walk up to Loki is Loki has zero control over this interaction. If/when Loki decideds to check out King, fine. But, I'd let it be Loki's decision, and I wouldn't assume that just because he did this once, he's suddelnly ready for more.

JMO, of course

leih

We have been going to a local petstore and hanging out during non busy hours but not ever interacting with the dogs, and then sitting in on my friends obedience classes, but in the back of the room with no interaction between him and the other dogs, she told the class about us before we came in.

We also have been around King a lot, however it has always been with a gate between them.

I actually didn't want King to get that close, but it was one of those situations that since Loki was relaxed still I decided it was best to let it happen and stay relaxed myself, rather than cause a problem by reacting.

They were laying by each respective person about four feet from eachother, and Loki was totally stretched out and relaxed, King stood up to reposition and in the process stuck his nose out and sniffed his tail.

I am 99.9% confident in the safety of my dog with King, and I had total control of Loki should he have reacted poorly.

 Quote: Jennifer Lee

I actually didn't want King to get that close, but it was one of those situations that since Loki was relaxed still I decided it was best to let it happen and stay relaxed myself, rather than cause a problem by reacting.

They were laying by each respective person about four feet from eachother, and Loki was totally stretched out and relaxed, King stood up to reposition and in the process stuck his nose out and sniffed his tail.

I am 99.9% confident in the safety of my dog with King, and I had total control of Loki should he have reacted poorly.

I was not being critical of what you did, but responding to your request about going forward.

And, I am sure you could have controlled your dog. That wasn't my issue for Loki, but rather, just having him not have to experience the stress.

It sounds like you're doing a lot of good things for this issue. Good luck with it as you progress.

leih