HELLO TO ALL ,I HAVE A 5 MONTH OLD MALE GSD , THAT WHEN HE SEES ANOTHER DOG HE GOES NUTS , I MEAN HIS HAIR GOES UP THE TONE IN HIS BARK CHANGES ,TO A DEEPER BARK ,HE LUNGES AT THE OTHER DOG . BUT HERE'S THE CATCH WHEN THESE DOGS COME UP TO HIM HE STARTS TO LICK THEM AND WANTS TO PLAY ?? HE DOES THIS ALL THE TIME ? WHAT IS HE TRYING TO TELL ME OR WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN ? ALSO I HAVE ANOTHER DOG ABOUT 3 YEARS OLD AND I LET THEM PLAY FOR A WHILE EVERY DAY AND WHEN HE PLAYS WITH HIM HIS HAIR GOES UP ? IS THIS A CONFIDENT ISSUE OR IS HE JUST EXCITABLE ? WHAT CAN I DO ? I CANT EVEN TAKE HIM TO THE PARK OR FOR A WALK DURING THE DAY BECAUSE OF THE WAY HE BEHAVES, PEOPLE TAKE IT THE WRONG WAY THEY THINK HE'S A KILLER DOG . HES GREAT WITH PEOPLE AND KIDS . ALSO SHOULD I TRAIN HIM FOR SCHUTZHUND IF HE'S LIKE THIS ?? ...THANKS ..AL

He is a baby trying to act the tough guy. But at five months, he is not mentally able to sustain his bluff. Socialize him to others dogs as much as possible. Obediance classes are good for this. Don't expect him to learn much, but the experience is good for him. Acting tough is not an indictaion that you have a good schutzhund prospect. One question you should ask yourself is does this dog have strong prey drive? Also,what kind of bloodlines are you looking at?

Al,

Welcome aboard. May I respectfully ask you to not post in all caps...it can be difficult to read.

I'd slow down the socailization process, and start scheduling the smaller meeting of friendly dogs and people, when he responds correctly by sitting quitely I'd treat him. Of course OB training is the way to enhance and better this responce.

Gradually introduce him to larger groups a little bit at a time. Treating him with a toy or food and play to distract his attention off the apporaching dog. As the dog pass and his attention is still on you, treat him with a on leash game of fetch or his favorite food.

I'm not a professional, but this is only my oppinion on this subject. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I'm not a pro either, but here is what I think: I agree with slowing down the socialization process, but I'm thinking that expecting a 5 month old pup to sit quietly under the circumstances might be a bit much to expect until he's older. I could be wrong..... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

What I would suggest is, stop walking him where you'll be seeing a lot of other dogs, for now. Exercise him and train him in environments with minimal distractions. In the meantime, find someone with a friendly dog to help you with on lead socialization with your puppy. Arrange to meet the person at a neutral location with minimal distractions (avoid the park, ballfields, school yards, and other places where people tend to bring dogs and let them run off leash).

Have the other person stand with their dog in one place, while you approach from a distance with your puppy. The goal is not to get your puppy to walk all the way up to the other dog; instead, what you should do is create a happy state of mind in your pup with the other dog present. Stay just outside the distance where your pup becomes reactive but is aware of the other dog's presence, and play with him, praise him, give him goodies, etc., until you see that he's happy and feeling good, then stop the party and retreat to a greater distance. It goes something like this: approach, party, retreat. If he's barking and snarling at the other dog, increase the distance between him and your pup by moving your pup away (do not have the other dog move away, as this will reward the aggressive behavior, making your pup think he succeeded in scaring the other dog away) until he can see the other dog but not be acting out. Do not decrease the distance until your pup automatically starts wagging his tail and looking to you for the party when he sees the other dog. Eventually, you should be able to get within about 2-4 feet of the other dog with your pup maintaining a happy attitude about it, but it takes repeated experience for that to happen. The idea is for your pup to see other dogs, and instead of acting like a jerk, to look to you for his party because other dogs mean that good things happen to him.

Go slowly, don't push too fast, practice frequently (3-5 times per week, just 10-15 minutes each time for 6-8 weeks), and you'll see progress. If you don't, then I'd say you need help from a professional.

Also remember that dogs don't generalize very well. You might be able to get your pup to be happy about seeing this particular dog, but when he sees other unfamiliar dogs, he may become reactive. So you might want to consider finding a few different people with different sized dogs, different breeds, different color patterns, etc., and practice in different locations. This will help your pup to generalize the new information.

Good luck.

Thanks to all for all the advice on my pup.I will try my best to follow all this advice .Both parents are german imports the father is a sch 3and the mother a sch 1. I met both of them befor I bought him .Sorry about all the capitals.Thanks to all for your time...Al

One thing I am doing with my new puppy that is very helpful and you may be able to do is that the local kennel club (AKC) is letting me attend their show handling sessions for free as a "distraction" -- We get to meet a WIDE variety of dogs before and after their class and she has to deal with the visual of the running around the ring, etc. at a distance.

My pup is getting to meet dogs that are nice, or if they are not nice for a puppy, owners who know to be honest about it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> plus no fleabitten diseased animals either!

It is kind of fun when they say "she looks...um....different......(she is from straight working lines and is also a bi-color ) At least they don't try to talk me into showing her <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Our SAR team is almost all GSDs and this way she gets to meet all the OTHER kinds of dogs and it DOES make a difference.

While I agree with Lisa's approach to counterconditioning the puppy to being around other dogs, sometimes it can be resolved much quicker if you have access to a couple dogs who are really good "uncles". Some dogs just never get excited about a rambunctious or anxious puppy, they just stand there sleepily and look at the pup like he's foolish, you know what I mean? Several encounters with this type of stolid adult can go a long way towards rapidly diminishing the pup's anxiety about other dogs. This pup is fearful of other dogs, not confident, that's why he's putting on a show at a distance to try to bluff other dogs away. If you can give him pleasant, reassuring experiences with calm, nonreactive adults, it will help a lot.

That would be nice if it didn't take as much time and work. I wouldn't be surprised if the pup is not able to generalize the information to include ALL dogs, though. It's a good starting point, definitely, but the more different dogs in different locations (all friendly dogs, with prearranged meetings of course), the more likely he will be to start generalizing.