Hi folks, my first post I hope I do this right. I have a 6 mon. Mal I just got about a week and a half ago that is shy around new people. He is not aggressive but will bark and raise his hecles on his back but his tail is waging. If you give the new person a treat he will slow come and take and after a few treats he's your new best friend. I do know he came from a breeder and then went to a rescue after they didn't sell him.

Ok you just got the puppy, and he hasn't been socailized lets say, it really too soon to say that because the puppy hasn't had much time to settle in with you let alone other people.

Lets spend some time with the puppy, you let other friends get to know him by feed him is good. If you want that I like my puppy to acknowledge other people but I don't really want them feeding or touching her.

But you are on the right track but I would have her buddy up with me 1st then just start taking him/her everywhere to get use to all type of different things.

This can go too far sometimes, I remember my GSD at about 9 months, maybe a 1 yr charging a group of ten young men playing basket ball. We play with a ball like that and he wanted that ball. So he was going to go right in the mist of all those people and get it. They saw him coming and froze, I called him off before he got there and they thank me.

So socailizing has its limits, but to me it showed Mat wasn't intimated by numbers and he was willing to contend to get what he wanted. The nerve of him. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I'm going to be training for SAR and need it to be ok with everone. He doesn't need to be best friends with them just not run for them. "Won't find to many people that way".

You didn't say he was running from them, you mentioned that he was barking and heckling up which is not all that bad pending futher test to why. He seems to settle down once they prove OK.

Is he a little under socailized at 6 months and just out of the shelter he would be. I see no reason to be concern this early in the game, he seems ok. You really need to be there but from the data presented he seems ok. Theres nothing wrong with him barking at strange new people coming into your yard or house and settling down so quickly. He may be SAR material.

Thanks for your help this is my first try at a SAR dog and I might be jumping the gun. He is a very loving dog he follows me everwhere I go. We are bonding very well I just don't want to put alot of money & training in a dog to find out a year from now that he can't do the work. He has crazy drive and he was done well on his first tracks.

Well, I don't think it's the ideal temperament for a SAR dog, but that doesn't mean he won't work out. Not every successful SAR dog is a cuddly social butterfly.

Some suggestions; start out using hiders that he already knows. When you use a new hider, do an introduction before working the problem, so he's not suddenly coming up on a complete stranger. Eventually, you will need to build his confidence so that he will go in on a perfect stranger, but at first, just start teaching him the searching behaviors without the social pressure of finding a stranger. In the meantime, work on his socialization separately from search work. Start out just having him around new people at a safe distance, with no contact. Just being around new people without the pressure of greeting them would be a good start. Take him for walks where there will be people, but where you can control the distance between them and your dog, and where you can prevent contact from being made. You can also, if you're part of a team, have little socialization sessions where everyone stands in a circle with a handful of treats or his ball, and he goes around to each person and gets goodies. Have other handlers take his leash and walk him. Have the hider play with him all the way back to the car. Little things you can do to build his confidence around people in general should help.

If your team requires a CGC, it might be a good idea to start working on that. The CGC isn't hard to get, but the behaviors needed to get it are a good foundation for your dog to be working on. Things like sitting to be petted, allowing a stranger to touch his paws, walking past another dog, walking through crowds, being separated from you for three minutes, etc., are all behaviors that he needs to learn anyway. Perhaps you could sign up for a CGC prep class in your area.

I just don't want to put alot of money & training in a dog to find out a year from now that he can't do the work. Well......there are no guarantees. That may happen with any dog. I've known of people going through four or five dogs before getting one that could do the work. Personally, if you think he has potential, I'd say give it a shot. If it doesn't work out, that's experience you have under your belt for the next time around. It's certainly not wasted time if you learn from it.