Hi All

Just after a bit of guidance re one of my Gsd girls. I have owned shepherds for 20 years and can honestly say i have never had one as wilfull as this one.From birth Nyx was always the most adventurous and confident pup, she was the first to attempt an escape from the whelping box, first to explore anything new and was just super confident from day one. I kept her as she seemed to have the exact attitude that i wanted as i planned to do schutzhund with her. She is a beautiful girl and threw herself into training, passing her good citizen awards at lightening speed, she is always eager to learn more. We have started the basics at schutzhund and as predicted she is absolutely fabulous.
The problem is at home, she is an absolute bugger lol!  she barks constantly to get the others to play or interact with her, when they don't she pesters the life out of them until one of them tells her off. Her biggest problem seems to be with her mum, she just won't leave her be (unless seperated from her of course). The problem occurs either when somebody knocks on the door or a vsomeone comes in the house. The screaming barking starts and she then 'attacks' her mum biting her on the bum and grabbing a mouthful of fur, Piper (mum) gives her a slight telling off and eventually she stops ( i am trying not to intervene at this stage as would like her to work it out). The same happens when her mum runs into the garden - she chases after her again biting her bum etc. If Piper is laying on the sofa, Nyx will jump on top of her to get her to move.
I am obviously not just letting her get away with this but was hoping that Piper (top bitch in our house) would have put her in her place by now as she certainly would not tolerate this behaviour from any other of our bitches, but she is very soft on her. Any thoughts (apart from her just being a brat) would be appreciated.
Lucy x

Well that all sounds very familiar! The excitement when there is somebody at the door in particular. I went through this last year with one of my Malinois bitches. Trouble was, if the dogs were outside when somebody arrived (such as my husband coming home), she would get so excited she turned on one of my Papillons -and she ended up injuring his neck at one point. Nothing I did seemed to work. It got to the point where I was scared to have them outside together, as all it would take would be for somebody with a dog to walk past, excitement would start and bang, she'd go for the Papillon (she always knew to pick on the weakest one as well, that could not stand up to her.) I don't know WHAT did it in the end, but I had enough so took action. One day when she went for the Papillon I got really angry, dragged the bitch by her scruff into our grassy bit of garden that is fenced off, said nothing, just left her in there alone and went inside with everyone else. Left her out there for 2 hours all alone. I figured the worst punishment for her would be to be excluded. I ended up doing this on one more occasion. I ALSO started to call her to me each time something that made her excited happened, so if they were outside, I called her in, if inside, I called her to me. When she came she got a treat. I've no idea which worked, one or both methods, but she stopped acting like this and for a while when somebody arrived or a dog walked past etc she would run to the door to be let in, I let her in and she'd sit and stare at the pot of treats I keep in the hall.  After a few months she stopped altogether, now if something happens she doesn't do anything. She was about 18 months when it all started.

It's now starting all over again, with my new pup -doing it to this bitch that used to do it herself! So far she's holding her own and telling her off but if it gets worse I shall try first with calling pup for a treat.

I've also got a Papillon who starts screaming in excitement whenever I am about to let the dogs out into the garden -and if left she will then chase after the oldest Malinois (!) and bite her hindlegs. That's a bit easier as all I do is pick the Pap up and don't let her out until she's calmed down a bit.

Step in and stop her.  Some dogs simply will not listen to other dogs and need you to stop them being a pest.  If you leave her to carry on she could well end up being seriously disliked by the others, if not injured when one of them finally loses their temper bigtime - and frankly even then that might not stop her.  River badgered Linc to the point that he pinned her more than once in the first few months here but it did not stop her, the only thing that does is me calling her away when she starts to badger him and heavily praising/rewarding/playing with her for coming.

I'm with Nikita.  I would step in and teach this girl some manners.  In the house, I would attach a lead so she could always be corrected.  I would also stop her coming onto the sofa for the time being.  Her mum may be soft on her but that shouldn't extend to everyone in the house.  You need to teach her to be a better dog. 
Now, to listen to my own advice!!lol
But....I have/had a problem with my springer basically attacking my old cocker in the boot.  It is total excitement as they are going out.  This used to drive me insane! Now, I put the old cocker in the back seat and the springer can't reach her and we got a GSD who spends her entire walk, chasing and annoying the springer!!lol What comes round, goes round.
On that advice, you just need to get another more annoying GSD! There, solved it for you.  You don't have enough dogs!!lol