Hello Everyone,

This is my first post so please bear with me.

I am the very proud owner of a beautiful 13 week old Weimaraner puppy.  She is a very friendly dog in the house, very loving and excellent with strangers, visitors, deliverymen, postman etc etc.  When I take her to visit family/friends in their homes she is also brilliant, very friendly and will play with anyone.  She has also been into the office where I work with her and she is great, very friendly and playful with many strangers that she met.

She has just finished her initial course of vaccinations and I have been taking her for two walks a day for the past six days.  I know that this is very early days and she is still very young but I am slightly concerned about her behaviour when outside the house.

Firstly she barks at most people she sees out in the street, last night I stopped and spoke to a lady with a lovely little Yorkshire Terrier puppy, 15 weeks old, the puppy just wanted to sniff and play with my Weimaraner (Millie), but she was terrified trying to run away and hide behind my legs.  This Little Yorkshire terrier was tiny compared to Mille.  She has been socialised with a relatives huge 4 year old GSD and gets on fine, other than chasing him around constantly play biting him!  She sees this GSD most days, however I must add she hasn't really met many other dogs yet.

I introduced her to my next door neighbour today on our front lawn, again she was afraid and tried to hide behind me, Millie has met this neighbour once before when she came to see her in my house, about a week after I had Millie, and then she was absolutely fine with my neighbour, playing and having lots of fuss from her.

As I said she barks at almost everyone when she is out on a walk, I have a few local shops around the corner from me and I took her there, stood just off the beaten track so she could see people without having people walking straight past her or having to interact, here again she tried to hide behind my legs and barked at anybody that appeared to be walking towards her.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how to break this behaviour, I must add that her fear is only of people and dogs, when she is out on the lead she is superb and quite confident until she meets anyone.

Please Help

Many thanks

Hayley and Millie.

First welcome Hayley & Millie

Millie's reactions to other dogs is not unusual in puppies brought up in household without other dogs

Millie will only have seen other Weims except at the vets in all likelyhood, so every other dog is an unknown animal !

I think this is why some vets run puppy parties(not that I approve of them unless they are structured & controlled)

This is were training clubs & ringcraft clubs come in, even if you are never planning to show in breed or obedience. if you can find uch a club in your area pop along without Millie chat with the trainers & watch the class & if the methods are kind & the dogs happy enroll. I do breed showing & obedience train all my dogs even though they may never been shown or compete, as it all helps to socialize puppies

We also encourage people to attend our dog club as soon as possible & I confess my puppies attend before the vets advise, but they are in a crate or on my knee watching the class(unless there is a known illness doing the rounds)

Do not despair if you have any friends or relatives with gentle adults take Millie to see them or even get them to visit you one at a time. I have a GSD who is wonderful with puppies & it means my cavaliers are fearless of big dogs whne they meet them(does mean they also think they are GSDs as well tho' :D) Failing that the lady you met with the Yorkie etc might be willing to help you ,

Once Millie realizes that there are dogs other than Weims she will be  fine

One word of caution do not comfort her when he does bark at other dogs as this will mean you are indicating to her that it is alright to worry & be afraid, however do reward lavishly if she doesn't react or is friendly & greets with puppy bows etc

The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey is a brilliant book to read

Thanks for the reply, you have put my mind to rest a little.  I will try to find a class nearby and go from there,  I already have a copy on The Perfect Puppy and I am following it quite religiously.

Thanks for the advice, I am very gratefully.

I am also open to any other ideas anyone may wish to contribute.

Thanks again

Hayley and Millie

Hi Hayley

Would go with the classes aswell its great fun anyway. I have a newfie she is 20 months ish and the only dogs that have made her frightened have been little small ones wanting to play and running round her feet - slightly embarassed when she dragged me away from 2 puppy shiztzus (sp?) all 8 stone of her.:)

Good luck

Nikki

Hi Hayley & Millie,

Welcome :)  As the other posters have said, training classes are a great way of allowing your puppy the chance to meet other dogs and people for that matter of all shapes and sizes - if you can find a specific class for puppy socialisation then that will be all the better - then you're all in the same boat ;)  Ask your vet, he/she may be aware of a puppy class nearby.

I'd also persevere with taking her to local shopping areas on a regular basis - she may be a little insecure at the beginning but the more often you can keep this up the more quickly she will become accustomed to lots of people simply going about their every day business.  Another good way of getting pups used to noisey kids for example is take them a walk near to a primary school around playtime (don't actually take the puppy into the yard). 

Very best of luck, keep us posted on her progress and get started on looking for a well recommended puppy class!

Kind Regards, Teri ;)

Hello Again,

Many thanks to all of you that have taken the time to help my with this.

I will follow your advice and keep you posted.

Many thanks

Hayley and Millie

Hayley and Millie

Why not have a look here:

http://www.weimaraner-forum.org.uk/phpBB2/portal.php

Join other Weimaraner owners for specialist help and advice.

HTH

Hi Hayley, Weimaraners should be fearless, friendly, obedient and alert and so it is with some concern that I read your post.

I strongly suspect that you have isolated your dog from the outside world until its injections were complete which can affect the dog's outlook; it is for that reason I take my weims out the day I bring them home as I believe the risk from undersocialisation is much higher than any disease risk.

Join the forum as recommended by Doug and also look for a good trainer in your area who can observe your dog and pinpoint exactly what the problem is and so recommend a course of action particular to your dog.

APDT is a good starting point or pm me for some suggestions.

regards