just a breif recap on my GSD pups history.
benji came to me at 13 weeks with no socilisation skills. he was shy and scared. he is now 19 weeks old and is a lot more confident, he will play and retreive , he will activly seek out other dogs attention to play, and he is not so bad with strangers now. he does at times when confrounted with a large group of strangers, cower with his tail between his legs and will hide between my legs. but he is 100% better than he was.
now i am a full time carer for my disabled 2 year old daughter (bethany)who has cerebral palsy. i am home all day and so i am always around for benji. as you can imagine he has struck a very close bond with both myself but also my daughter. they play together liek puppies :-) and he is so gentle and paitent with bethany despite only being 4 months old.

ussualy when i walk benji i will say 9 times out of 10 i take bethany with us in her buggy and beji will stay with the buggy and even at times will hide under it if he is scared. he associates the biggy with bethany. when at the fields i let bethany out of her buggy and benji is always keeping a close eye on her, especialy if strange dogs are around he will become protective and will bark at the dogs even though you can tell he dosnt want to do it, becasue after barking at the dogs he will run back to me crying with his tail between his legs. he reallydoes look our for us.if bethany walks off too far fro, me, benji will run to her and sit in frount of her and lick her face to distract her giving me time to grab her and walk her back to where the buggy is.

now 1 times out of 10 ussualy when my oh is home and i have a break i will take benji out alone with out bethany and he is a diffrent dog. less preotective, more relaxed and more eager to consentrate on training , lik e recall , retreiving ect. i am at this time giving him 100% of my attention and he loves it.

now yesterday my oh  was off work and bethany stayed over her aunts so oh and i walked benji to the feilds together.
benji seemed a bit confushed becasue i wasnt giving him 100% of my attention but bethany wasnt there either and i think he was wondering why i was talking to my oh who ussualy benji only see's in the house.

we both palyed with benji then my oh and i sat down on my ussual bench that i sit with when i have bethany.
benji was playing with his ball, when a family walked by they had a small toddler about the same age and height as bethany. and benji suddenly ran towards the family. his tail was wagging and at first i thought he had seen maybe another dog in the bushes as benji never runs over to strangers. but to my horror he ran towards the toddl;er and licked there face, then sat down looked at the toddler then ran back to me crying.

luckiny the family where dog people and thoght iut was sweet. but i was mortified becasue if i was a non doggy mother with a child and a strabge dog ran at my child i would pannic.

now the only thin i cn think of is that, benji thought the child was bethany and ran to get her as he ussualy does, then realised it wasnt bethany and ran back.

the thing is it is tottaly unacceptable behaviour. now i know he is not a viscious dog in any way what so ever,
however if the toddlers parents had shouted at beni to get away, and if then benji had become scared he could of nipped in fear.

so what do i do?

he has never , ever done this before. he is p[erfect off the lead, he recalls and sits by my side when i call him.
but if i keep him on a lead i feel he will go backwards with his trainign becasue he will nto be exploring and it seems unfair. but what if he did it agaiun?

Hi benjismum,

Things sound as though by and large they are going very well for you - give yourself a huge pat on the back because it's hard work having a toddler or a puppy individually so coping so well as a double act I think you've done a great job so far.

FWIW, my youngsters (similar herding breed to your own) have often confused distant folks in the park etc for being one of "their" people so what's happened is quite normal for a puppy his age who's in the habit of having your little girl around ;)  and mine have all grown out of it by about 6/7 months so don't despair!   In the meantime, try having him on a long line when you take him out - it will help to gently reinforce his recall if in a similar situation again. 

What I've found is that too much predictable day to day routine seems to work well with herding breeds but (there's always a but) can easily confuse them when there is a change - much as you have described.  Obviously the fact that you are a 24 hour carer for your little girl, there is probably not much opportunity from a practical viewpoint to vary your routine but could your OH perhaps become more involved in Benji's care?  If he becomes more in the habit of going to varied places at varied times with someone else and is not spending 24/7 with Bethany as his favourite friend (which is lovely BTW) then he hopefully will become less anxious when she's around and less exuberant to be reunited with her when she's not.

It's still very early stages in his training although I can understand your concerns but I think if you can try and ease off his dependancy on being around Bethany and also get either your OH or a family friend / neighbour etc to take him out a bit then between that and him becoming a little more mature you'll find he will grow more confident but stay every bit as loving :)  Sheperds can be clingy breeds - funnily enough the males more so than the bitches - so whenever possible take the chance to make him less dependent on both you and your little girl.

Sorry to ramble on!  HTH anyway, Teri :)     

thankyou for the advice. i was half expecting to be shot down in flames for allowing it to of happened but it took me so much by surprise. what you mentioned about herding instincts makes sense to me, and the long line is a good idea. thanks again.

Benjismum,

You seem to be doing very well with your pup after his dubious start, just remember, if pups and dogs were perfect robots then there'd be no need for dog trainers or training books :)  don't beat yourself up about what happened, now you are aware of it you can take steps to anticipate his behaviour and prevent it happening again.  Varying his routine will help as will taking him out without your daughter occasionally ;)

It may help you to feel better knowing that my own youngster behaves just the same when he sees a child the same age as my youngest, in fact he also adores babies in pushchairs and will lie in front of them if I don't get there quick enough, he's been almost run over by a buggy several times.  I aniticipate most situations but sometimes one comes round a corner too close and he'll just dive on the floor, waving paws in the air

Benjismum - ditto to what Dill said about now that you know he might do it, you can take steps to prevent him from taking the opportunity.  You were taken by surprise this time, something which has happened to all of us.

I know you can't let your dog do things like this, especially in this day and age with so many people being afraid of or not liking dogs - it's a worry.  However, I was fortunate that when one of my Labs did this to a child whose face was covered in jam, one complete full-barrel Labrador lick that nearly knocked the poor little chap over backwards, his parents (who are farmers) just laughed.

Benji sounds like a real sweetie, hope his confidence just grow and grows with you.

Hi Benjismum

I have a 15wk old GSD who is very similar, his breeder had a little girl of 3 who absolutely adored the dogs, this is fortunate because my grandchildren visit quite often ages and they are all quite small.  To socialise my puppy I took him nearly every morning with my daughter and grandchildren to our local supermarket, taking it in turns while one shopped the other sits outside with him.  I do have him on the lead but he will run up to small children (Given half the chance) and try to lick their faces, because he is so cute and fluffy the mums dont seem to mind, BUT obviously they grow so quickly that it will not be acceptable very soon, when I take him to the park and he is allowed off lead he tried to run up to children, only in a friendly way,,, but it is not the point. So as suggested it is getting his recall drummed into him, then he can meet children ONLY if the children want to and not on his terms.

I would also suggest you teach some sort of "emergency" command for your youngster in case he does hare off; you will need very high motivation, maybe a mix of high value food rewards (liver, chicken) and a toy also. I'd suggest teaching an emergency Sit, which may come in very useful. I've trained my dog to respond to this (she is a Belgian shepherd) and she will do it even if other dogs or people are nearby... I always have a toy nearby and most times she gets rewarded for her response ...

She used to run up behind people as an adolescent, and try to hook their legs with her paw - my fault entirely and I know why it happened (and like yours, her intentions were fun not aggressive, but you have to be so careful!!) The Sit really helped along with socialising generally and so on :)

Lindsay
x

I taught my old Affie cross an emergency 'down/stay'  have to say he took 2 years to train but it saved his life a few times :)  Affies tend to run first and think later ;)

Your doing fine,,  :)   and benji just learned that all kids arent his kid, so he will probaly think twice about going for a look next time.

Hi - well done for coping with so much!

I'm not having a go, but I think you have to be a bit more observant when you're out.  If you see anyone, and I mean anyone, coming towards you - especially with kids or other dogs - then you need to recall Benji and either put him on a lead or keep him under close control next to you (if you can do that).  You need to be a bit more proactive in preventing these things from happening.  That's one of the reasons why recall has to be so good - because you need to be able to recall him away from these tempting things.  I've seen people kick dogs that just go running up to them, because they were non-doggy people and had no idea if the dog was friendly or not as they couldn't read it.  I've also seen friendly dogs go running up to other dogs to say hello, only to get bitten and need stitches because of this.  So if you're unsure of the situation, recall him.

thanks for the adcive.
however i have not had a problem with his behaviour before this. we have come across all sorts of children, prams, strange dogs and he always listens to my recall and sits at my side intill i tell him he can move. not bad for a 4 month old pup that had no socilisation skills. this incident took us compleatly by surprise. but i am pleased to say that it hasnt happend again. so it looks liek it may of been a momnt of confusion.

Well, I don't mean to worry you, but little pups are usually very good on their recall.  They are not sure of the big wide world, you are the centre of their universe, they usually don't go further than a certain distance away from you and so on - you get the picture.  However, as they get older, they gain in confidence, they are more sure of themselves, they are more curious about what is over the next hill or who strangers on the horizon are, and as they reach adolescence they also begin to challenge you a bit, by not obeying commands they previously appeared to 'know'.  So, again, I don't mean to worry you, but there's a very good chance this is not just a moment of confusion but the beginning of something...  I think it would be a really good idea to practise your recall with him a lot more - take some tasty treats when you go out and just recall him while you walk, give him a treat, and let him go again.

This is the reason the very confident independent breeds like mien have to be taught recall at a very early age, as the period of not wanting to be away from you and lacking the confidence to is short :D

This was brought hom to me forcibly when I met a freidn witha  GSD pup same age as one of mine as a pup.  Hers trotted by her side, mine was off into the distance, she stood there with her mouth open. :D

When we got back to ehr house mine was straight through the rather insecure (I didn't realise) boundary hedge into next door, which her pup had never attempted to breach.

the problem is that i got him at 13 weks old with no socilisation skills what so ever.

he had a shaky start. also he comes to recall prefectly , and we have been practicing it every day. i am able to recall, stay then recall and stay about 5 times in a row at a time keeping his attention the whole way through.

this momnt was simply becasue he felt the child was bethany, and by the time i have noticed what it was he was doing the recall was too late. he did come back to me as soon as i recalled him the second time and he had realised that child was not bethany.

and i have been out since and he hasnt dont it again. i did write a post on the boards about him not being as good with his recall as he was , but was tolds that it was noirmal for pups to have lapses and that to reinforce the commands with treats, which is what i am now doing, and its coming back to him again.

Bear in mind that you are much higher than your dog and therefore can see much farther than he can, if he has perfect recall then i don't see you have any problems - all you do is keep your eyes open and if you see someone - be it a family of another dog, call him back to you before he sees them, eventually he will learn that if someone else is around he should return to you - simple...lol
Good luck

Stay recalls are basically just fluke for treats , you can make him stay and yell out "BLARRGH" and he'll come running to you. Work on REAL distraction recalls like in this situation. If he's chasing a biker or a squirrel the stay recall will be useless. If you get real recall (probably take you a few years) then you won't have a problem with the agression.

I would keep him on long leash , many people say "my dog won't do it again" like cross a street off leash. Once he does it another time then gets hit by a car its a split second, there is no "never again." For Benjis and your own safety i would keep him on long lead for the time being just incase.