Hi,,
I have an 8 month old german shepherd, i've been told that this breed usually have a favourite in the family and this happens to be my wife. Recently when myself and my wife take him for walks, he howls and barks if my wife walks a few feet in front of or behind us, this has now progressed to barking and howling whenever he sees other dogs. When i take him on my own he is generally fine, he still sometimes howls when he sees other dogs but it's nothing compared to when my wife is there.
We tried an experiment in the house where my wife left the room whilst i told him to sit and stay, which he did with no problems,,, we tried again but this time with him on the lead and he howled...........
We have phoned training schools but they have said that from what we have described there is no way that we can bring him to the training classes and would therefore need one to one training (which is 5 times per hour more expensive) which is understandable...
We have been considering saving up sending him to one of the residential training schools and was wondering if anyone has any experience in doing this. He really is a wonderful dog and is not aggressive in any way, although when on the lead he does appear to be aggressive to other owners.

Any help / suggestions would be appreciated

Firstly do NOT send your puppy to a"training"school to be trained by someone else This will solve any problems you might have & might lead to your dog being trained by a "Dog Breaker"using cruel methods

In my 40+ years of owning GSDs I can tell you the one man dog GSD is a myth. The main reason a dog attaches it self to one member of the family is because that person feeds & looks after them the most not because they are one man dogs, if this was true then the Armed forces would not be able to switch handlers during a dogs service(happens a lot with dogs based abroad)

Any self respecting dog trainer who runs a dog club will have(well should have)seen young GSDs & other dogs going through puppyhood & what you describe is not aggression but a desire to be near the source of his food. When you say your dogs barks & howls at other dogs howling certainly is not aggression but a notification that he is there & can be an invitation to join them.  Growling  &/or a tensing up in your dog is a possible aggressive(but can be defensive)reaction

Depending where you live I would contact a branch of the British Association for German Shepherd Dogs(BAGSD) who run GSD only training clubs. These branches have qualified GSD trainers who will have probably been through the stage with one of their dogs that you are going through yourselves. If you were in the area I live in you would NOT be turned away from our club because we are there to help people like yourselves as well as the dogs that are better behaved, in controlled environs

In the mean time I would lessen your dogs reliance on you wife by taking turns in feeding,  grooming, exercising & training.

Please don't send him away!

It seems to me as though your dog panics when on lead because he can't get to your wife. If he is fine when she is not there, could you not go to training classes without her?

A friend of mine has a GSD who is very close to me and will approach to say hello no problems. He trusts me completely and I could do anything with him - except hold his lead.........Even if his mum is standing next to us, he will freak out if he realises I am on the other end! He is the same with everyone else too. You need an anchor if she has to walk away. :p

I think a good training class will help, because it will build up his confidence in you as his pack leader and develop a bond between you. It will also socialize him with other dogs. Then when you have control without your wife around at club, you can start working on it at home.

Personally, I would never send any dog of mine away to be trained by someone else. Part of the bonding I have with my dogs comes from the training, which I love. Besides, just because an experienced handler can train him, doesn't mean he will listen to you...........

HTH, let us know how it goes.

Claire

I can only agree with Claire and MM :)

Yes, they are a very intense breed but if brought up properly they are good family dogs. Sending your dog away to be trained is not going to solve your problem. These are very family orientated dogs as you are aware and with the right guidance, are wonderful dogs :) I have had a few rescue Shepherds over the years as well as puppies and the minute they have got into our routine and feel secure they are fine :) Consistency always wins in the end :)

I would take him to training classes without your wife and also get more involved with the feeding & grooming so that he is less reliant on one person. My current Shepherd (rescue) refused to eat unless I fed her in the beginning but with a little perseverence, with me standing nearby and OH actually putting the bowl down, she soon learned the confidence to eat and realised that it wouldn't poison her :P

She can still be a little clingy with me but overall, because we took her to training (at 7 mnths when we got her) she is fairly open to others :)

She is now a well rounded dog but as is usual with Shepherds, can and is protective and in her case, totally neurotic :P But I wouldn't be without her and she is not my main breed ;)........She's wonderful

Thanks for the replies,,,,
My wife is the one who feeds him, so i'll start tomorrow getting more involved in feeding him,,,, i have sent am email to the local BAGSD'S in huddersfield so hopefully they can help,,,, (does anyone know how much they charge?),,,,
I dont believe he would be aggressive to another dog he's fine with my fathers bichon frise,, but whilst out walking no other dog owner will come near us, so socialisation with some dogs his own size would be great,,,,,,,,,,
Would neutering help? i have heard though that with neutering they grow larger,,, and he is already very big for his age....

I know many of the BAGSD clubs are very good, but i would recommend, as with any training club, to go along and have a look without your dog to ensure you are happy with the methods used :)

Lindsay
X

Huddersfield is a very good branch & I have judged their progress competitions several times

They have a very structured training system & qualified GSD owning trainers which is something many clubs lack

A dogs size is determined by genetics and care, i.e. the correct feeding/exercise etc, not whether or not he is neutered. IMO he is too young to be castrated, I personally would wait until he is at least 10 months, although the closer to a year the better. However, it may well be an option worth considering in the future, although it is not guaranteed to help. Castration certainly calmed my first rescue collie down. He was refusing to eat and barking at strangers. Within weeks of castration he was fine. My next two collies were also castrated in an attempt to calm them down and it had no effect whatsoever. The latest one is entire and will probably remain so.

Basically, you need to put in a lot of work with your Shepherd, nothing will work as a quick fix. If you have no intention if breeding from him (which I hope you don't) then there is no reason not to castrate him if there is a chance it may help. Personally, I only castrate my dogs if I have a reason to, which I would say you do.

Good luck,

Claire

Well as advised i have been taking part in feeding and grooming him, and although it has only been a couple of days there has been a significant change in his behaviour.. I took him out alone today to a local park, it was fairly quiet and he walked perfectly on the lead (i read in another thread about changing direction when he pulls and it worked),, another owner came onto the park with two staffs off the lead they were about 100 ft away and Ozzy looked but wasn't all that interested, (from reading another thread i realised that i was making a common mistake in increasing the tension on the lead, which led to Ozzy thinking that something was wrong, so iresisted and it worked).
We kept our distance from the other dogs, which became increasingly difficult as more owners entered the park. Everytime another dog was approaching i changed direction to walk in the opposite direction, which i felt was the wrong thing to do,, he needs to be socialised with other dogs but i was worried of what might happen.
He did bark at one dog though which ran towards us from a side path, i ignored him and kept walking once he stopped barking i praised him.
The only other concern though was when i was walking back to the car an elderly gent was walking quite quickly behind us, Ozzy heard him and turned around, he didn't bark at first he just looked, i then pulled on his lead to continue walking and it was at this point that he started to bark (my fault i figured as the lead tightened he felt there was some threat)...

All in all though it was the first time that i have enjoyed walking him, we spoke to the BAGSD in Huddersfield and we are taking him next Sunday,

I'll keep you posted on his/my progress...

Thanks Again

Hi,,
I managed to get Ozzy to a local training class tonight,,,, I was so nervous about taking him out of the car (not really knowing how he would respond), spoke to the trainer first and he told me to just bring him in,,,,,,,,,, i got him out and straight away he started to bark at a little dog(not sure of the breed maybe a bearded collie?) that looked like pippin off the tv,,, i stopped and held Ozzy back as the hair on his back had stood on end, although his tail was wagging, anyway the little dog just looked at him turned around and walked off !,, the trainer told me to bring him into the room,, (full of people and dogs) at first Ozzy just sniffed and looked like he wanted to play,, but he did bark and nearly pulled my arm from the socket when the other dogs didn't seem interested.

So at this point i was really pleased, he wasn't misbehaving nearly as bad as when out on walks (he may have just been overwhelmed by the number of dogs),,,, we were then told to move out onto the field, Ozzy practically dragged me there, we formed a circle and Ozzy started barking and pulling towards the other dogs, as Ozzy did this the trainer pulled a large plastic tablet container and threw it on the ground, Ozzy jumped and hid between my legs, the trainer then gave him a treat,, this happened a few times and did seem to have some effect (i have seen this method before when a dog barked everytime the door bell rang and so didn't think that it was unusual however i did feel that Ozzy was genuinely scared and that this couldn't be a good thing), i never questioned the method as this is my first time at a class, a second trainer offered to take me and Ozzy to one side as we were disrupting the class,,,, this trainer used a different method,, Ozzy has a collar thats kind of 1/4 choke chain and 3/4 nylon, this method involved letting the lead go loose and then when he barked to pull the lead back saying a word such as NO or LEAVE whichever i preferred and then to turn him away from the dog and praise him (but not to much as he gets overexcited) this also seemed to have some effect although i was a little concered about damage to his neck that may occur with prolonged use of this method),,, eventually a third trainer came to speak to us and took over, this guy used a technique that involved distracting Ozzy be placing myself in front of Ozzy with my back to the dog he was tying to get to,,,, the trainer showed me what to do, when Ozzy barked he spoke calmly to him and offered him a treat but before he gave it to him he made sure that he had his full attention,,, when he was quiet he gave him the treat and played with him,,,, Ozzy loved this,, i really believe that Ozzy would quite happily of gone home with this guy..........

So anyway i've got a week to practice,,,, and i'm thinking of trying the third method, i'm definately going to get him the gentle leader and give that a go,,, all in all i was quite pleased with the way he behaved tonight the people in the club were friendly and knowledgeable and genuinely seemed like they wanted to help,,,,, although i dread to think what the other owners must have been thinking about me,,, I know it's my fault as if i had started doing classes when he was younger i wouldn't be going through this now,,, however i'm now determined to train him properly and i have no intentions of giving up on him..........

They wouldn't have being thinking anything bad & probably many of them will have had exactly the same problem as you are having. I took back a puppy my father bred who had never seen any breed but GSDs & the one he was kennelled with was a nasty piece of work. I had the opposite problem to you every time my Dezzie was approached by another dog he would wet  himself in submission, he had learnt this was the only way to not be attacked by other dogs. I was lucky as i had my Ellie my dog of a lifetime to help me pull him round to having self confidence

Don't blame yourself for not training him earlier as many people think dog training is only for competition work which it shouldn't be of course !

Have a look at Huddersfield branch's site

Have to disagree with Claire H. If a dog is castrated at a very young age, the hormones which control growth don't always 'switch off' at the right time, and the long bones keep growing. This is also evident in human 'castrati' who also become unnaturally tall for the same reason. It doesn't always happen, but is possible, and it is a scientific fact!

Kat

Absolutely right, Kat.

Also it's well known that castrating ram lambs very early results in taller sheep with a higher proportion of fat to muscle - not popular in these health-conscious days.

Hi there, I have this problem with my rescued GSD i have had Bruce for just over a year, when off the lead he is ok, when on the lead he goes for other dogs, so these post's have been a real help. thinking of getting a halti collar so i can guide his head away from the other dogs, and give him incouraging words. He is a quick learner and very intelegent... Good Luck with your GSD and keep up the good work.

Kriss