Lunging and growling at strangers - 4 Month Old puppy! - Page 4

HIMB, I came across this article recently, which may help explain your dog's attitude to the Labrador pup!

 

http://sarahwilsondogexpert.com/why-does-my-herding-dog-seem-to-hate-labs/

Nice one, Sun !

Sun    Sounds very familiar...

All my dogs despised this kind of "bad mannered", stupidly grinning dogs.

Over here we tend to call German Shepherd Dogs "racists", because normally they are fine within the breed, but don´t show much indulgence with mentally weaker/different breeds.

Interestingly this has nothing to do with seize or physical strength, but with different manners and mindset.

This could be true, he got in a scrap with my friend's female wiry dachshund mix, very lovely dog, but, after we walked them at a distance, he was perfectly fine with her, and smelling her, and coming close to her, which I've never seen do with other dogs, the dachshund has an issue with Shepherds though, since their Shiloh Shepherd bullies her, but they were perfectly fine with each other, the Labrador puppy, is 8 months, and is full grown and smaller than him, he's 4 months.. Like the dog looks like it's a puppy that won't ever grow. Probably didn't help the fact that she was barking at him, while play bowing, she has a super high pitch bark, didn't think he liked that.

He saw a Rottie the other day, a female rottie, full grown, and hackles up, growling and barking, pulling.. When we introduced him to our friend's Rottie / Shepherd mix, when he was younger (the dog is incredibly calm and happy), he would snarl hackles up.. Etc. He's slightly gotten better, but still avoids, and growls or something.

He also met a Husky mix, who was a happy dog, hackles up, growling and tried to bite the Husky's face, baring his teeth and backing up, hiding behind us.

I think he's more so terrified, rather than racist, but racist too :P
He did try to play with a tiny dog, that didn't bark at him and was running in circles, nor was trying to bite her.

He had his first Obedience class today, the trainer who's very sweet.. Said he has fear aggression, he was very stressed out, yawning, and the moment he saw another puppy, he freaked out barking, and pulling, baring teeth if they came close.. He didn't want to play with any of the other puppies, when they came up, he bared teeth, growled and tried to avoid... He did at times 'want' to play with them, but clearly didn't know how.

I'm really upset, because, this is my first puppy. His personality fits smoothly with ours, but it still terrifies me, the fact that I might fail him one day, I'm terrified he might bite someone someday.. Or, another dog. I know there is no cure for fear & aggression, only a 'manage' it type of thing.

I'm really upset with the breeder too, our first puppy. The trainer said, we were doing everything right.. But, it just worries me.

Seeing him in that setting too was sad, because he was tail tucking and running away. He was absolutely terrified.

I don't know if it's my fault though, I blame myself, when we first got him, he was always a skittish puppy, on pickup date, he hid from us, but we took him anyways, because he was so cute. Whenever we introduced him to anyone, he was terrified, avoiding them, etc... But was completely OK with little kids, whenever we would walk him though, we'd pick him up in fear of him getting sick whenever he saw another dog, so it could partly because of us, and, because, we didn't take him to Obedience school earlier.

The breeder is known for her skittish dogs.. Shepherd rescues .. Are aware of this.

I'm so sad, and hurt. I love him though.

May not be for ever, if you get working at it right. My Vida (GSD female) was not the bravest of souls; when I took her on as house dog @ 3.5 years she was still raving at people and dogs some of the time, actually bit a couple of people. But in time she: made 'best friends' with a Rottie (well she acted more like his adoptive Mother than a friend); used to run loose in the park with up to 15 other dogs of all breeds, happily & playfully, even managed to be vaguely friendly with all their owners; shared visits to my home by friends and their dogs; shared a car with another friend and her dog. And once Vee had made a friend, of dog or human, it lasted for life. So there is hope. Stick at it.

Thank you Hundmutter, that really gets rid off the stress, and made me really happy to hear that. Was she fearful and or aggressive? Or just shy.

I'm really hoping this Obedience class can turn him around, I'm gonna sign up for the next class too, after he completes this one, I am hoping he'll be OK for that class though, since he's like this, with bigger dogs, it'll be much more harder, especially older dogs. He is young still, so, there is hope.. He's never bit anyone, but today at Pet Smart, he definitely startled a lady who thought he was absolutely adorable. But, that that 'he's adorable' smile turned into a frown once he turned around and started barking and growling at her for absolutely no reason, I guess because she may of made eye contact with him, and or, he was being protecting over me.

I really wish I had signed him up for obedience classes at 12 weeks, I regret it now, majority of the dogs in the class are older than 3 months, but .. One Shepherd puppy who's shy, is 14 weeks and is doing wonderfully. Shepherd pup wanted to play with him, but he reacted so nasty, puppy picked up his body language and left him alone.

Do you think picking him up as a puppy, contributed to his behavior around other dogs? Because we were scared he'd get sick, we'd pick him up whenever we saw another dog. When he was a puppy, he never use to bark at any other dog.. Either. Until he got older.

Trainer says he resource guards... He did play with a couple of dogs though when he was younger, most are a hit and miss though it seems.. :(

Picking him up may have been conter productive, but shit happens every day.

I´d walk him with calm, but strong dogs on leash as often as possible. He needs to feel safe, don´t overwhelm him.
Right now neither a dog who wants to tell him "how things are going on" nor a dog who is afraid of him will help.
On leash only until your pup clearly shows the will to interact on its own, this may need some time/a lot of walks.

The same with people - walk him around people as often as possible, the distance due to your pup´s comfort zone.
In case you don´t care about "civil dogs", "real dogs" or whatever, it´s no fault to let strangers feed your pup with treets.

Try to behave as normal as possible, don´t make a big deal out of his fear, keep moving all the time, never stand still, and try to find something he loves ( maybe a ball ). This item, carried in the mouth, may give him some security, too.

It´s not too late - you wrote you love him - don´t give up - he deserves it.

Good luck!

My bitch was absolutely fine in the Show Ring and at Club - these were surroundings she was used to. The first person she bit was a judge, but not while she was in a class. The judge was just there as an exhibitor herself, and was sitting talking to my dog's breeder @ ringside. It was not major, and no shouting involved ! She was well into her second year. The second person was someone who came to work on my garden a couple of years later, she did rave at him - treated him as a trespasser and launched herself at his arm before I could stop her. She was attacked (badly & out of the blue) by two terriers at 10 months old. I don't know about the genetics - I knew mum & met dad, and they were fine with me, although her sire did apparently have a bit of a rep for throwing suspect temperaments, and two litter siblings were 'slightly odd' in different ways. Vee started showing signs of initially avoiding strange people and dogs while out at exercise (i.e. anywhere not like a Show situation) when she was 7 or 8 months; after she was attacked it gradually got a lot worse, and was 'full on' with hackles up by the time I took her over full-time at 3 1/2 years. It then took about a further 3 years to get her to 'wind her neck in' using teaching methods much as Susie just described ^^^ with her. It went from avoidance and hiding behind me to full scale screaming attacks (somewhere along the line she'd decided "Attack is the best form of Defence"), but always worse with some humans and dogs than with others, so she was not entirely predictable.

Sorry for the lack of updates all. He went to his second obedience class, huge improvement, huge.. Still fearful obviously since it's gonna take some time, but I saw hackles less, and he didn't bark as much at the dog, less growls too, so big improvement, he also definitely wants to play but does not know how, he sniffed a shepherd puppy for a very quick second (face to face) for the first time and backed off, the trainer worked with him a lot today, and focused on him most of the class, she LOVES dogs like him (challenge for her).

We will definitely be doing one on one training with her, and sign him up for her reactive dog classes, since we're already seeing a huge leap in improvement.

We also found that he isn't actually more so 'aggressive' to dogs and goes after them, but, HE is very protective of us, mostly me, so he won't let dogs go near us, as to why gets snappy. She said this issue will be fixed, but not her main focus right now, she said he will improve and most likely be able to interact with dogs, but also told us to accept him for who he is, which we do not disagree with :) .. But do not tolerate the 'aggressive' issue. He lacks confidence, and is insecure, so, confidence building is a huge priority.

The people issue, I'm gonna amp up the socialization progress again (at a distance, of course), with nobody touching him, but I believe he isn't 'aggressively' lunging at people.. He's being way to protective over me, so that WILL be dealt with.. With the trainer.

He's also VERY stubborn, and kept throwing a temper tantrum, flopping to the ground biting the leash (bad manners), and gator rolling.

Like she said, he's not that bad, which lifts weight off our shoulders and motivates me with determination to help him, as he's still young.

Do any of you have any tips on building his confidence? It would help a lot.