How to tell if your GSD has personal - Page 4

Agar I do see what my son did as wrong, thats why he got chewed out. I was trying to explain that I did not want a PPD for competition, I did not mean that I do not want her professionally trained if she has the ability to handle it. I do know that she has to have training beyond what I am able to do ( basic obediance) so that I will have control of her, especially with her displaying protectiveness.

Dawgs you are correct in that she is not getting as much interaction as she was, I no longer have the luxury of taking her with me daily when I go to the shop, to lowes or shopping. I am working on that, taking her for walks in the neighborhood and out in the pasture for ball time. Everything has been in limbo since the first part of march. My husband moving in happened to cooincide with her coming into her first heat so I am not sure which brought about the changes. The shop is in an area that has very undesirable neighbors in a trailer park behind it, that I am at after dark and leaving with sums of cash at times in my possesion, alot of people would be deterred just by the sight of GSD.

My dogs consist of Mischa, Rocky , my sons dog that he has not been able to get a fence up for yet, and I will not allow him to take him until he does have a fence. He is near a busy fm road and I do not want the dog toget hurt, and he does not need to run the neighborhood. I still have goldie.

I ask questions because I do not know. I suppose everyone here was born with the knowledge they now have? No one possibly owned a dog that they did not have the experiance with and had no need to ask for advice or opinions, and Lived in an area that had trainers/handlers jumping out of the woodwork to share the knowledge right?

I ask for advice and I get advice, I take heed of the advice. I did not ask for comments about my personal life. Its none of anyones business, I merely related the scenario behind the what was occuring.

I have not yet seen anyone post ways that I can correct the behaviours and what needs to be corrected. Thats what I was asking for. I was given advice, praise her for showing protectiveness of my property, I did that. From reading the posts, I should be correcting her when she shows any protectiveness/aggression without being commanded to do so. Am I correct in this line of thought or not?

And if people said "Yes, correct her when she shows sigs of aggression"  Can you tell us what you think the first signs of aggression that would require correction would be and can you tell us how you would correct the dog, exactly what you think an appropriate correction is?  Can you tell us how you will correct what YOU are doing so that you are not putting the dog in situations she can't handle and tell us what you will stop doing that has been wrong to this point?  Can you tell us what to look for to know the dog is in the beginning stages of stress which might lead to aggression?   Finally, if we say "Yes, correct the dog" and you do so, how will you handle it if  the dog redirects towards you and comes up the leash for your hand/arm/face?  If you think that can't happen, you are in for a very rude awakening.

If we go by what you say, the dog only acted inapropriately once at 4 months, then all of a sudden again at 10 months.  That is just not possible.  You are either missing the red flags that have been out there or you refuse to acknowledge them. 

Somewhere you said you would let someone come up and pet the dog, but you had a real tight hold on the collar.  Do you know what you are transmitting down the leash to the dog with your demeanor when you are tense, nervous, whatever?  I'm not saying let the dog loose, but I can't begin to explain the right way to allow people to approach this type of dog over the internet to a novice dog handler.

Of course no one was born with experience, but you are a beginner with the wrong dog - it's too much dog for you to do this on your own, which is why I keep saying "GET PROFESSIONAL HELP".  That or as others have suggested, a much easier breed of dog.  It is not a matter of reading books or getting internet advise.  It is about learning timing, being able to read the most subtle of cues from the dog (a look, an ear twitch, body language, even the way everything suddenly quiets the nanosecond before an eruption), learning how to carry yourself because dogs are masters at reading us and can detect the subtlest of our "tells".   We must not forget the importance of timing as well.  Timing is crucial - split second timing in many instances.   Different dogs plus different scenarios all  require different solutions, or slightly modified to fit,  there is no "one size fits all".

See, it's just not so easy or cut and dried to give you the correct advise or solution when you say  "My dog does ________________" .  Also I have a strong feeling by the questions you asked in your last post, you think there is some magic answer someone is going to give you and you are still going to try this yourself.  Shandra, You are not qualified to do what you are attempting to do.   Hire a professional, and if no one knows of anyone in your particular area, start calling breeders in your area for names and references.

Of course, I might be totally misreading the situation, for all I know the dog could be completely normal.  That's the problem  and the limitation of not being able to see something with our own eyes.  We all process written information received differently according to what we have experienced ourselves.  We all try to provide pertinant information so a complete picture is given, but something one might see as important another might think is immaterial and leave out.  The internet is so great, but sometimes so frustrating too.

See, that's a big part of the problem, Shandra.  You don't realize that your dogs are tied to your personal life.  I don't want to preach to you.  Besides you tend to reject and ignore other's perspectives.  BUT I will.

I normally don't get into these threads, but I feel for your son.  As far as I remember, he is a special needs type of child.  Someone that requires extra time and committment.  Every single thread that you have started is mostly focused on your dogs and your son is a byproduct.  It should be the other way around.  I love dogs.  I will always have one, but if my family needed me to, I would place all of them.  Your Tino thread should have focused on your son's safety, the mercury puppy thread should have focused on your son's safety and the fact that you don't know that your son had hazardous materials and this incident should lead you to focus more on your son than your dogs.

At 16 years old, how knowlegable and saavy were you?  I know I hadn't a clue.  With all that has happened, you are going to give him a dog?  I don't think that the situation is stable enough.  Sometimes, I think that the GSD is out of your reach, let alone a child that needs more than a dog in his life.

Shandra, don't take offense.  I just think that you need to get your priorities in order.  At least for your son's sake.  I don't think that anyone on here has bad intentions for you.  Most everyone has tried to be civil and have lent some good advice. 

Don, the reason it appears that I am focusing on the dogs and not my son on here is because this is a dog board, not a child board. I would not go to a board that addresses issues with children and ask them about issues with my dog....

The change in Mischa's environment was sudden, for several months it was just me and her and she was going back and forth to the shop with me, walking lowes and tractor supply, socializing and doing great with folks. I was given the advice that that may not be a good thing as it doesnt give her time away from me to experience things on her own so she started staying home a couple of days a week. Days she had to stay home I took her for extra walks and playtime. Suddenly a stranger  that she has never met moves in, he hit her ( she has NEVER been struck) only a week or so after moving in so that didnt help their relationship. She doesnt indicate by growling or things of that nature, you can see the tenseness of her body and the watchfulness in her ear movenment. Body Language speaks volumes. She gives several signs when she is stressed, I have learned to recognise them. I have to watch dogs in the course of my day for the ones that may bite without warning, each dog has a different threshhold and gives different signals in 1 way or another.

As far as Giving my son a dog, thats not the case, Rocky is His dog, not mine, I am merely caring for him until my son has everything ready over there, if it takes a week or a year it will still be his dog. He has had Rocky for a year now, he paid the vet bills for shots etc by mowing yards and throwing sod and he did chip in on dogfood. To me that constitutes taking responsibility for his pet. He is ADHD, not mentally retarded, He is 16 and slightly delayed in mauring, what 16 yr old isnt.

I will find a trainer somewhere that can advise me.

Thanks for the comments and advice

Mischa doesn't need training she needs to be played  with.she has come into a bad situation.

"HE HIT HER"     Cancer or no cancer ,,would be the last dog he hit.

Your environment is not suitable for a pet german shepherd.Rehome this dog until you have control of your homelife.

She does play, plenty. She has to have manners, that only comes thru training in daily activities what is acceptable and what isnt. She is leashed when we leave the yard, safety first. At the shop, the connecting door is closed while clients are coming in in the mornings and again in the evenings to pick up their dogs. The remainder of the time she walks the shop freely and in the fenced yard while I am out there.

Until you have dealt with someone that has End Stage Liver Disease and has an extreme blood ammonias build up, you cannot understand the disease or the issues that accompany it. We settled the hitting issue that day, period. As far as my son goes, He was not ASKED to stomp at her while smacking my arm, he did it suddenly, without advanced warning and it has been dealt with.

It seems that the answer in most folks mind is usually " Get rid of the dog". This time, aint gonna happen. Training, yes. When this mans dies I will be alone in my home and work again, She is my companion and pet. I will not get rid of my dog because of this man, period. I will work on her issues until all resources are exhausted.

Shandra, chewing your son out is not gonna help especially if he has some disabilities.  I'm not trying to tell you how to "parent" but explaining why it's not a good idea to behave the way he is around the dog will maybe make sense to him.  My children are much younger than your son but they "get it" when I break it down for them how we are to behave around the dogs. 

On another note a PPD isn't trained for "competition" it's trained for exactly what it's called-a PERSONAL PROTECTION DOG.  Competition dogs are trained entirely different with different goals in mind.  Both do bite work but the training and final product is very different.  There's nothing wrong with being a beginner, asking questions or even making a few mistakes you're expected to make.  However you can't be taught how to train, read your dog, or learn how to fix unwanted behaviors over the internet.  Many of us live in areas that we do not have many clubs, helpers or competent trainers to work with but you do what is necessary and if it means sending your dog out for proper training because you don't have the resources to do it yourself or anyone to help you well then that is what you do. It's better than doing nothing. 

When someone offers you good advise you shouldn't get defensive but more appreciative that they're sharing their own experiences with you to help you in the right direction but if you choose to disregard the advise then people will give up trying to help and no longer take you serious. 

It sounds like you have a whole lot going on in your personal life that maybe right now is just not the right time to be focussed on the dogs.  Don't get me wrong my life is busy 24/7, I love my dogs and they do have some level of priority BUT first comes the kids, business-then the dogs and lastly the other things I enjoy IF I have the time to fit them in.  Kinda sucks that I come last in the equations but that's just how it is.  I made a committment when I had children, made a committment when I started a business and I have a committment to the dogs I chose to add to my life.  If all you have time and experience to do with your dog is obedience then that's ok; it's something that's better than nothing.  She's still young and the best control you can get over her is to perfect her obedience, deal with her social issues and just continue to build that bond.  Keep in mind you weren't specifically looking for a PPD prospect when you got her so she is what she is and if she never saw a sleeve in her life or ever took a bite she would probably not feel as though she missed out on anything.