`aggression, fear or guarding???please help! - Page 1

hi! i had today small , little bit stressful incident , my gsd,14 month old male come out with me in front garden  and by my house there was two boys in halloween scary costumes, very loud and bouncy, he hear them first then he went look at them and then he saw the boys dressed in fully, even head was covered with costume,first he got very strong posture, his body was strained, then he went forward and start bark, one of the boy start run awway and scream, dog didnt want listen my command  and kept running behind hgim and around and stiil barking, other boy stay stil and he barked on him , but then listen my comand and comeback to home straight away , it was frightening, all evening i and my husband was searching answers, why its happens, usually he is calm and very abedient, in his 14 months of age he might barked only 3-4 times, and its was on neibourghs noisy kids only, and i try to understand is it the problem is in noisy kids or costume or he was guarding house and i think i really need advice on that

Halloween is an unusual time for any pup/dog.  It is unreasonable, in my opinion, for you to expect your dog not to react to a bunch of screaming kids in various weird costumes.  Your dog should have been on a leash.

thanks, he allways on leash on road outside, except parks and woods and back garden, i just went with him to the front garden for him to do tualet, because we wanted to go away visit friends.any way its made me be aware that in situations like that i have to be more precaution and more watch his body language and alarm signs .

Given that your boy is an adolescent and the situation was completely bizarre to him, I think he showed very good restraint not biting, despite the running and screaming.  

Your dog is a teenager now, and like all teenagers, they sometimes think they know better than mom or dad, so it's not surprising that he didn't listen to you immediately.  I do not expect any of my dogs to be mentally and emotionally mature until 24-36 months old...males tend to reach mental and emotional maturity later than females.   From the situation you described, I do not see any kind of negative warning signs about your dog's temperament.  

I agree with Keith, keep your dog on a leash if it is not in a securely fenced-in area.  Despite my dogs being well trained, I do not expect any  of my dogs to have 100% stay or recall until after they reach full maturity, so thus my young dogs do not get to enjoy the freedoms that my older dogs do, even if they have had perfect manners.  

You can also further your dog's socialization by taking it places and doing training sessions in areas where you expect there will be odd people or events.   I take mine to parades, out on walks during trick-or-treating times, any holidays where you might expect to see people dressed in costume (such as santa claus, easter bunny, etc.)   You could even dress up in wacky costumes at home (altering your face or wearing a mask is the most important, because dogs rely on facial recognition in addition to scent.)   Also, to get your dog used to children running and screaming, take him to outdoor sports events at parks or near childrens playgrounds.  Do stuff with him within visual and hearing range of these things, so that he gets used to them being completely normal.   

My current oldest boy (GSD) was socialized to the max when he was young, he went everywhere with me that I was allowed to take him, even into stores, the mall, outdoor patio area at restruants, large church picnics, in church, to any parade, marathons, trick-or-treating, holiday parties and events, etc. etc.  
All that socializing payed off well for him a couple years ago, when...on halloween, during trick-or-treating, a young child in a mask and costume opened our door and went into our house without asking or having permission and gave my dog a full body hug, the child was a complete stranger to us and my dog.  Thankfully my ol' boy was completely unfazed and very happy to be hugged.  The child's mother on the other hand, I think, nearly had a heart attack, lol. 

lmao Euro, that just goes to show that some parents do not educate their kids on proper ettiquette when it comes to dogs. Parents here let their kids just run up to dogs and pet without asking or anything and it drives me absolutely nuts. Mainy because the kids are so aggressive and get my dog hyped up when I don't want her to be. So, I've gotten to the point I tell the kids she bites, and their FIRSt reaction is to freeze, then they turn around flailing their arms and screaming and running. It's quite comical, but sad it's gotten to that point.

Weitel:  I had to tell people my boy would bite also;  really did not like doing that BUT I actually had people come up without asking even though he was identified as a working K9;  finally I gave up and just plain told people he would bite if they tried to pet him.  I had one weirdo at a campsite in a regional park particularly looked suspicious and was heading towards me asking if the dog would bite;  I said YES he bites did you want to try him out?  He backed right off and said NO and glared at me, but JHC, people use some brains and as much as you hear about teaching your kids not to pet strange dogs on our news;  that is the first place they head is towards the strange dog with arms flailing and running towards the dog. 

Euro;  you obviously did a great job with your socialization program with your boy.  I feel I did not and plan to change that with my next boy;  almost go overboard with the socialization in every situation possible and every scenario, costumes and all.  The hubs used to teach conformation classes up in No. CA and you would not believe the dogs that hated or were scared to death of cowboy hats or sun hats which many of the judges wore judging during the heat of the day.  Everytime my husband brought a hat along especially the youngsters would freak out for the first time then were usually OK after that;  sometimes even my own dogs would notice strange things like hats and extreme loud noises.

Socialization with these guys will definitely rear its ugly head if not done properly with these guys and sometimes comes out in the darndest ways.  great days everyone,  Nan

thank you for your replies, it was veru useful, i will defenately will put lots of effort in to show my boths dogs(i have one more, she is 4 month old little lady) odd things and will  introduce all types of noise, movements and everthing how much i can, they both allready every day been interacted with other dogs and people in park, but there not that many walking around in costumes, today we did create scene at home with masks, but because they was mine children and our family, he just try to jump and reach mask , but otherwise he was calm and normal.

Hijacking the thread slightly away from the original topic....
I also want to point out that having a dog who is extremely well socialized does not mean the dog is no longer a good protection dog.  My ol boy that I mentioned in the previous post is also protection trained, both prey and defense drives.  He is an incredibly excellent judge of character and will give warning or bite if the situation warrants it.   I have learned to trust his instincts better than I trust my own.  
It's my personal policy to only do protection training with my most social dogs, if I can't take my dog everywhere and trust it in every situation, then I don't want to teach it to bite.  

bizbiz, sound's like you're off to a good start   so far everything you've said about your boy in this thread sounds like he's a real good dog. So just more creative socializing and training from here on out 


As for strange adults and children approaching and petting my dogs without asking first....wow....the stories I could tell!  Two different occasions my dogs have been unexpectedly hugged by adult male strangers (also by women and children, but I mentioned the men because in my experience, dogs are more likely to be aloof or suspicious of men more so than anyone else.)   We do a lot of off-leash training at local parks and college campus, including many long-distance sit-stays and down-stays, normally people avoid our dogs or smile and walk past, but every once in awhile, some well-meaning idiot thinks a dog is lost and they try to take them.  One time back when I only had one dog (Klaire-who was also well trained in bitework) we were camping in Michigan, went to a small store at the park that did not allow dogs, so left Klaire tied up outside while we grabbed some groceries (took less than 5 minutes), came back outside to see our dog mobbed by children...seems like 8-10 little kids surrounding her, hugging, petting, etc....and the parents were all chatting some 20-30 ft away, totally not caring that their kids were practically crawling over an unknown 85 lb dark colored German Shepherd.   I've got even more wacko stories than that, like the woman (another complete stranger,) who used my dog as a baby-sitter for her baby (that was barely in the crawling stage) without even saying hi (or anything else) first.  

People will do the darndest things...and if your dog appears to be well trained and good looking, then they will treat your dog like it's Lassie or Rin-Tin-Tin.