Older pup with uncontrolled prey drive! help! - Page 1

Hi all, I have an 8 month old female GSD who has UNBELIEVABLE prey drive. This makes her a wonder at Schutzhuhnd work, but a nightmare on walks sometimes. The problem I'm having is when there's even the slightest bit of wind, and a leaf, piece of paper, plastic bag, etc goes blowing by (or if a moth/butterfly flies by at any point, ever), she will lunge will ALL of her might at the item, which often means sore arms and shoulders for me. I'm truly surprised she hasn't dislocated my shoulder yet, but she has knocked me to the ground twice with these sudden lunges. No barking or spinning, just full forced, full drive straninig and pulling to get at the moving item. She totally ignores her fur saver on the live ring even though it chokes her. I just tried wakling her in the park on a windy day- horrible idea! My arm hurts and she pulled after EVERY item that blew by us, dozens of times. Should I try a prong on the live ring? Ecollar? Certain training tricks? How do I control this drive so she uses it appropriately in training but not in unwanted situations? She's a pretty hard dog too, takes corrections very well. I have yet to give her a correction that did not cause her to try and correct me back, althought nothing extreme as she's young (she also nips strangers, even in the face.. just a side note.. any ideas how to stop that?). Please help! Thanks!

Ps. when she nips, its part of an overwhelming welcome. Part of her excitement at seeing someone new. She greets with jumping and half licking/half nibbling at people. Not an aggresive behaviour by any means. But it must stop. Thanks :)

I highly recamend that you get one on one time with a trainer, not just on the schutzhund field. If she is trying to correct you back, even though she is young, it needs to be addressed now. If it escalates as she gets older, she could seriously hurt you. Also the nipping at strangers needs to be addressed now.

If your club doesn't have a trainer that will work with you off the field, ask if they know someone in the comunity that they like. Also ask vet's office and local obedience club. Then look around till you find someone you like.

Even though I don't belive in doing any obedience or hard correction before 1 year, I agree you need to start correcting her when she dose that, before  you won't be able to handle it. Get a trainer one on one and talk to him, he will be able to asses the situation better. The fact that she continues to do it is due to the fact that your level of correction is not hard enough. Sounds like you have a good dog ;)

you need to sort this out ASAP that dog sounds like a liability!!! but with good training now she could be superb.

 she needs one on one training with a professional dog trainer

pleas heed the advice as this could cost your dog its life and you allot of money!!!!

if you give us the state/county you live in perhaps someone would be able to recommend a good trainer in your local area.

kind regards,

Tracie.

Thanks for the responses, yes I know she needs work and I'll do everything I can. She's done this since I first got her at 9 weeks, she even tried correcting the trainer at puppy classes at only 10 weeks old. I will see if the schutzhund trainer I"m working with has any advice about this. I'm in Tucson AZ if anyone has recommendations for trainers. For now, when she greets people like this (even people she knows like my roommates), should I give her a correction with a prong? A stem with her ecollar?

prong if you know how to use it .e colars not so good on young or any dog .it should not be used as your first choice.one on one with private trainer. i was wondering as to her blood lines ? that sometimes can be helpful in figureing out the problem.is this your first gsd?

yes she's my first GSD, the other dogs I've owned were easy maintence, submissive beagles. I hear she will get less excitable as she gets older, but I know the nipping must stop now. She is a showline GSD (i'm sure some people reading this will now have doubts about how I describe her behaviour, but I assure you, she's intense and her prey drive really is extreme). She's not on the database yet but her parents are VA Nando Gollerweiher and V Isa von Appolonia, if you're interested they are both on the database.

By the way, any advice on how to control her prey drive on walks?

No offense but it sounds like the dog is fine but there is lack of leadership. Who ever you worked with didn't work on establishing leadership and trust, that is why you can' t control it now, and you have to go as far as using prong. I agree with wuzzup I would stay far away from e-collar especially since a lot of people don't know how to use it correctly or more important introducing it correctly to the dog.

Just because she is show line dose not have to mean that she has no drives or toughness in her :) that is nothing but a stereotype. I seen in my life some work lines that good show line put to shame and other way around :). Dog should be judge on individual basis in order to learn it's true character :). It might be that you have on your hand fire cracker and you need to work on establishing leadership.

Go find trainer don't wait you waited long enough I would never let my dog nip on the face of people, I never let most people to band over enough so my dog can get to their faces, it crates bad habit in a dog, at least habit that I don't like :).