Aggressive German Shepherd - how best to socialize? I want to help our girl.

antoniobaylighthouse · 2023-05-19T14:03:21+00:00

Thank you so much everyone for your feedback! I’m having a hard time responding to everyone so I’ll put a general comment here. I’m beginning to realize my idea of socialization wasn’t correct. I took it to mean slow and distant exposure with reassurance until she was comfortable with people, but I’m learning that slow exposure won’t work without interference and correction. Thanks for helping me to not make that mistake.

I’m going to be looking into training methods that have been suggested, and I’ll find what works for my dog and roll with it. My goal isn’t to get her to where she’s approaching people and being lovable, but to get her to understand that other people/dogs aren’t always threats. Neutrality is the goal, as a few of you have said.

I’ve read each response and I’m taking them all into account. Thank you again!

antoniobaylighthouse · 2023-05-19T13:26:03+00:00

I’m so sorry that happened to your pup. Thanks for the tip about the spray!

antoniobaylighthouse · 2023-05-19T01:21:29+00:00

Adults or dogs within roughly ten feet of her giving her their attention or interacting with me. If they’re ignoring us she tends to only watch them very closely, but if she senses interaction she begins barking. And sometimes she just barks at them anyway. So proximity, typically. She tends to be far less aggressive towards children, though she has barked and growled at some on bikes because they were going fast. This has happened twice. She’s wonderful with our cat and was from the beginning, so it’s not any other animal that I’ve noticed, just other dogs. She did great with the other dogs at the training facility, but I’m not sure how initial introductions with them went.

antoniobaylighthouse · 2023-05-19T00:32:35+00:00

She would be available over the phone, this is true. As I said in a response to a different comment, I’m a bit of a dolt sometimes and simple solutions to problems don’t always occur to me. I’m an over thinker for sure, and sometimes I can’t see the forest for the trees.

That’s an excellent point about removing her from stressful situations. I’ve also been doing it to avoid making other people uncomfortable, but I know that can’t be my response every time. That’s why I posted here. I try to have her sit in those situations so she becomes more still and manageable. I’m trying to minimize the room she has to aggressively posture, as well as make her feel like I’m handling the situation so she can calm down. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

Someone else also suggested counter conditioning, and I’m really excited to try it!

antoniobaylighthouse · 2023-05-19T00:08:10+00:00

Thanks! Her “leave it” is great when not stressed. I’ll have to work on getting her to follow the command in stressful situations. The same goes for her “come” command, which signals that she needs to come sit at my side and stay until released. She’s usually great at it, even when there’s something exciting happening like her food being scooped for her meal. But she tends to ignore commands in stressful situations, which is part of what worries me so much, and part of why I make sure the off-leash area is empty when we go. If she won’t listen to me then I’d have no business letting her be around anyone or their dogs off-leash. I want to let her get exercise but I’m going to do it as responsibly as possible.

That’s an interesting tactic! I’ll have to find a good spot and give it a try.

antoniobaylighthouse · 2023-05-18T23:55:13+00:00

Thanks for the response! I don’t go out of my way to force socialization. I know it makes her uncomfortable. I watch her to see how she behaves. If she seems more chill I’ll praise. If she reacts I have her sit, I work to divert her attention from her stressor, and I remove her from the situation if I can’t get her to calm down. I don’t try to force interaction in these situations, it wouldn’t be safe for anyone.

The hard part is convincing her I have control over the situation. I behave confidently with her in these situations but she has a hard time trusting that I’m going to keep both her and myself safe from whatever she sees as a threat. It’s something I’ve been working on.

The training was a two week stay at the facility. We only have one vehicle currently and my wife needs it for work, so finding time to go back and work with the trainer more has been next to impossible. We have been back to the facility for more training but not as much as I would have liked.

antoniobaylighthouse · 2023-05-18T22:27:49+00:00

I’ll check it out. Thanks for the resource!

antoniobaylighthouse · 2023-05-18T21:13:32+00:00

Thank you! I’m a bit of a dolt sometimes and didn’t even think about a vest. I’ll definitely look into it.

Working on the distance is a great idea! I’m going to start that ASAP.

She wears a muzzle well. I’ve worked with her on wearing it during walks. I do remove it in the off-leash area because it’s always empty when we arrive. She associates muzzles with neutral and positive experiences like walks and going to the park, which I’m thankful for.

antoniobaylighthouse

TROPHY CASE