TLDR: I have had a 3 year old German Shepard for 6 months, he was raised on a large - middle of nowhere- property, he was not reactive with other dogs until he was ambushed 3 times by a few dogs in a non off leash area. He is also reactive with squirrels. He has days where he is great on walks, then days where he is terrible on walks. It is very stressful & difficult to manage sometimes. Looking for support.
I have a 3 year old German Shepard. My husband and I got him early December from a middle age couple that were going through serious health complications, they lived a 2 1/2 hour drive from us in the middle of nowhere, so my GSD grew up on a isolated 1 acre property. Now he lives with us, in a more suburban neighbourhood.
He was very well house trained and still is. He doesn’t bark, leaves the kitchen when asked, is not hyper at the door when we come home, doesn’t jump on the bed or couch unless invited, doesn’t rip up anything that’s not his… He is excellent in the house to this day.
The past few months, he’s reactive towards dogs, rabbits, and squirrels. He will do everything from pull, bark, lunge, or scream/whine in frustration of not being able to get to them. Sometimes his scream is so loud and concerning-sounding that people stare, or come out their house to see what’s going on. He also obsesses over sniffing certain areas, to the point of pulling with his full weight.
On his good days, he is able to ignore the squirrels, and if he sees a dog, he pulls the leash to get away faster, or ignores the dog for the most part.
We reward good behaviour often even if it’s small. We bring treats on walks, and give him lots of pets and hugs when he is good.
When he is misbehaving, we try to stay calm, get him to sit, breath, treat, before we move on. Sometimes this can take a couple minutes. If he’s pulling we stop walking, or turn around so he knows to follow us. In general we try to avoid his triggers by distancing ourselves from others, staying in open areas like fields, parks.
He will have 3-4 really good walk days, then he will have terrible walk days for a couple days, and it’s like we have to retrain him every time.
He wasn’t always like this, especially not with other dogs. He did seem scared and timid around other dogs when we first brought him home, but he wasn’t reactive until he got ambushed about 3 times by off leash dogs in a non off leash park. Those were visibly traumatic for him. He also gets seizures, which thank god it’s been months since his last one, because he’s on medication now. But I’m not sure if he has a neurological issue as a result of that, stress, and his massive life change.
It’s stressful and embarrassing to have a large dog that misbehaves like this in public, and some people don’t care, they see he is reactive and they walk towards us with their dog.
Yesterday this man had his pitbull laying on his front lawn, being calm, my dog saw and barked at him. The man said “your big dog should not have that problem”. I didn’t respond but I was angry, frustrated, and all of the above after that comment. I think it’s great that his dog isn’t reactive, but it’s not his place to tell me about my dog because he has his own history & background.
I’ve done a lot of research on training, and I understand the patience, and maybe he will never fully over come this fear / issue… But my god is it stressful, especially since we walk him 4-6 times a da for around 40 minutes/walk. If I had my GSD from a puppy, I would have absolutely socialized him, and nipped those behaviours in the butt. I’ve done it successfully with previous beloveds before.
Anyway, any tips, words of wisdom, similar experiences? Please share, I could really use a community.
I have a 3 year old German Shepard. My husband and I got him early December from a middle age couple that were going through serious health complications, they lived a 2 1/2 hour drive from us in the middle of nowhere, so my GSD grew up on a isolated 1 acre property. Now he lives with us, in a more suburban neighbourhood.
He was very well house trained and still is. He doesn’t bark, leaves the kitchen when asked, is not hyper at the door when we come home, doesn’t jump on the bed or couch unless invited, doesn’t rip up anything that’s not his… He is excellent in the house to this day.
The past few months, he’s reactive towards dogs, rabbits, and squirrels. He will do everything from pull, bark, lunge, or scream/whine in frustration of not being able to get to them. Sometimes his scream is so loud and concerning-sounding that people stare, or come out their house to see what’s going on. He also obsesses over sniffing certain areas, to the point of pulling with his full weight.
On his good days, he is able to ignore the squirrels, and if he sees a dog, he pulls the leash to get away faster, or ignores the dog for the most part.
We reward good behaviour often even if it’s small. We bring treats on walks, and give him lots of pets and hugs when he is good.
When he is misbehaving, we try to stay calm, get him to sit, breath, treat, before we move on. Sometimes this can take a couple minutes. If he’s pulling we stop walking, or turn around so he knows to follow us. In general we try to avoid his triggers by distancing ourselves from others, staying in open areas like fields, parks.
He will have 3-4 really good walk days, then he will have terrible walk days for a couple days, and it’s like we have to retrain him every time.
He wasn’t always like this, especially not with other dogs. He did seem scared and timid around other dogs when we first brought him home, but he wasn’t reactive until he got ambushed about 3 times by off leash dogs in a non off leash park. Those were visibly traumatic for him. He also gets seizures, which thank god it’s been months since his last one, because he’s on medication now. But I’m not sure if he has a neurological issue as a result of that, stress, and his massive life change.
It’s stressful and embarrassing to have a large dog that misbehaves like this in public, and some people don’t care, they see he is reactive and they walk towards us with their dog.
Yesterday this man had his pitbull laying on his front lawn, being calm, my dog saw and barked at him. The man said “your big dog should not have that problem”. I didn’t respond but I was angry, frustrated, and all of the above after that comment. I think it’s great that his dog isn’t reactive, but it’s not his place to tell me about my dog because he has his own history & background.
I’ve done a lot of research on training, and I understand the patience, and maybe he will never fully over come this fear / issue… But my god is it stressful, especially since we walk him 4-6 times a da for around 40 minutes/walk. If I had my GSD from a puppy, I would have absolutely socialized him, and nipped those behaviours in the butt. I’ve done it successfully with previous beloveds before.
Anyway, any tips, words of wisdom, similar experiences? Please share, I could really use a community.