I have a 1 year old German Shepherd mix who weighs 107 pounds, so he's only going to get bigger until he's 2. I'm going to be bringing him back to obedience, I have to call the place I'm taking him to make sure they got my deposit to hold my place. The good thing is this place deals with a lot of Shepherds, that's what the lady I talked to told me when I told her I had a Shepherd mix. Anyway, the class doesn't start until May 10th and I need a little help in the mean time.
As you can tell by his weight, he's a big boy(no he's not fat, just a large dog). I use a prong collar on him or he won't listen 100% and now I'm very glad I started using it. Just recently he has decided he doesn't like other dogs when he's on his leash, he never did this until after he turned 1 which was just the end of March. We were in Petsmart one day and we ran into a puppy, the owners thought he was a Chow/Shepherd mix, either that or Akita/Shepherd, I don't remember, but we were talking and letting the dogs see each other and my other dog loves other dogs and Rio(the Shepherd mix) did too. He was a pretty good size pup for a 5-6 month old, and Rio snapped at the puppy. I couldn't see him very well so I thought he was just trying to play, but then he did it again. After that I pulled him away. We then ran to Petco as I was looking for a new regular collar for the dogs and didn't find any I liked at Petsmart. We ran into a Cavalier and Rio was fine with him. We even ran into him twice and Rio didn't do anything. Then we ran into a lab that was barking and barking and barking and Rio snapped at him. That I could understand as the dog was probably scaring him, but the puppy at Petsmart wasn't doing anything. Now when we go on walks if he sees a dog he gets all excited(not in the I want to play way either) and keeps looking for the dog and I have to keep telling him to walk or forward. He listens, but he still looks for the dog. Yesterday we went for a walk and there's this stupid family that lives on a corner we walk by and they have a chain link fence and a dog that barks at other dogs going by. I call them stupid because they do nothing about it, they allow the dog to do this. Well, Rio got all worked up and I had to hold him right by the clip on his leash to keep him under control. I understand most dogs will get worked up by this, but he's worse than my Aussie.
I understand he needs more training, that's why he's going back, but until I get in the class with someone who knows what they're doing and can observe his behavior, I need a little help with what to do. He's perfectly fine at the dog park, get's a little excited, but hasn't snapped at anyone there. And as I already said, he didn't learn this from my other dog.
Anyone have anything to offer? Someone at work tried to tell me it's because of the Shepherds protective nature, but that type of thing usually only happens if they aren't around a lot of dogs in their puppyhood and he was. We started going to the dog park after I got him at 9 weeks old and we went to puppy class and a second obedience class. He's been going to the park since I got him, just not as much this winter, and he's ran into dogs at the pet stores that allow them so he's been exposed plenty. Nothing bad ever happened to him and I know I'm not sending off any vibes that I'm afraid.
Okay, I'll shut up now and see if anyone can help.
Shiva