I'm here to ask a question on behalf of a friend about her GSD pup.
For a quick background on the dog, she's from working lines, of a breeder that breeds police type dogs. She's one year old and unaltered due to desire to train in Schultzhund. She's supposed to be STABLE NERVED and that's the biggest worry. My friend is not familiar with dogs of her extreme behaviour, this is not her first GSD only her first from these types of lines. She's sharp, and very suspicious. She feels if she had stable nerves her sharpness and desire to fight wouldn't be such a problem. But, she's very very reactive, and very high drive. This creates a dog that is suspicious of everyone and everything she doesn't know. Her drives and breeding (in my friends' opinion) cause her to dart forward when uncertain and attack, instead of running away. Possibly some fear here, but again she can't always read her. At times she does show a marked nervousness in new situations, might be fear, but at other times she is fearless.
The owner has 2 other GSDs that she has trained in Schultzhund, but they're not of strict working line breedings. So this is something she's not 100% versed in. She's also hard, meaning a baseball bat (figuratively speaking) only gets her attention for a moment. She is not 'biddable' and only tries to please when the reward is in front of her face. Also not what she's used to as she's not like her other dogs that look at my friend as their 'God'.
She so far has bit twice, and regularly tries to attack strangers. When highly excited she'll even go after my friend's daughters, and will even redirect on her.
Any opinions? Advice on handling her, or even a way to tell if she is fearful, or just plain civil and reactive?
ETA: She's tried redirection and it hasn't worked. She doesn't want to do corrections because the dog isn't solid in obedience and wouldn't know what the corrections were for (ex. if she did the automatic sit at the stop, she could be corrected for leaving the sit before allowed, or if she had a recall she could be corrected for not listening). Due to the Schultzhund training they've put off obedience for more confidence building i think, i might have to confirm that but i think that's what she said.
For a quick background on the dog, she's from working lines, of a breeder that breeds police type dogs. She's one year old and unaltered due to desire to train in Schultzhund. She's supposed to be STABLE NERVED and that's the biggest worry. My friend is not familiar with dogs of her extreme behaviour, this is not her first GSD only her first from these types of lines. She's sharp, and very suspicious. She feels if she had stable nerves her sharpness and desire to fight wouldn't be such a problem. But, she's very very reactive, and very high drive. This creates a dog that is suspicious of everyone and everything she doesn't know. Her drives and breeding (in my friends' opinion) cause her to dart forward when uncertain and attack, instead of running away. Possibly some fear here, but again she can't always read her. At times she does show a marked nervousness in new situations, might be fear, but at other times she is fearless.
The owner has 2 other GSDs that she has trained in Schultzhund, but they're not of strict working line breedings. So this is something she's not 100% versed in. She's also hard, meaning a baseball bat (figuratively speaking) only gets her attention for a moment. She is not 'biddable' and only tries to please when the reward is in front of her face. Also not what she's used to as she's not like her other dogs that look at my friend as their 'God'.
She so far has bit twice, and regularly tries to attack strangers. When highly excited she'll even go after my friend's daughters, and will even redirect on her.
Any opinions? Advice on handling her, or even a way to tell if she is fearful, or just plain civil and reactive?
ETA: She's tried redirection and it hasn't worked. She doesn't want to do corrections because the dog isn't solid in obedience and wouldn't know what the corrections were for (ex. if she did the automatic sit at the stop, she could be corrected for leaving the sit before allowed, or if she had a recall she could be corrected for not listening). Due to the Schultzhund training they've put off obedience for more confidence building i think, i might have to confirm that but i think that's what she said.
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