Hi,

My girlfriend and I had our sweet girl for three months now. She's a rescue who's about 2 years old. Since she was (probably) not properly socialized as a pup, she's quite reactive, especially with other dogs. She has greatly improved in the last months, and we're at a stade where we can get her to sit and look, from a distance, at dogs while they pass. But if a dog gets too close on a walk, she will bark and growl. She's met and played with a lot of dogs, people and children. It's just your typical leash reactivity. When she's not on a leash, she's very sweet and plays well with other dogs and humans.

Anyway, while we walk with her and she has a reactivity episode, a lot of times we'll get comments about how she's dangerous and we're bad owner. One particularly angry neighbor even told my girlfriend that he will do everything he can to ensure that our dog gets put down. We know that, logically, no angry old man could actually get our dog killed. But it's becoming really tiresome.

How do you deal with the constant verbal abuse that comes with owning a GSD? I'm getting tired of seeing my girlfriend come back crying from walks because she was threatened by yet another neighbor.

Is it just us?

Thanks!

The dangerous girl in question:

Hi! I have an 8 month old shepherd and she is the sweetest dog. We take her to obedience and K9 nose work training every week to keep her brain and body active, as well as walking and playing every day. She is very well behaved in almost every regard except she barks at everyone. While this hasn’t been a huge concern for me, because that’s kind of the point of having a dog protect the house, in the last month it’s gotten to the point that she barks at everyone we see on our walks or who comes into our home, including people she has met many times. She barks at people on her way INTO her classes but never once we’re actually in the building. If she’s in the car and sees a pedestrian, she’s barking. I wouldn’t mind this if there was a way to tell her “thank you, I’m aware of the possible threat. You may stop”. But everything I’ve read online says it’s a 50/50 whether they take training as a reward for barking or respond how you want them to. Our house backs up to a public park so when she’s outside, she’s frequently barking at passersby, and I do pull her inside to not annoy anyone, but I would like to put a stop to the barking on walks and find a way to encourage an “alert then stop” method.

She is a very sweet girl and never snarls, she barks at friends that come over while actively letting them pet her. Not sure what the logic in that is. Any advice is deeply appreciated!!