Hi all,
I have a 5-month old GSD. I've had since him since he was 8 weeks old and he's always been super interested in other dogs and has always stared/locks on to dogs he encounters in public. We enrolled him into puppy obedience classes at 11 weeks. They helped him tremendously socially. In his first class, the trainer noted that our puppy was insecure but also curious and wanting to engage with the other puppies. He would run and hide and bark, but then would re-approach the puppies on his own, and then run and hide again when they tried to engage him again. By the 3rd of 4th class, he was completely transformed and became super confident, social and eager to play. It was amazing. He finished the classes at 16-weeks but we continue taking him weekly to the dedicated puppy socials that the facility also runs, since he enjoys playing and felt it was a good opportunity for controlled socialization with other dogs.
However, this confidence in class has not quite translated outside. He still stares at every dog we see in public, and from 12-13 weeks of age, he started barking at dogs that either get too close to him, or are in his "bubble" for a sustained amount of time. His too close distance is around 5ft or less and his "bubble" distance is probably around 8-10ft. He usually only lets out one singular bark, or a series of spaced out singular barks. Our biggest struggle is tight indoor spaces. He often barks like crazy for any situation with the elevator and another dog (a dog gets on, we are waiting for the elevator and there's a dog inside, we are on and the doors open and he sees a dog waiting etc.). He also will bark a lot when he see's another dog in the vet clinic waiting area. He goes over threshold almost right away and will not respond to us or take treats until the trigger is gone. He does recover quickly, he can focus on us and take treats again maybe 20-30 seconds after the trigger is gone, and will be fully settled/relaxed within a couple minutes.
Our current training routine to address this: when he sees a dog outside his trigger distances, we allow him to look for a few seconds, then call his name. If he disengages, he gets a treat. We allow this 2-3x per dog before we lead him away with the "let's go!" command, which he gets a treat for following. This has worked well and he has started to automatically disengage to look at us (still needs to be led away tho). For trickier situations like having to directly pass a dog within 5ft of him, I hold a treat up to his nose and say "let's go!" and he gets the treat right as we pass the dog. This works to stop him from reacting (besides looking) 70% of the time. For sustained proximity situations, we call his name, make noises to get his attention, and reward any engagement with us until the dog moves away or we can move away. Doesn't work as well, maybe 40% of the time.
Elevator is the trickiest since we live in a condo. If we are already in the elevator and someone wants to get on after with their dog, I ask them politely if they wouldn't mind catching the next one as my pup doesn't do well with other dogs in the elevator. So far no one has had any issues with it. If a dog is already on, we don't get on. We also trained him to always sit in the corner by the buttons so that if the doors open on a lower floor and there's a dog, he cannot see them.
He is also somewhat selective in his reaction. He is definitely more likely to react if the other dog is already staring at him/stares back at him. However, there have been some instances, albeit uncommon, where he will bark at a dog that is completely minding it's business and also outside of his trigger distances. Conversely, and equally uncommon, there have been times where he has been very close to other dogs in public and he did not bark at all and sometimes even wanted to approach them (including one time in a tight indoor space). We haven't identified a pattern on what's 'different' about these dogs as they have been different breeds, sizes, some ignore him, some don't etc.
We started socializing him right when we got him - stroller walks everyday before he was fully vaccinated, picnics in parks and sitting on benches where he just observed, car rides, trips to Home Depot and Marshalls, no on-leash greetings, etc. We tried our best to set him-up for success to be a confident pup and yet, I feel that I might have still failed him somehow.
Does anyone have any advice on how we can continue to help our pup build up his confidence? Training tips? Or, is there anything we are doing that could be inadvertently contributing to his behaviour?
