Ok, this is going to be long. I had already been discussing this with Joce on another forum so I'm going to copy and paste a lot of what I said there, to here.
Odin is a two year old unaltered male German Shepherd (Fear not! His appointment to be neutered is next month.) The vet advised waiting because he was a Shepherd and to let him fill out before. She's seen some Shepherds have hormonal problems when neutered young. I've also heard the opposite since then, that point is moot now though.
On with the story.
He had only a 11ish year old boy to play with until he was nearly 5 months old. When we went to pick him up the guy had to corner him to catch him and Odin was terrified. After about a week with us he LOVED us and still does. But he is terrified and/or ferocious with nearly everyone else. It worries me a lot. I don't want my family or friends bitten or attacked and he seems to be getting more viscious when seeing people new or not.
He did bite a friend of ours recently (the whole reason I started the topic elsewhere) However, he DID back away from her and bark as though warning her. She approached again and he bit her hand. It did not hurt her. No blood, no bruise, not even teeth marks. I'm well aware he could have badly hurt her had he meant to. I'm assuming it was also a warning bite.
On other dogs and his behaviour towards them (We are considering a female GSD puppy) It all depends on the dog honestly. Some dogs he does absolutely beautiful with like the one who came over today. Big ol' male mutt wandered up and Odin didn't even bark. He loves our next door neighbors dog and my dad's dogs. (all female GSDs coincidentally)
He hates the other neighbor's chihuahua (but so do all the dogs around here, Commodore is a handful to say the least)
Today he let my brother-in-law, and two nephews play and play and play with him. No barking, no growling, no snapping. He had previously been growling, barking and lunging to the end of his chain at them. (however if my brother-in-law came towards him, Odin ran like all heck)
I was floored when I got home today, both nephews were having a ball with him.
Apparently they have come around enough that he is used to them. They've only been here about 6 or 7 times totalling probably 2-3 hours spent around Odin. Which is far less time than it used to take him to get used to people.
That gives me hope that it's purely a 'stranger' thing and not an 'anybody but mommy and daddy period!' thing
He seems to take to people who have dogs with them when he meets them MUCH better and almost instantly compared to just a person stopping by or something.
Also if he's away from home (out on a walk or a trip to town) he seems like the friendliest dog in the world with a side dish of shyness around men. So I guess it could also be the 'protect the home and my herd' sort of deal. (He is a shepherd after all)
I hope this makes sense. Today gave me a great deal of hope for him. He has a phobia of males (I'm guessing because of the little boy in the family we bought him from)
I've had Shepherds off and on all of my life (Princess, a black Shepherd was my first) but I have never had one I didn't get as a fairly small pup so I'm really unsure as to how to deal with him at this point.
Also:
He apparently hates it here, but I don't really blame him. The people in the nieghborhood used to harrass him (kids and adults would throw things at him because he barked, and even set their dogs on him while he was chained and couldn't get away)
We'll be moving to a 120 acre farm soon, but I want people to be able to come (my grandmother who is terrified of him for one) without having to worry about him getting as riled up.
Odin is a two year old unaltered male German Shepherd (Fear not! His appointment to be neutered is next month.) The vet advised waiting because he was a Shepherd and to let him fill out before. She's seen some Shepherds have hormonal problems when neutered young. I've also heard the opposite since then, that point is moot now though.
On with the story.
He had only a 11ish year old boy to play with until he was nearly 5 months old. When we went to pick him up the guy had to corner him to catch him and Odin was terrified. After about a week with us he LOVED us and still does. But he is terrified and/or ferocious with nearly everyone else. It worries me a lot. I don't want my family or friends bitten or attacked and he seems to be getting more viscious when seeing people new or not.
He did bite a friend of ours recently (the whole reason I started the topic elsewhere) However, he DID back away from her and bark as though warning her. She approached again and he bit her hand. It did not hurt her. No blood, no bruise, not even teeth marks. I'm well aware he could have badly hurt her had he meant to. I'm assuming it was also a warning bite.
On other dogs and his behaviour towards them (We are considering a female GSD puppy) It all depends on the dog honestly. Some dogs he does absolutely beautiful with like the one who came over today. Big ol' male mutt wandered up and Odin didn't even bark. He loves our next door neighbors dog and my dad's dogs. (all female GSDs coincidentally)
He hates the other neighbor's chihuahua (but so do all the dogs around here, Commodore is a handful to say the least)
Today he let my brother-in-law, and two nephews play and play and play with him. No barking, no growling, no snapping. He had previously been growling, barking and lunging to the end of his chain at them. (however if my brother-in-law came towards him, Odin ran like all heck)
I was floored when I got home today, both nephews were having a ball with him.
Apparently they have come around enough that he is used to them. They've only been here about 6 or 7 times totalling probably 2-3 hours spent around Odin. Which is far less time than it used to take him to get used to people.
That gives me hope that it's purely a 'stranger' thing and not an 'anybody but mommy and daddy period!' thing
He seems to take to people who have dogs with them when he meets them MUCH better and almost instantly compared to just a person stopping by or something.
Also if he's away from home (out on a walk or a trip to town) he seems like the friendliest dog in the world with a side dish of shyness around men. So I guess it could also be the 'protect the home and my herd' sort of deal. (He is a shepherd after all)
I hope this makes sense. Today gave me a great deal of hope for him. He has a phobia of males (I'm guessing because of the little boy in the family we bought him from)
I've had Shepherds off and on all of my life (Princess, a black Shepherd was my first) but I have never had one I didn't get as a fairly small pup so I'm really unsure as to how to deal with him at this point.
Also:
He apparently hates it here, but I don't really blame him. The people in the nieghborhood used to harrass him (kids and adults would throw things at him because he barked, and even set their dogs on him while he was chained and couldn't get away)
We'll be moving to a 120 acre farm soon, but I want people to be able to come (my grandmother who is terrified of him for one) without having to worry about him getting as riled up.