German Shepherd Puppy Showing aggression in public

Question
Hi Lee,
Previously I asked you a question about the aggression in between my Doberman and mixed-dog Luna. First of all, after the advice they are doing much better. Sometimes Luna will still try to go after Jade but we usually grab her before she manages to lunge. So thank you for that advice very much :).

Unfortunately, I have another aggression problem with my 6 month old white German shepherd puppy Lyric. She is really timid in the house when people come over, she loves attention and licks and lets them pet her and all of that, but she pees if someone talks too loud, or moves too fast.
I've been taking her on walks for a while, ever since she was about 3 months old. She's trained to sit when told, and lay, she stops play biting when you say LYRIC NO, and she doesn't really jump too much when anyone comes over. She is really sweet towards anyone in the house and in the backyard. But when I take her outside on a leash, her personality changes completely. She barks at everyone she sees, even raising her hackles and growling if they come to close to me. She's trained off the leash and when I let her off at the park she sticks to my side and never lets me out of her sight. It's really frustrating to have people tell their children to stay away from my dog because she appears aggressive. When in reality she is a really sweet, shy, puppy who loves anyone who comes into the house, she loves to play ball, she sleeps on the couch with us, loves belly rubs, but in public with me she goes super protective and will not stop barking at anyone and I practically have to drag her away. If I stop to talk to someone her barking with either increase, or she'll start to growl lowly. If they approach me she tries to lunge. The odd thing was a few friends met me at the bark and when they got too close and wouldn't back off she started crying and rolling over while still barking at them at the same time. After about five minutes of this she called down and walked on ahead of us, always looking over to make sure I was all right. When we left the park, after I met the people, we walked towards my house and she didn't bark anymore at anyone.
I really doubt anyone will be willing to have me let my dog growl and snarl and bark at them for five minutes until she's comfortable. I'm just stuck on what I should do.


Caitlin

Answer
Hi, Caitlin,

Thanks for the question.

It sounds to me like Lyric's prey drive isn't being given enough of an outlet. Also, I think it was a mistake to teach her not to bite in play when she was younger. Here's a link to an article I wrote, which explains why: http://www.tiny.cc/StopPuppyBites Basically, a puppy needs to explore her environment through her teeth. She HAS to in order to develop neurologically, emotionally, and socially. We often think, as human beings, that we have to stop all that oral stuff that puppies exhibit or else they'll grow up to be problem biters. But the exact opposite is actually true. Right now you're seeing the result of telling her not to bite, in how she interacts fearfully (not aggressively, mind you, fearfully) with people on her walks.

You're right that part of this behavior is that Lyric is being "protective" of you. But what she's actually being protective of is that she regards you as a "resource," the way some dogs get possessive over a their food bowls or bones. There's a pretty simple way to stop her from feeling this way, and that is to stop rewarding her over friendly behaviors and stop letting her sleep on the couch with you. Here's why:

When a dog gets wiggly when meeting people who come over, and licks their hands, etc., she's exhibiting social anxiety. We often think, "Look how sweet she is!" But the truth is that the dog is using these tactics to keep from being hurt or punished. Now, you might be saying "We've never punished her!" But you have. By telling her "Lyric No!" when she was trying to get you or others to play with her you were basically telling her she was a bad girl for wanting to play with you. You were also telling her NOT to follow her developmental urges and impulses. This left her with only one hole card, which is to lick and be overfriendly. Maybe that seems fine when she's inside the house, but when she gets outside, and there's all this other stuff going on that energizes her, and she doesn't have the ability to offload that energy in the way that nature has designed her to do (through her teeth), she sees you and your attention and "love" as the primary nexus point for all her anxiety, as well as the "solution" to that anxiety (because she wants very badly to do what you tell her), so she becomes this mixed up mess of a growly/wiggly dog who wants to say hello nicely to everyone she meets but can't because she doesn't know how.

So be aware of how you've been reinforcing her "sweet" nature, and when you can, try to redirect that wiggly stuff into a game of tug. In fact, you should re-train all of her commands as part of a game of tug. If she lies down on command, she gets to play tug. If she sits when you ask her to, she gets to play tug. If she heels, she gets to play tug. The harder she bites the tug rag in play, the more calm and properly sociable she'll become overall. This will get rid of the nervous peeing, it will take the edge of the nervousness about meeting new people on walks, and it'll make her less needy for physical affection from you.

Does this make sense? If not just think of an attack dog, going after the guy with the padded sleeve. That dog seems to be in an aggressive frenzy, right? But the instant the trainer says "Aus!" (meaning "Let go!") and "Platz!" (meaning "Lie down") the dog is instantly calm and serene. And once the guy takes off the sleeve she's his best friend. In fact many K-9 handlers have no problem adopting their dogs and taking them home once they're ready to retire. They'll happily let this dog who's capable of such aggressive frenzies romp and play with their kids, etc. Why? Because the primary training tool they used was tug-of-war, which gives the dog the most perfect outlet for all that aggression.

So that's your assignment: LESS CUDDLE TIME AND MORE TUG TIME!

There is one other thing you can do for the time being, until the magic of tug-of-war starts to trickle down to solve all these anxious behaviors, and that is to teach her to carry a toy in her mouth when you take her for walks. If she can carry a rope or other favorite toy, it'll act as a pacifier and she'll be calmer overall on her walks.

I hope this helps!

LCK