Perfect puppy....Almost

Question
Hi there. I will try to keep this short as I have a tendency to write A LOT.
Anyway Zeus found me 2 months ago, he was a stray who showed up at my door. He is a blue heeler mix (not sure what he is mixed with), maybe lab?
Anyway he has been a good dog since I got him. He sits, stays (most of the time), lays down, gives paw, and he will wait for me to give a command before eating (even if I walk in the other room). A few days after I got him I wanted to make sure he was not food aggressive, so I petted him as he ate, with no problems. I got braver and put my hand in his food, no problem. I can take treats and toys away from him, with no problem there either. He is very gentle when taking treats, and doesn't bite my hand off. He was potty trained about a week after I got him, he only had a few accidents in the house. He is not allowed on the furniture or my bed, and knows those items are off limits. He is not allowed to jump on people either, and is pretty good at staying down.
When I got him the vet said he was approximately 10 weeks old, have had him for 2.5 months. I make it a point to socialize him, take him in car rides, to Pets Mart and other stores where pets are allowed. We go walking in public parks, and never had any problems with him (although I did notice he is a little more hesitant to meet men). He really is a good boy. The only problem I noticed is if there is something going on, he just wont listen to me. Also I cant trust him off a leash, because if he sees something interesting he takes off.
So my family had a get together last night. There were about 15 family members at my moms house. I let Zeus in to "mingle" and he went up to a few of my male cousins and let them pet him. I also have a younger male cousin (7yrs) who loves to play with Zeus. They were wrestling around on the floor, but Zeus was being very gentle with him. Anyway it was time for them to leave and my Uncle yelled in a loud voice at my cousin. Zeus wasn't going for that at all. He started barking pretty vigorously and would not listen to me at all. His tail was between his legs, which leads me to believe he is fear aggressive (but I had never had this problem before.) My uncle tried to pet him, NO GO. I think Zeus might have growled a little bit, but cant remember. I was just horrified that my perfect baby was barking like he was going to do some serious damage. When my uncle turned to walk away Zeus kind of followed him (not in an aggressive way, but just being nosey). When my uncle turned toward him it was on again!! Finally I gave a few treats to my Uncle to give to the dog, which he accepted. Zeus even let him pet his head. My dream is for Zeus to become a therapy dog, but with this behavior I am a little worried. I don't want him to be aggressive to people, unless of course they are trying to attack me!! LOL. I will be putting him in beginning training classes next month. Do you think I should be worried about this behavior? I have heard blue healers are a little more protective than most, but this really has been the first incident. I know it is hard to give advice not having met the dog, but any information is greatly appreciated. Sorry so long....Thanks!! :-)

Answer
Hi, Linda,

Thanks for the question.

You've given me some really good information here, and I think I have a pretty clear picture of what's going on in Zeus' head.

Try to imagine, if you will, that he's not a dog, but a salmon. And instead of living in a river made of water, he lives in a river of emotional energy. With me so far? He's attracted to certain things in his life because of the energy flow that takes place as he interacts with them. You, for example, bring a very peaceful and loving energy into his little river. You're like a slow, peaceful, lazy river that he can just float down and feel safe in. You have a "mommy" energy. Certain OTHER things, though, like, I don't know, squirrels? bicyclists? have a stronger pull on him because they have the energy of prey animals. That gets him on a very deep level. For him that's like the rush a salmon gets when he swims straight up a waterfall! It's highly energizing and highly exciting.

Cut to the party: suddenly the river channel has narrowed. Instead of it being the same, safe stream he's so used to and so comfortable with, he has to pay attention to a lot more people, who are like rocks and rapids in his stream. (Or if we go back to the salmon analogy, they're like bears camped alongside the river, ready to make a meal out of him.) You see what I mean? When your nephew wrestled with Zeus, that got him energized. Correct? But he wasn't in the proper setting for those kinds of emotions. Then along comes the big man with the LOUD VOICE, and all that energy that had been flowing pretty well (except he should only play like that outdoors, not in the house) gets stuck and poor Zeus gets scared stiff. He has too much energy and no safe way to download it. This is kind of the same reason he doesn't "listen" to you outdoors in a way, because you haven't trained him to listen to you while he's energized. You've been very calm and patient with his training.

Unfortunately, one of the first rules of a training class is to get the dog to calm down so he can "learn." Well, trust me, Zeus will have no trouble learning his ABCs upside and backwards in that training class, but unless you also coach him on his lessons while he's in an energized state, when he gets heavily stimulated again he won't have the ability to make "sense" of what you taught him while he was "calm."

Am I still making sense?

Here are some links that will be helpful to you (I hope):

http://tinyurl.com/3balu6 (helps a dog learn to run the emotional rapids)
                  
http://www.tiny.cc/tug (same here)

http://www.tiny.cc/TrickorTreat (stimulates stalking behaviors that are truly calming for dogs

http://www.tiny.cc/RedirectWalk (redirecting an energized dog into a toy)

http://www.tiny.cc/playbenefits (why play is so important in training)

http://www.tiny.cc/RecallAtDogRun (inching away at your dog's focus outdoors)

I hope none of this sounds TOO crazy to you. Zeus sounds like a very good doggie. He just needs help in learning how to run the rapids...

LCK