over protective puppy/young dog

Question
We adopted a German Shepherd at our local shelter in September, they thought he was about 7 months old.  They took him in as a stray.  At the time he was taken in he had a severe injury to his neck where his collar had been completely grown into his skin, they had to surgically remove the collar.  They kept him there for a month until it healed.  The dog made up to my husband and I as well as our 10 year old son right away and never showed any type of aggression.  We fostered him for 3 weeks before finally adopting him after he was neutered as is there policy not to make the adoption final until this has been done.  By the time we took him for his surgery he was a little skittish and growled at the kennel staff. They said he was just afraid because he recognized the smells.  He has become very protective of all 3 of us and growls and snarles at anyone else that approaches us when on walks.  He even growls at the large trash cans when they are sitting outside.  He never growls at us or even at our cat.  What can we do to stop this before he gets more aggressive?  Is he just being protective since we are possibly the first people that have treated him well?  What would you suggest.  We always make him heal when on walks and make him sit at the door before going in or out.  He never gives us any problems on this.  He does jump on me when we get inside from a walk but I immediately make him sit and the couple of times he did not comply I pinned him until he showed submission.  This is what we were told to do when we had a dominant husky 12 years ago.  Any recommendations would be great!  We have become attatched to this dog but he is already 50 pounds so I want to stop this behavior before he gets bigger as I am very small 4'9 and 105 pounds so this dog could easily dominate me if he wanted to.  
Thanks
Michelle

Answer
Hi, Michelle,

If his puppy collar had to be surgically removed, it sounds to me like this poor dog missed out on some important socialization when he was younger. That doesn't mean this problem can't be corrected, just that you have to help him to develop his socializations skills.

It's not really necessary to make him sit at the door before going out. There's nothing essentially wrong with doing it, but the idea that a dog who goes through the door first thinks he's the pack leader is outmoded. It was based on behaviors observed in captive wolves. Wild wolves, and even wolves in some sanctuaries, don't make an issue out of who gets to go through a door first. In fact, in real wolf packs there is no alpha wolf or pack leader, at least not in the traditional sense. All those ideas date back to the studies done on captive wolves. It turns out that they were exhibiting captivity stress, not normal behaviors related to the pack instinct. To read more, check out this article: http://tinyurl.com/2q2esp

Okay, so what should you do to help your dog adjust to his new environment, and to not act aggressively?

First, no scolding or punishing him for anything. His aggression is based on nervous tension. The more you scold and punish his behaviors, especially without giving him any alternate way of behaving, the more stressed he'll become. And the more stressed he becomes, the more his aggression will increase. He WANTS to be part of your family and do what you want him to, he just hasn't developed the proper social skills yet. You need to help him do that.

Second, give him lots of play time, particularly tug-of-war, where you always let him win and praise him for winning. Tug is the best stress reducer there is for dogs. And play in general promotes brain growth factors, increases social adaptability, and has a calming effect. ( http://tinyurl.com/3balu6 )

Whenever he gets nervous about meeting people, etc., instead of getting nervous too and trying to stifle his aggression, remind yourself about his puppy collar, and how it had to be surgically removed, and that he was deprived of being given enough positive social contact as a puppy. If you can relax and praise him, he may very well settle down quicker and not be so quick to react to people and things that scare him. You have to be a kind of calm center for him to rely on. ("Using Praise as a Correction:" http://www.tiny.cc/praise622  )

Finally, since he lacks confidence, I'd feed him all his meals outdoors using a pushing exercise, where you hold his food in one hand and put the other hand against his chest. As he eats pull the food hand away slightly so that he has to push into your other hand in order to keep eating. Over the next few weeks continue to not only pull the food hand away, but push against his chest with your other hand so that he actually has to push into with all his might in order to eat. (You may have to brace yourself to keep from getting knocked over!) This exercise will increase his confidence a great deal.

Oh, and one more thing: on your walks if you can get some volunteers to show him a treat and ask him to sit for it, then have them give him the treat for obeying, the less fearful he'll be of people in general over time. He'll start to see them all as friends rather than strangers. And the more positive social contact he can make with other people, the sooner his aggression wil go away.

However, it's going to take some time. He's like a kid who was raised in the wilderness and doesn't know how to act like a regular kid. Give him some play time, less scolding, etc., constant praise, and he should come around.

I hope this helps!

LCK