GSD gets scared sometimes

Question
QUESTION: I have a 4 month old female german shepherd which i imported from a well known breeder in Germany.. I had her for almost 3 weeks, the first week she was very nervous and had seperation anxiety but she is much much better now, however she is always attached to us.
I got her to be a guard dog and she is showing some signs of weekness, for example she would be scared of an umbrella or bigger dogs or a loud noize. She is very friendly with all peaple though and loves to play and is very naughty.
Do you think ill be able to teach her to be fearless? and would she be able to protect the house when im not around?

ANSWER: The puppy's age and early socialization has much to do with the problem.  It is quite common for puppies to go through a fear stage at 4 months.  Avoid either coddling her or overwhelming her at this stage, letting her work through it at her pace.  
Longer range, get back with the breeder and ask about how much socilization she had before 12 weeks.  The time between 6-12 weeks is very important in the development of a dog's personality.  Puppies that spend the whole time in a kennel may not fit in well anywhere else.  A professional handler may be able to cope with the problems, but it will be a real struggle for the average dog owner.  The ''well known breeder'' could be doing a poor job on an important part of breeding dogs.  Unfortunately, many of them are little better than the back yard breeders at proper socilization.  Puppies should be in their new homes at 7-8 weeks or receive extensive socilization if still with the breeder.  I am not talking about socilization with other dog, but people, noise, umbrellas, noise, and other scary things.   It is possible you could end up with a fear biter.  If she comes out of her fear stage, I would enroll her in an obedience class.  If not, you may need a private trainer or behaviorist.  Undoing the results of poor early socilization are difficult.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you so much for your reply. I would like to add another very big problem we have.. I have built a AC Concrete house for her outside my villa 2X4 meters and thats where we put her at night to sleep but it has been over 3 weeks and she still does not stop barking when we leave her in alone for at least 1 hour every night. Is there any way we can solve this??

Answer
We keep our puppies in the house in a crate at night.  At bed time, with a new puppy, I have found lying down in front of the crate like you were going to sleep and speaking softly to it, or singing, until it settles down and goes to sleep works very well. Follow the pattern, a period of active play, outside to eliminate, and then into the crate.  You could try that.

The 2 X 4 meters is much to big.  A meter square or less would be plenty.  Unlike people, dogs like to be enclosed in a small, den like area.  You might even block it off smaller for now.