Fear of Friendly Father

Question
I got a 7mo female gsd from a local gsd club breeder three weeks ago. She is extremely friendly except with my dad who lives with me. From the first moment she met him, she appears to be afraid of him. We live in a bilevel home and whenever he comes downstairs she barks and growls at him. She has tried to nip him on two occassions. She will take treats from his hand when he sits next to me and for a moment I think that all is well, but when he comes around again she displays the same behavior. How can I get this dog to accept him - she likes everyone else! Your advice is greatly appreciated. I just lost my last gsd to cancer and would hate having to give her up. Thank you.


Answer
It is possible your father reminds her of somebody she had a bad experience with in the past.  More likely it is a lack of experience with men at an early age.  Often the fear on men is dismissed with accusations of abuse.  The true abuser is the women that bred the dog, and failed to properly socialize it before it was 12 weeks old.  Undoing such neglect is difficult, and will not happen very quickly.  

First, you need to give the dog good leadership.  The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts.  Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog.  Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones.  You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/  For more on being top dog, see http://www.dogbreedinfo.com./topdogrules.htm

Control your emotions.  If you stress out around your father, fearing her reaction, she will sense your stress, which will confirm to her that your father is a problem.
You father needs to be as attentive and free with the treats as she will accept.  Let him walk her if she will accept it.  In time, your leadership, positive treatment of your father, and his positive treatment of her should over come, or at least reduce her problem with him.  Few people understand how important the 6-12 week period is, and how difficult to fix neglect then is.