Skiddish German Shepard

Question
I recently (two weeks ago)adopted a 10 month old altered, male from my local Animal Shelter. He has already become very attached to myself, my husband and our daughter (age 11), however is very skiddish around anyone else, mainly men, but also our daughters friends. He growls and backs away from them. What is this and how do I help correct it? Thank you for any advise.

Answer
Hi Gwen,  Unfortunately your dog needs to be socialized with other people.  He basically doesn't trust anyone.  That can be dangerous if he is backed into a corner by someone.  What you need to do is have him approach people at his own pace.  When people come up to him, they need to get down to his level and let him approach them so he doesn't feel threatened by them.  It is going to take a lot of patience on your part to get him over it since who knows what happened to him in his past.  He could have been abused by someone.  Hope this helps,

Dawn