New aggression

Question
I have a 14-month old female German Shepherd Dog.  She is my
first Shepherd.  I have been very impressed with her until about
2 months ago when she started showing aggression towards
other dogs and several days ago she started barking at people
from a distance while on walks.  I have had her in dog parks with
all dogs off-leash and she has not had a problem.  I have had
her in multiple obedience classes and beginning agility and have
not had a problem until 2 months ago.  She has always wanted
to play with other dogs and would play bow and have a happy
bark now her bark is more aggresive.  I'm looking for ideas on
training and getting back to a well adjusted dog.  My primary
goal was to run her in agility and I'm feeling uncertain whether I
will be able to do this.

Answer
Hi, normally at about 1 year of age, a dog's natural ability to protect starts to come out.  In the wild, this is also the age when they start to challenge the leader of the pack.  In domestic dogs, this comes in the form of more outward aggression towards dogs.  You also start seeing the dog bark at people and try to protect in some sort of manner.  Most dogs don't know how to protect, but follow their natural instincts by barking, low growls etc.  You definitely want to keep socializing her by keeping her around other dogs and people so that she can understand that they are still fun & not a threat.  If you act apprehensive, the dog will sense it and keep up the aggression to try & "protect" you from whatever the dog thinks you are apprehensive about.  Female GSD's tend to be more aggressive towards other dogs than their male counterparts, so you will see more aggression asserted as she gets more mature.  If she is spayed this can help eleveate the problem a little bit, but depending on her genetics, she could have an aggression problem that can not be completely corrected.  Keep working on her training and socializing her, and hopefully she'll understand her place as she matures.

Hope this helps,

Dawn