# 1 year old started acting strange?



## Brutusscheel (Oct 14, 2014)

Hello, I am new to this forum but have had German Shepherd dogs most of my life, the one I have now just turned 1 year old. We've had in puppy class but we don't work with him nearly enough, he's not neutered and he's huge (110 lbs.) already. 

He doesn't really act like the other ones I've had, he wants to go after anyone who walks past our house but up until a couple days ago he was great with my 3 children they played with him all the time. 

The other day my wife called me and said my dog growled at him (my son was standing over him and hugged him)my wife kept the dog in the kitchen until I got home and I had my son who's 10 pet him and he let out another growl and I told him NO, then I had him do it a couple more times and the same thing happened. Now he won't go near my son, I started having my son feed him and give a treat when he does what he's told. I have no clue what could of happened, my son said he didn't do anything different that day I thought maybe he kicked him or something. 

I have a 3 year old and 10 year old daughter and he's completely fine with them. I refuse to have a dog that I worry will hurt one of my kids, we are planning on having him neutered and do a 2 week training where we drop him off each day. But wanted some advice or opinions before I spend another $1000 on him if it won't stop this strange behavior. Can anyone tell me what might be going on or maybe it's genetic. Any help would be appreciated!!!


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

He may be in pain from Panosteitis(his structure is huge for a GSD) 
I would have vetting done before you do anything. And the drop off training? You and your family need to be involved in his training, so there is consistency. 
His reactivity could be genetic, it could also be the lack of management in his life. He may feel he needs to be in control of situations because he isn't getting the structure to let him feel that you have his world under control and safe. 

NILIF is helpful with some dogs, and everyone in the home should be consistent with his training. He needs to know you have his back so he doesn't need to be 'on' all the time.

Keep his confidence level up, let him know when he's doing the right thing/making the right choices. That happens with training. Puppy classes aren't enough, and neither is a drop off training protocol. If you take away his confidence, you'll see more reactive behavior, and he'll act defensive. I'd be very cautious to who you choose to drop him off to for this. Or decide NOT to drop him off but work WITH your dog so you better understand him.


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## Emoore (Oct 9, 2002)

Agreed; any situation like that the first thing you want to do is rule out a medical condition.


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## llombardo (Dec 11, 2011)

Rule out medical first and then YOU train your dog. The biggest plus of being involved in the training is that you get taught how to train.


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## Brutusscheel (Oct 14, 2014)

Thank you for the responses, we are going to take him to his vet first and get him checked out. I'll let you know what they find.
Thanks


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## Emoore (Oct 9, 2002)

I want to commend you for looking for solutions to the problem. Many people dump their dogs at the pound at the first sign of things like this, when often it's a medical problem or a training issue. Thank you for being responsible.


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## Susan_GSD_mom (Jan 7, 2014)

Along with everything everyone has already posted, I think there are some clues in what you wrote. First, he's not neutered. Neutering him would be a good thing. Second, he just turned a year old. They don't really mature until 18-30 months, so he is still a puppy. At a year old, he is still exploring where his standing is in your household. When he first growled at your son, you said your son was 'standing over him' and petting him. That in itself could create problems, especially if your son was bending over him. He is looking at your son as a sibling, not someone he has to listen to. He was letting your son know that.

So--I agree with whomever said that you all have to be involved in his training, not just turn him over to a trainer to do it for you. You do need a trainer, a good one, to guide you in his training. 

Susan


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## Brutusscheel (Oct 14, 2014)

Thanks for the replies, I cancelled the schooling and we found someone who specialises in GSD's for an evaluation and also for the neutering. We have been watching my parents GSD for the past week as well (he's only a month older) so that could play into it as well. He's still growling at my son only but I'm pretty sure my son did something to provoke this, he has a temper and I seen him try to kick my parents dog for chewing up his ball. I'm not sure that a kick would cause this though, my last dogs and even the one were watching I would almost guarantee no matter kicked or not wouldn't be growling, they have different temperaments. He acts like he's afraid of my son and I know that can be a huge problem waiting to happen. Beside that I'm scared he will attack one of my kids friends the way he tries to get to them and the way he pulls his leash trying to get to anyone that walks by if I have him out. I hope it's just our lack in training him, I really would hate to get rid of him. We'll see what this guy says I guess.
Thanks again.


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## wolfy dog (Aug 1, 2012)

Neutering will not fix his adolescent brattiness. Your son domineered him while he didn't have any business doing so. This is is according to your dog who is growing up and starting to assert himself since no one else has taken that on yet. A lower in rank dog cannot stand over or "hug" a higher in rank dog and will be punished if he is stupid enough to do something like that. If you punish him in the presence of your son, he will avoid him, but it will make it worse. You are lucky that he growled and didn't attack. It doesn't sound odd at all to me but of course it need to be addressed. Neutering a large male at this young age can have negative effects on his bone structure. I bet that it is a training issue.


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## JeanKBBMMMAAN (May 11, 2005)

The bone structure is already there - that's why if you x-ray a dog during the neuter surgery, you will see signs of HD - which, with my 2 neutered males, has not changed the severity (mild) of the HD (not symptomatic) that they both had when x-rayed during their surgeries. He's had the biggest testosterone dumps into his system, and his testicles, joints, and ACLs are not more important than children, and all their friends (with the small addition of the reputation of the breed). 

Combined with good, positive training that teaches him what you want and not just what he's doing wrong, it seems like a good plan, but most importantly, your son with the temper also needs to be trained, and worked on, and never left unsupervised with any dog, or you could have a very bad situation. Doing it the same way - showing him what you want, instead of telling him what he's doing wrong, lots of exercise to work out his ya-yas, and NILIF. Check out http://www.childrenssuccessfoundation.com/ for your son, the same things work on dogs (and adults!) and they have free materials on that website.


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## Emoore (Oct 9, 2002)

If there is a possibility that your son may have kicked the dog, it sounds like some training is in order for boy as well as dog. And never ever ever leave them alone together.


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