# 3 months old puppy with cowardly behavior of other dogs!



## Acejin (Jul 22, 2011)

Hi,

I hope you can help me, I have a three months old German Shepherd puppy that is very afraid of other dogs. When I take him for a walk and there are dogs around even though they were strapped his fur jumps and he begins to pull the leash to get away as far as possible. If we encounter a loose dog he starts to whine and cry as if he's having a heart attack. I figured I should introduce him to as many friendly dogs so I asked my friend to bring his dog (8 years old) to our garden, The first minute he saw the other dog approaches he tried to run toward the house but the door was closed, My friend's dog did not get close to him and was very apathetic. Five minutes later my dog ​​saw me touching my friend's dog and he began to approach and sniff. 10 minutes later my dog started to bite and annoy the poor dog of my friend and I thought everything would be all right now - Unfortunately I was wrong.
Three days later my neighbor invited me to bring my dog to play with her two months old ​​labrador puppy, Once my dog saw the puppy comes running up to him (labrador puppy that was half his size :surrender he went crazy and started to cry and try to escape but I didn`t give up and force him to approach her and again after he smelled her nose they played for nearly half an hour and he was very dominant.

After all those stories - what the **** is wrong with my dog? How can I fix this cowardly behavior? I fear it is too late and he would build himself a cowardly personality.

I look forward to your advice,
Many Thanks!


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## sagelfn (Aug 13, 2009)

:welcome: Where are you from?

It is good that you are socializing him with friendly dogs. He needs this very much. He is displaying fearful behavior. Have you spoken to your breeder about his behavior?


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## PaddyD (Jul 22, 2010)

sagelfn said:


> :welcome: Where are you from?
> 
> It is good that you are socializing him with friendly dogs. He needs this very much. He is displaying fearful behavior. Have you spoken to your breeder about his behavior?


And what did the breeder say?
My dog has been similar throughout her life although not to the degree of screaming. She just hangs by me for protection.
All you can do is socialize as much as possible and that can't be stressed too much. Your dog is likely to remain shy but you have to let him know he is safe with you and he will gradually build some confidence. It is not uncommon for very shy dogs to act overly aggressive with dogs that they feel they can dominate. It's like they have a "SOMEBODY has to dominate" mind set. It takes a while (if ever) to get them to play on an equal to equal basis. But don't stop working on the socialization. Try to find another shy dog with a similar temperament and you may have found him a playmate. This has worked for me. It's fun to see which one can 'out-shy' the other one and to watch them break through and start to interact.


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## High5 (Apr 21, 2011)

That's great that you are socializing him. keep doing it as much as possible. You said when your neighbors puppy ran up he was afraid. If it were me I would put more control on the situation, ask your neighbor to leash their pup. Then allow yours to approach at his own pace. You should try not to force it on him. I think that will only make it worse. Also take him to the park and just sit with him and watch other dogs at a distance. I would even look into a puppy play class in your area. Your pup is only 3 months but with lots if socialization should grow out of it.


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## dazedtrucker (May 2, 2011)

He's cute!


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

Sounds like a normal exhuberant (sp?) puppy to me! Do not FORCE any meetings. It's ok that our pups take a few minutes to see what's up and then approach and play. GSD puppy play can be crazy rough too...

Your pup look anything like these to at 2:15 into the video?





 
BTW, your dog is stunningly beautiful!


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## tsteves (Jun 7, 2011)

This is how Kona was at first. Shortly after we got her we took her on a walk in our neighborhood and as soon as we came across a dog behind a fence she cried got the scared puppy mohawk and wouldn't move, I had to carry her home. A few days after that we started taking her to the dog park and having play dates with friends with dogs. At first she would just hide in between our legs with her tail tucked in, she loved the people but was terrified of dogs. We just kept doing it and she got better and better. Now she is 4 1/2 months old and LOVES other dogs.

Just keep socializing your pup and she will get it.


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## Acejin (Jul 22, 2011)

Thank you all for your advice!

MaggieRoseLee - I wish! My puppy doesn`t look anything like the puppies on that video, The puppy on the video dont seem frightened at all and even moves his tail from side to side however my puppy cry and trying to escape and his tail stay down.
It's just weird, The puppy afraid of encounters with other dogs but after one smelling his temperament change and he looks like an normal and happy dog.

tsteves - I hope this will be also the case with my puppy =]

btw, I'm glad you love my pup


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## PaddyD (Jul 22, 2010)

Acejin said:


> Thank you all for your advice!
> 
> MaggieRoseLee - I wish! My puppy doesn`t look anything like the puppies on that video, The puppy on the video dont seem frightened at all and even moves his tail from side to side however my puppy cry and trying to escape and his tail stay down.
> It's just weird, The puppy afraid of encounters with other dogs but after one smelling his temperament change and he looks like an normal and happy dog.
> ...


The OP stated that his puppy was very fearful, not anything like the ones in the video.


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## pets4life (Feb 22, 2011)

protect your puppy do not expect it to turn into a real alpha until it is an adult ater 2 years is when most shepherds are true alpha dogs a puppy knows it is a puppy and knows that dogs can cause its ultimate demise


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## Gracie's My Girl (May 27, 2011)

Our puppy struggles with confidence issues toward other dogs. During our first puppy class, she was overwhelmed by all of the curious puppies who wanted to play. To work through this, we are putting her into situations with well behaved dogs and letting her take her time with being friendly. She is making great progess!

I would not force a puppy to greet another dog or not allow them to have space. My advice would be to continue to socialize and continue to have friends bring their dogs over. If your puppy displays nervous behaivor, ignore it. If your puppy displays confident behaivor, reward it!


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## warpwr (Jan 13, 2011)

Miss Molly was so overwhelmed in puppy class (there were some large older pups and she was like 10 weeks old) that we started taking her to a "shy" puppy class.
She too was very timid at first. I called her Lambert the sheepish Shepherd.
At 8 months she is still somewhat cautious around other dogs and strangers. She might back off a bit at first but doesn't run away and always goes back to investigate.
She has also now assumed most of the responsibility of barking at the front door, etc, from our older dog.

All dogs are different of course but I wouldn't worry too much about a German Shepherd being timid or afraid when it's full grown if I were you.


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## Bee (Jun 24, 2011)

It's a worry isn't it My boy was exactly the same as yours when we got him. He was 12 weeks and had only just left mum and siblings. What's worked for me is taking on regualr walks and asking ahead if peoples dogs were friendly. I only introduced him to calm adult dogs to start with. The ideal dog to meet were those that would almost ignore him apart from a cursory sniff and we'd walk with them off lead. Once he was comfortable with that, he started to approach calm dogs himself. I always tell him be brave in a happy voice as we see another dog(yes I know, but it stopped me worrying about if he'd be scared) and rewarded him verbally each time he approached a dog. Now he is 5mnths and will happily approach other dogs, he even gives a play bow now and again, but mostly bottles it if the other dog responds lol. But now and again he has played with other dogs and is getting better and better. The point I'm making is controlled meetings and build him up, he'll get there


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## Acejin (Jul 22, 2011)

Thanks for all your advice~!

Reading that other people had the same problems and solved relaxes me 
I`ll continue to socialize him to other dogs by letting him play with as many breeds and sizes as possible.
Do you think it's too early to take him to the park where the dogs off leash?

BTW, He still didn`t bark, is this normal? I heard him bark only once when he was playing with another dog - I was so excited! 


Thank you ALL!


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## suzzyq01 (Feb 15, 2011)

The first couple times Sonar met a new dog or we went to the dog park between 12-16 weeks he was very shy and submissive to other dogs. He stuck right next to me. I knew the dogs he was meeting and trusted them so I let him go through it on his own and ignored the behavior, walking away from him when he would run to hide under my feet. It quickly changed from shy submission to excited puppy playtime. Don't coddle him when he acts like this, let him work through it on his own. If you call him to you and pet him and say "it's ok" or god forbid pick him up and take him away from the "danger", it will make the behavior progressively worse as he gets older reinforcing the unwanted behavior. This is why you see so many screwed up small dog, this is how people treat them and not let them be a dog. As long as you trust the dogs he is meeting then let what will be, be.

He is very cute btw.
.


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## Bee (Jun 24, 2011)

Oooo yes, good point Suzyq! I didn't say that bit did I. I totally agree with ignoring the sillyness. Dillon would try and climb up my legs, I used to have to just walk away and ignore him. So hard to do, but last thing you want is a woosy shepherd scratching up your legs everytime they see something vaguely worrying:laugh:


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## Alpha Marty (Oct 20, 2020)

PaddyD said:


> And what did the breeder say?
> My dog has been similar throughout her life although not to the degree of screaming. She just hangs by me for protection.
> All you can do is socialize as much as possible and that can't be stressed too much. Your dog is likely to remain shy but you have to let him know he is safe with you and he will gradually build some confidence. It is not uncommon for very shy dogs to act overly aggressive with dogs that they feel they can dominate. It's like they have a "SOMEBODY has to dominate" mind set. It takes a while (if ever) to get them to play on an equal to equal basis. But don't stop working on the socialization. Try to find another shy dog with a similar temperament and you may have found him a playmate. This has worked for me. It's fun to see which one can 'out-shy' the other one and to watch them break through and start to interact.


Poor breeding. Fearful dogs will produce fearful puppies


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