# Strange Lady in yard. what should i have done



## DTS (Oct 19, 2010)

we had just gotten hme from grocery shopping, my bf was taking the groceries in the house and i let jasmine out to potty. we get by the back fence and i see a strange car pull up. i imidiately lash her and the lady rolls down the window and says " is he going to bite"? i said no. so she gets out of the car and walks towards my bf, jasmine barks 2x which i correct her and she stops. i then stop her potty break and put her in the house. the lady aparently lived in our apartment years ago and stopped by to see it. so after about 10 mins of talking i decide to let jasmine back out to finish her business. i put her prong collar on and we finish up. i go back over to my bf and she sits there quitely. this woman is weird. she keeps repeating how good it is to have a dog in a place like this and how a woman got attacked in our "complex" i live in a duplex on 3 acres of land and there is a duplex next to ours. and then she starts talking about shepherds and how shes trained to raise them. well then she asks about our training and we tell her our trainer and she said she knows her and how she helped her dog. well jasmine let out 2 low growls which i collar corrected her but i guess here is the thing. i understand that she should be okay with strangers and not bark or growl.
but: i was pretty nurvous with this lady, something seemed off and i just wasnt sure of her and neither was my bf. plus she came into our yard randomly and i really didnt want her here and neither did by bf
what should i have done with jasmine. 
after i collar corrected her she was fine she just layed down and panted
the woman proceded to tell us how we need to correct the dog and that she should do that
but my dog felt my insecurity and there was an unwantd stranger in our yard.
what should i have done
yes, i should have put her in the house, but we dont have people over often and i wanted to see if she would be ok.
which considering her past i felt she did a lot better than usual


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## dOg (Jan 23, 2006)

I'm sure the dog picked up on your discomfort. I don't think you or the dog did anything wrong or unexpected for this situation.


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## GSDGunner (Feb 22, 2011)

First, I would never tell someone you don't know, or what their intentions are, that your dog won't bite.
I had some strange kid walk towards me once in the park, he asked if my dog would bite and my reply was "not unless something happens to me". The kid kept walking. 


> yes, i should have put her in the house,


If you put your dog in the house and this person decides to do something, like rob you or worse, what good is your dog to you if she can't protect you?
I had a guy come to my door one day and Gunner stood at the door barking (glass door, front door was open). He did his job to alert me to the stranger at the door. I told him to sit and be quiet, which he did, but he stayed by my side. Before I could ask the guy what he wanted, he asked if I could put the dog outside. Umm, no! I told him the dog stays and asked what he wanted. Turned out to be a religious guy from a church. I was home alone and no way I was putting Gunner anywhere.

It's best that if you think something is off about someone, to remove yourself. Make up an excuse and leave. 
If you feel nervous or uneasy by someone, your dog will feel it and be on guard. That's what they do.


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## Franksmom (Oct 13, 2010)

I think I would of been real uneasy too if she had showed up at my house like that.
I never tell people that I dont' know and I'm unsure about that my dog won't bite or that it's friendly dog. Part of the reason my dogs are there are for my protection. 
When someone strange pulls in our drive I let them see that the dog will growl at them I want them to think the dog might bite. Of course I have the dog on a leash at my side, it's not like the dog is circling them or anything.
My dogs are well socialized and can go anywhere with me and accept strangers once I give the ok.


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## JudynRich (Apr 16, 2010)

Wierd! She may have been scoping the place. I agree with the other posts...you want strangers to be afraid of your dog.


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## TriadGSD (Feb 19, 2011)

careful she could be a dog napper or scoping out the place planing on a hit.


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## DTS (Oct 19, 2010)

this lady wouldnt get out alive with jasmine. jasmine might be small around 65lbs but she has a mean bark on her and idk what would happen if she found someone i "her" home. also, if i was home she wouldnt have to worry about a gsd. there would a rabid 5'2 short girl with a 12 gage running after her. beware of midget owner. i love my puppers


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## JakodaCD OA (May 14, 2000)

If someone strange comes to my house and they ask "does the dog bite?" I never say no...I normally "lie" and say she is PP trained. I don't want strangers thinking I have a dog that will let anyone in the house, to many weirdo's out there, casing houses, looking to steal dogs..ya just never know


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

My dogs may bite(if we weren't around to direct them otherwise), especially if someone is on their property. The only way anyone could get into my home is if they poisoned or shot my dogs....or if they were known to the dogs as friends/family of DH, me or the kids. Still if we weren't home and someone entered, I don't think I'd trust the females to play nice. 

That lady sounds like she had one or two screws loose. I would have asked her name, and where she lives, even if she lied, she'd know you were suspicous of her motives.


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## codmaster (Aug 5, 2009)

Yea, I agree. It never hurts to have your neighbors (unless they are good friends) and of course strangers think that your dog might bite and is certainly protective.


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## GSD_Xander (Nov 27, 2010)

JudynRich said:


> Wierd! She may have been scoping the place. I agree with the other posts...you want strangers to be afraid of your dog.


That was my first thought too - she's up to something and it isn't good.


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

I'm not entirely sure what you are asking, bu if I understand correctly it sounds like you may be asking if you should've put the dog up, or kept her out with you, and when she barked should you have corrected her.

I would have basically done the same thing you did. Nutty or not, she wasn't hurting anything by coming up to talk to you. If you didn't want to talk to her, you could've simply said you were in a rush and apologized but that you didn't have time to talk. Then simply gone back inside and not gone back out.

Option number two is essentially what you did, except I wouldn't have put the dog up in the first place. She sensed you were uncomfortable, and/or she herself was likely uncomfortable regardless of whether you were or not, and gave an alert bark that she wasn't comfortable with the situation. I wouldn't fault mine for that, as long as they obeyed the "quiet" command after the alert.

Doesn't really sound like that odd of a situation to me. I live in a different state than I was born in, and remember my childhood home well. I haven't been back there in years, but previously had and we stopped to talk to the people that lived in our old house while we were visiting friends across the street. Had they had a GSD in the yard I would've mentioned mine for sure!

People are paranoid here. Always thinking someones out to steal or poison their dog or break into their house. Take it from someone who knows the actual chances of that happening - chill out. Just talk to the lady and be on your way.


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## TitonsDad (Nov 9, 2009)

Should have asked strange lady what your trainer looked like and how she knew her and all kinds of scoping questions. This would have told you if she was a fake or not. 

Definitely need to sleep with one eye open for a while.


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## DTS (Oct 19, 2010)

i mean she was a nice lady but she was just weird. always repeating what she had said 2 or 3 times especially about the dog so thats why i was a little off. im always quick to think of other people and so i put the dog in the house so nothing would happen just incase. i believe my dog wont hurt anyone, but she is an animal and there is always a chance. im only 19 and was raised to respect my elders. to me, that was putting up with this lady's blabber because it was the respectful thing to do. i guess i was wondering if i should have corrected for the bark and growl or let it be. and also if i was right to put her up. i dont think she will come back and steal her or break in, she was a bit older, but in this world, you never know.

also, when we told her she was in training she asked who are trainer was and she threw out her name first.


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## carmspack (Feb 2, 2011)

Hey it wasn't me -- I have an alibi -- getting silly from too much work on a Friday.

you did good .

Carmen
Carmspack Working German Shepherd Dogs


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## onyx'girl (May 18, 2007)

I was almost thinking, it sounds like something I would do! The passion we have for GSD's just make us CRAZY!!


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## doggiedad (Dec 2, 2007)

i would have petted my dog and told
him how good a boy he is. then i would have asked the lady
to leave my yard.


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## Zoeys mom (Jan 23, 2010)

I would have told her to leave to your too nice,lol Anyone in my yard I don't know is definitely not welcome. If you see her again I would make it clear whether she used to live there or not she doesn't now and to keep it moving.


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## Jessiewessie99 (Mar 6, 2009)

I don't like strange people in my yard, I would have told her to leave. 

But as of right now the first thing people hear is Tanner's big bark and they don't come any closer.


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## EchoGSD (Mar 12, 2010)

When people I am unsure of ask me if my dogs will bite, I tell them the dogs are well trained but very protective. I generally raise my eyebrows when i say it, this makes most people step back or move away. If the person asking is someone we met on a walk or while socializing who just wants to pet the dogs, especially if they have children who want to approach, I tell them the dogs will be fine if they want to pet them. And they are.


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## TitonsDad (Nov 9, 2009)

I would have walked into the house, grabbed my shot gun and said...

Get off my property on the count of 3 before I pump your guts full of lead. 

*Sorry, I watched Home Alone tonight with my kids."

-E


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## Lauri & The Gang (Jun 28, 2001)

JudynRich said:


> Wierd! She may have been scoping the place. I agree with the other posts...you want strangers to be afraid of your dog.


*I* don't want strangers to be afraid of my dogs. I want them to be AWARE of the dogs but never afraid.

During the summer, on any given weekend, we might have over 100 people and dogs on our property (because of our lure coursing). We allow people to go in and use our bathroom if necessary and we don't escort them.

The dogs (except Sasha and Winnie) are gated away from the bathroom area but people can see (and HEAR) them when they go in the house.

A good answer to the biting question would be "My dog is always under MY control."


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## krystyne73 (Oct 13, 2010)

Funny you posted this because I just had this discussion with my trainer.
During our training session yesterday, some people walked by and Sasha stood alert but no alert bark. I said "see, why doesn't she give an alert bark like my other GSD Meika?"
He tells me that Sasha was doing good since the people walking close by did not necessarily mean danger, and I said I like how my Meika gives me a small alert bark when someone is at my house or near my house or walking behind me.
He tells me that it means Meika is probably a fear aggressive dog and that I should start crating her until she is under control...I was like... what?? I mean, she has some issues but really?


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## MaggieRoseLee (Aug 17, 2001)

I think what you ended up doing was fine. Taking a LEADERSHIP role in situation is key, and that's what you did. The woman did NOT try to kill you. So the fact when your pup growled you told her to stop cause YOU were in control of the situation was perfect. 

Just because someone is weird, that doesn't mean we want our dogs to freak out. It's why socialization is so important. Cause what is 'weird' to our dogs isn't always the same as what is weird to us, and we don't want our dogs to think its THEIR job to FREAK OUT if they are uncomfortable.

Most of the time, to our dogs, weird is something they don't know and haven't been exposed to. So it can be someone in a big hat, or with an umbrella, or a cane, or a wheelchair, or mentally handicapped, or older...... NONE of those people am I necessarily wanting my dog to be nervous, worried and over reacting. If I am calm, I want my dogs to be calm. 

Added to the fact if I'm able to take my dogs out and be proactive so they meet so many hundreds of different people in different places they will KNOW that many humans are 'different' and that's ok! May want to take a peak at me, or make sure I know something new is coming up, but then when I know, if I'm calm than my dogs need to take it all in stride. NOT THEIR JOB TO MAKE THESE DECISIONS cause they can't.


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## Rerun (Feb 27, 2006)

I don't agree that dogs can't make a decision - dogs can, and do, make decisions on a daily basis regarding important things. For example, a patrol dog will make the decision to react before his handler commands him to, should the need arise. Or a guide dog being trained to use intelligent disobedience if the handler tells the dog to cross a street, but the dog sees a car coming. These animals have been trained how to make these decisions, but outside of the training the dog must still make the decision on their own without being commanded to.


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