# Adopted a 2 year old



## AnythingForThin9 (Nov 14, 2017)

Hello,
I'm in college and about 2 months ago I adopted a 2 to 2.5 year old german shepherd. He was completely house trained, doesn't chew or destroy anything. He is a very relaxed dog. He listens to me with basic commands like "come" and "sit" Ect. He waits for me to give him permission to eat. Overall a very sweet and behaved dog. However, when ever i take him for walks or around groups of people (bigger than 4) he gets super nervous. If we are out for a walk he wants to run around and pulls on the leash like crazy. Normally, if it's just us, I can run or walk with him and have no problem. If we are in my house and my roommates family comes over he will hide in my room almost the entire time. I want him to be protective so I don't want him craving peoples attention, but I don't want him scared of them either. Is there a way I can help him? I take him to the farmers market on Saturday's and we make slow loops around the outside, away from people, but close enough he still want to run. I make him walk very slowly and sometimes we just sit for 10 minutes and watch then start walking again...is this helpful? I haven't seen much progress. I don't let people pet him. I'm going to work with a trained over break but until then is there anything I can be doing?

Sorry for the long post!

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## konathegsd (Dec 3, 2016)

Continue building your bond with him. Two months isn?t terribly long....it takes time. Make training fun and positive. I would continue with exposure and making him focus on you when you think he may get nervous. It took a while for my cattle dog to be able to be in large crowds.
Work on building his confidence.....lots of success


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## dogbyte (Apr 5, 2002)

Become his world. Hand feed him his meals, and then after a while start teaching him new "tricks/obedience" commands for his food. GSDs love to learn and that will help create a bond with you. Most GSDs will bark at strange people. Work on bonding in your house first. I would avoid large crowds until he really knows you are his person. And maybe get even further away from the crowds. Find his "safe zone" first, then just do the sitting and calming. Get his mind on you.Go to Leerburg.com and read and watch all the free info on pack structure (even though it is just you and him) and introducing a new dog to your house.


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