quick help and advice needed please

[JaxTellersOldLady]

I am C&P for a friend who sent me this message. She lives in Lancashire OL5 0QX area if that helps. She rescued Sabre a few months ago after lots of research and looking.

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Can you see if your hubby has any ideas for me please?
I absolutely adore Sabre, he is a fantastic dog - well in the house he is. Once introduced to someone at home properly, he is adorable with them. When he is out he is such a nightmare! :o(
In the car, if anyone walks past, he goes berserk at them. Anyone in the street, if I have not clocked them and checked him - he goes mad at them!
It is such an embarrassment.
Yesterday we were walking back to the pub and there was a bloke coming towards us. Because I had seen him, I took Sabre to one side, made him sit and talked to him with a treat in my hand. The guy walked past and Sabre hardly noticed him.
Today, we had been up on the hills. I pulled up outside the pub, went to get him out of the car - there was no-one about. His lead got stuck and as I had my head in the door trying to loosen the lead a woman walked past! He went absolutely ape shit! To make it worse there was a Police car parked at the traffic lights watching all this.
Obviously he was never socialised as a pup and I don't know his background, but this is obviously why there are so many GSD's in rescue kennels.
Now I have tried getting into local dog obedience classes (his obedience in the house is excellent, so he has obviously been trained at some point in his life) and now they are just ignoring me for whatever reason. So I have had to forget that one!
The forums I go on to read about GSD behaviour etc. all say it is the owners who is letting their nervousness get through to the dog. Well that is a load of bollocks. I am not nervous when we are in the car yet he reacts, nor when I can't see a potential trigger near us. They all give lots of advice, a lot of it I have tried, but I cannot 'train' him not to react to strangers on the general public, it just isn't fair, some people are really afraid of dogs and especially a frigging big one trying to get at them!
I am a bit lost in which way to go here. I am thinking about putting a muzzle on in future, not that it would stop him reacting I don't suppose, but oh hell, I don't know lol
Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

come on doggy people? I know it isnt paragraphed, but clearly she is in need of help and I have suggested to contact rescue and vets for referrals but any meantime help would be good.

Oh I am working on almost this exact problem with my dog atm. My dog racts to other dogs and bikes in a similar way

My lovely trainer told me that the issue is not what the dog is pulling towards. The issue is that the dog is pulling on the lead. Ignore what he is pulling at.

I was told to deal with this in a few ways. First step is always start walks in a clam and controlled manner. Even if takes you 20 mins to get the dog calm enough to leave the house after he sees you fetch his lead.

Start with lots of short walks (pref at least 5-10 mins 6 times a day) to deal with pulling at the leash. When the dog starts to pull walk him in a circle and back to side saying 'heel/don't pull' whatever you want your command to be. Do this everytime the lead goes tight. But don't tighten the leash your self. Give the dog enough lead to hang itsel;f. If you are contanstly pulling the lead the dog will pull back against you.

Once the dog is walking well at your side you start longer walks where you might see the things they react to. Ignore what they are reacting. Repeat the steps to stop them pulling and change direction if needs be. Still always making sure the keash is loose, do not pull the lead tight if you see something the dog may react to. That only tells the dog, he has reason to feel insecure.

I hope that makes sense?

yes Shiny it does, but I think she wants the dog to stop going mental at people in general.

He is a lovely dog, she walks him up on the hills and he is fab when out and about, but the minute there are other people around he woofs.

I will tell her this though, thanks x

When she says it goes berserk does she mean pulling on the lead to get to the person and barking?

That's what my dog does, but with excitement, not agression. The trainer reckons that teaching the dog to walk properly on a lead will stop the behaviour. They will simply stop pulling towards things and thus the barking will stop. Once they realise that pulling on the lead means they will be slowed down and they won't get to where they want to be anyway, they stop wasting the energy.

They learn to ignore the trigger, because you ignore it.

If they see something they want and start pulling towards it, eventually you should only need to use the 'heel/do not pull' command to bring the dog back under control.

It could be nervousness or it could be fear, or it could be aggression. My bet would be on one or both of the first two, but I'm certainly not an expert.

My advice would first of all be to look for another class and maybe ask to see the trainer/behaviourist first for a one to one session and explain everything then, as the dog is likely to react quite loudly at a class.

I would imagine as she is embarrassed, the owner tries to avoid people. Obviously she needs to avoid worrying or upsetting anyone, but the more people the dog sees, the more it will become desensitised to them. I would suggest that once basic obedience is sorted to find somewhere really buys, but where she can be a distance from the people. Maybe the quiet end of a supermarket car park. I would use something like a halti or gentle leader (get the dog used to it first) so she has total control over the dog. Ignore the people and work on training the dog. Get the dog to do a variety of 'tricks' it has already been taught at home and knows. Sit, down, high five, roll over etc and do lots of heelwork on the lead. Lots of treats as a reward (or clicker train first). Work on keeping the dogs attention and getting it to ignore everyone around. If it does notice someone and react 'badly' then call to the owner and distract and then continue training. It would probably also help to teach the dog a good 'leave' command to use at times when it is interested in other people.

That is something like what I would do. Our 'foster' pup was very reactive to people and dogs when I first started walking him myself after a period of bedrest. He is now great when meeting people, but still a little vocal when seeing other dogs. He is improving, but we see lots of people but few dogs when out and about, so it's obvious it's going to take longer with dogs.

thanks midori, will c&p for her, or might get her to join and look at this thread, probably easier.

She is doing just the right thing - just keep at it and do it more and more!

What she needs to do is to change the behaviour when the dog sees people. In a case like this it does not really matter if it because of fear, little socialisation or another reason.

The new learned behaviour that you want from the dog when it sees people is to turn to the owner and look at the owner. So every time from now on the dog sees people you have to treat the dog.

Start with people the dog knows in situations she is happy. So maybe her garden. Walk towards the person but leave a wide berth between the person and the dog, when the dog sees the person immediately treat the dog. When this can be done happily then you can take the person and dog to a new location and try it there. Then maybe bring a new person to the garden etc etc and up the anti.This can be achieved in a short space of time if the dog is calm and not pushed too fast. Then go to a quiet village and give the dog the food the minute the dog sees a person but it is important to do so before the dog reacts. If at times the owners timing is wrong just say nothing to the dog but walk away from the person when the dog is calm treat.

It is very important to try to avoid the situations that set the dog off for a while as each success will easily be wiped out be a negative reaction. But this can be turned around very quickly if there is consistent handling. Do not think that this problem will go away it may be that the dog will need constant rewards for the correct behaviour but that is a small price to pay for a chilled dog.

This is one time I would not use the clicker. The problem with using the clicker in this instance is that the dog may be feeling anxious, scared, bossy etc before it gives off any physical reaction so hence you are then clicking the mood the dog is in - which you do not want to do and this can slow the process down.

thanks. have sent her link to here to look at. It is such a shame as he is a lovely big dog and it seems because she doesnt live in a large town there are not many trainers around.

But she is willing to keep at it which is fantastic.

my friend sends you here sincere thanks.

you lot are fab.