german shepherd puppy

[nicolajane]

My german shepherd puppy is 7 months old, He is a big soft teddy bear most of the time but when it comes to feeding him he growls and cowers in the corner,
I have been feeding him out of my hand and reasuring him ie stroking him and the growling stops, but by the next meal time he is growling again, this also happens if you walk in to a room and he is sleeping but not all the time, he is being castrated in the next week as he only has 1 testicle will this cure him of the proplem, and am i doint the right thing by reassuring him

Many thanks

[Illyria54]

Hi there, I think your best bet is to completely ignore this behavior, you are actually (without realising it) reinforcing it. If you act confidently around him then he will start to realise that there is nothing to be nervous about, it will probably take a long time and a lot of patience, castration is good for all male dogs not used for breeding but it will not stop his nervousness , it will however help to prevent this behavior becoming aggressiveness, a nervous aggressive dog is far worse than just ordinary aggression When he cowers in the corner don't even talk to him, it will be hard for you but it is the best way to deal with this, don't finger feed him, put his food down in front of him and give him 15 minutes to eat it, if he doesn't eat it then take it away and don't feed him again until later in the day I'm assuming you do feed twice a day? if he still won't eat then repeat the next day, obviously as he is still very young don't let this go on for more than 3 days, then you need to seek your vets and a behaviorists advice. I have had GSD's for 31 years and have 3 at the moment.

[nicolajane]

Thank you Illyria,

I will give this a try thank you for taking the time out to answer me,

nicola Jane

[Illyria54]

Hi Nicolajane, hope it works, he is obviously scared for some reason and the frustrating thing is you may never know what it is, I have a 10 month GSD bitch who is the boldest GSD I have had, nothing phases her, how does your dog get on with other dogs? as bolder dogs can give more nervy ones extra courage, do you go to obedience classes with him? the more dogs he meets the better, I am lucky as I have another 2 GSD's and I also have a Border Collie, but I know that not everyone can or indeed wants more than 1 dog.
Let me know how you get on.

[nicolajane]

Hi Illyria

Dylan gets along quite well with other dogs, when i take him to the park which he goes to twice a day, he has a couple of dogs he gets along with more than others,
He is a very frieindly dog who does as he is told most of the time, I think the food and his bed issue is more of a dominance problem as he very rarely growls at my partner,
he is a confident dog with other dogs and people except me,
When he growls I think he is as scared as me, but I ignored the growling yesterday, and again this morning and he is fine untill I go to touch him with my hands, he had a cows hoof last night and he was fine but i gave him a tripe stick this morning and he looked like cujo, growling,
ears back and head down, then as soon as he has finished he is back to the huge playful frienly lump that I love,
Generally he is not a nervous dog.
i am trying to find a class in my area wich is proving quite hard and as I dont drive this is proving difficult,

Regards
Nicolajane