GSD Issue

scaredycat

Hi all,

My husband and I have a 2yr old GSD who is very obedient and a loving dog. Recently tho over the last few days, he's become slightly disobedient for no reason, well none that I can think of?
He's just doing small things like when I bring him to the toilet in mornings, he now refuses to go where I want him to go and has gone back to pooping in old place. When I bring him out to area, he just lies down and ignores my commands. He has always seen me as the dominant one as I have him well trained from day1, but now he seems to be testing me and is very very stubborn. I refuse to hit him or get into that sort of discipline, but I do want to act on this immediately as I don't want it to worsen. He is also snapping at the other dog and doing other things like ignoring me when I call him or only coming part of the way to me and then lying down and refusing to get up if I ask him. I'm not sure why he's doing this as he's usually so good and I worry about him turning bold? Anyone else go through this? Thanks

Nody

scaredycat wrote: »

Hi all,

My husband and I have a 2yr old GSD who is very obedient and a loving dog. Recently tho over the last few days, he's become slightly disobedient for no reason, well none that I can think of?
He's just doing small things like when I bring him to the toilet in mornings, he now refuses to go where I want him to go and has gone back to pooping in old place. When I bring him out to area, he just lies down and ignores my commands. He has always seen me as the dominant one as I have him well trained from day1, but now he seems to be testing me and is very very stubborn. I refuse to hit him or get into that sort of discipline, but I do want to act on this immediately as I don't want it to worsen. He is also snapping at the other dog and doing other things like ignoring me when I call him or only coming part of the way to me and then lying down and refusing to get up if I ask him. I'm not sure why he's doing this as he's usually so good and I worry about him turning bold? Anyone else go through this? Thanks

Step 1; update your training methods and sources and if you used a trainer replace the trainer. The dominance / pack theory is not only outdated but straight out proven wrong as a theory and does more harm than good.

Secondly; a dog don't go and change their mind for the fun of it which means something has changed. Hence have a very close look where you want him to go and try to figure out what's changed; wash it down etc. and clean his old area with a suitable protein breakdown based cleaning to remove the scent.

Third snapping at other dogs; is this something new and does it happen to all other dogs? A very common reason for snapping is poor socialisation and/or simply fear of other dogs and snapping to keep them away. This is something you can try to train around by having him sit every time you see another dog coming and have him focused on you for a high value treat. This is to slowly desensitise him to other dogs and make sure that he focuses on you rather than the other dogs. Other dogs simply don't like other dogs even when properly socialised.

Finally on getting up; what happens when he does not get up? Do you come to him and does he move away? Have you incentivised him to come back to you and taught him proper recall (i.e. that coming back to you is great fun for treat and cuddles)?

DBB

OP, as a fellow GSD owner with working GSDs, I would urge you to bring your dog to the vet for a full medical work up... Not just a prod and temperature taken, but get his musculoskeletal system fully assessed, and if nothing found there, then get bloods and urinalysis done.
A nicely trained GSD does not do what your is doing without good reason, and sudden changes in behaviour very often indicate an underlying medical issue. Because he's a GSD, there's a good chance he's going to run into medical issues. Sorry, but that's just the truth of it with the breed!