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I have a wonderful (thank you Cesar) 1 year old GSD. She walks great, listens great, and is a pleasure to have around. We do a 45 minute walk in the morning, a 1hour at night and 3 hours at the dog park a day, so she's very well exercised. It's the dog park where we seem to run into a bit of a problem. Sometimes I think she's too submissive.
She's great with other dogs, and is always the first to "make friends". However, if another dog shows any dominance at all, she submits. She never gets the ball, is always last at the water dish, and gets pushed out of the shade. Today she got pushed out the water dish and chased across the park by an 8 week old pup.
On a good note, submissive dogs love her since she doesn't bully them.
We do commands and training there do build up her self confidence, but it doesn't seem to have an effect. Otherwise she has a lot of fun there.
Is ther any chance that she's too submissive, or am I just blowing smoke and don't have to worry?
My Tassa
I think the human in you is clouding your vision. She is happy with her role in the pack, would rather avoid conflict.
I know about 1000 people that would rather have that trait than the aggresive or dominate dog. :) Great looking GSD btw..
www.AmstaffTalk.com
I’m inclined to agree, better submissive than an aggressive dog. Could do with Carney looking in on this one, he’s experienced not just with dogs but GSD’s.
Your dog is still very young, a puppy really, so you’ll probably find things will change as she matures. But it would seem that her confidence is somewhat lacking, which could lead to fear and onto fear aggression.
Other people with more experience than I might tell you different but I think that the dog park is perhaps just a bit too much. It could be said that a dog can’t get too much socialisation but new experiences need to be supplied at a rate that the dog is comfortable with. Obviously I don’t know to full details of how things are at the park, is this happening ten times per visit, once or twice a visit? Running away from a puppy isn’t a good for the puppy in question and as you saw, running from a dog gets you chased!
I don’t think you need to panic or worry too much but I think it needs looking into so it doesn’t become a big problem. Offering no aggression to another dog is just what you want but being too submissive can get her in trouble too when its in the form of ‘weakness’.
Dave (England UK)
Thanks for the replies :)
I don't really count her too much as a pup anymore since she's over a year old now. She's generally okay at the dog park, it's just that odd dog that pushes her. since we've been going for a couple hours a day for the the last few weeks, she doesn't get pushed around as much anymore. It's not that she's more dominant, she seems to be more confident and knows that she'll get her turn at the dish, or goes and gets a different ball. She got picked on once today by a dog that then went after every other dog in the park and was removed by the owner, and she seems to be the only one that can go near the greyhound without being growled at lol.
On a good note though, the new puppies that come here love her. She mothers them it seems, and keeps them from getting trampled (sometimes by standing on top of them with them under her belly) until the stampeding dogs go past.
And btw, if you met this pup you could understand why she ran, she nips quite hard lol
Certainly sounds a lot better in that context and so it seems there isn’t too much to worry about at all, just keep up the challenge of new experiences as you have been doing without letting her get over taxed and look forward to a future with dog that has manors that most of us only dream about J just keep an eye (as I’m sure you will) to see a steady improvement as she matures but readdress it if things slip backward.
Best of luck,
Dave
Thanks Dave :)
She's already my dream dog, since I've seen many I would count as a nightmare (one dog at the park's way of saying hi to every dog is to attack), but I can always hope for even more improvement :)
at a year old, the confidence will continue to come with maturity. Our boy Jr at a year old loved ever dog it came in contact with, now at 2 he is very slow to warm up to other dogs. Takes a lot of work on our part to keep him social.
You are on the right path, but you will still see changes once you get into full maturity. :)