Hi everyone, Our 5 year old male Labrador started barking at German Shepherds recently. Odd thing is, he only does it when a German Shepherd is approaching. He never barks at people or other kind of dogs. He is very good natured and balanced, always calm and playful. We take him for a couple short and one long walk every day. Things go well with other dogs we meet, until a German Shepherd enters the scene. If the German Shepherd gets closer he starts barking and approaching them until there is a meter between the two dogs where he stops and keeps barking until me or the other owner takes one of the dogs away. He plays with any stranger dog regardless of kind or size, except German Shepherds. We think something may have happened while being walked by a dog walker, we ourselves certainly have not seen anything during our walks that could explain his 'racism'. How could we teach him to be more tolerant and accept German Shepherds as any other dogs? Many thanks, Istvan
Hi @Istvan I would try the LAT protocol. There is an entire page on LAT (look at that) training on this site. There is an excellent video on how to train it. It is important that you teach it and train the procedure at home before taking it on the road. In your case you will be implementing it when you or your dogs sees a GSD. https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/look-at-that.22184/
Our first Lab, Ginger, was bitten by our neighbors GSD when she was about 6 yrs old. (Their dog hated all dogs, even puppies.) Ginger had to have a couple of stitches in her tail, and from that day on she hated all GSDs. While she got along fine with most all dogs, when she saw a GSD her hackles would stand up and she go into fight mode. I don't believe she ever actually got into a fight with a GSD but her body language said she wanted to.
Thank you Michael. I will need to take a closer look at this method, it is new to me and I haven't had any time during last week. A bit uncertain that it would work smoothly for us, our dog is walked by all members of our family, kids included, which I think would potentially complicate the process. I will learn more about the LAT method. Interesting story Ski-Patroller. We have a feeling something similar may have happened, but there is no evidence. Our dog behaves the same way as Ginger did. He never fights but nevertheless it is a bit scary when it happens.
You will need to teach your dog the method, and proof it first. Once that is done it is easy. You will be able to explain the method to all the other walkers. It will increase their ability to read your dog.
