Isabel and the Demon Dog

From the very first time that Isabel experienced the sharpness of Prince's bite, she was convinced that it was her duty to protect everyone from him.  Each time he tried to sniff Nikki or Charla, she would literally place herself as a barrier between them, raise the hair on her hackles and snarl as if she meant to tear him to pieces.  Even when he grew to be 20 times her size, she continued to stand up to him, valiantly defending whomever she suspected he wanted to accost.

Her protectiveness did not just extend to Nikki and Charla...it also included myself and my boyfriend. Prince's attempts to approach us when one of us was holding her resulted in her launching herself off of our laps and attempting to attach herself to the nearest part of his anatomy in a fit of rage.  Sometimes it was his body, sometimes his chin (whereupon he would shake his hand and send her flying).  This never deterred her, however.  She would simply race back for more, barking ferociously and hurling herself at the nearest part of him.

Sometimes Prince would tire of her attacks (especially when they involved food) and would simply pick her up in his mouth and move her.  Other times, however, he almost appeared to enjoy it, racing past her with his ears down and leaping over the gate separating the kitchen from the living room so she couldn't pursue him.

"She's so mean to him," I marveled to my boyfriend, who was Isabel's most special person...and the one she defended from Prince most ferociously.

"That's because she's scared," he said.  "Of you and your demon dog."

I had hoped that the two of them would be friends someday...but it appeared that was not to be.  At least not in my presence.  My boyfriend claims sometimes when Prince is asleep, Isabel will lie on top of him...but I have yet to see it with my own eyes.

German Shepherds and Other Dogs

When I brought Prince home at 8 weeks of age, I had three small dogs at home...Isabel, my 1 year-old Chihuahua; Nicholas, my 10-year-old Shih-Tzu, and Charla, my 10-year-old toy poodle.  Having the high opinion of German Shepherds that I did, I never expected him to have any problems with them...and, in actuality, I turned out to be somewhat right.  He never actually had any serious problems with them...but there were a few personality conflicts.

Charla, my toy poodle, was the queen of the house...and had been for many years.  Since her earliest days with me, she had an established method of showing her dominance, i.e., flipping anyone new who came into the household (be it a cat or a dog) onto their back and nipping at their belly furiously.  Usually she only had to do this once, because they got the message afterwards and never challenged her again.  When I brought Prince home, he was actually almost the same size as she was...but for some reason which I never did truly understand, she never tried it with him.  Instead, Charla simply gave him what I called "the eye."

The first and most significant time she did this was the first night they both slept with me, on Prince's first night home.  Charla had always slept on my right side, next to my pillow...and little Prince considered taking her spot that first night.  At the first sign of this defiance, Charla sat up, snarled at him in warning, and gave him "the eye."  In spite of their being newly acquainted, Prince knew what it meant, because he stopped in his tracks and began barking at her furiously.  Charla simply continued to give him "the eye," whereupon Prince backed off, went to lie down with a last defiant bark, and stayed away from the head of the bed for the rest of the night...and every night thereafter..

Nicholas had an entirely different method of handling Prince...he simply ignored him.  No matter how much Prince barked at him or danced around him, Nicholas simply stood there staring straight ahead, waiting for someone to rescue him from Prince's unwanted attention.  Considering Nicholas' advanced age, and his dignity, we always responded in the manner...by picking up Prince, gently correcting him and carrying him away.  After a while, Prince gave up on trying to make friends with Nikki...but he never gave up on Isabel.

Isabel was exactly the same size as Prince...and she ran when he chased her.  At first, she seemed to enjoy the attention...until the first time he tried to chew on her.  Isabel reacted with outrage...for the first week, anyway.  By the second week, he was twice as big as she was...and their relationship began to progress in an entirely different manner.

Sometimes Punishment Works

After my uninspiring conversation with Tim's boss, I continued to walk Prince on a daily basis, in spite of the increased ferocity of his attacks.  By this time, they had escalated to the point where they resembled a child's temper tantrum...the fierceness of his nipping and my struggles to stop him literally resulted in our being propelled off the side of the road.  One day, a friend of my boyfriend drove by and saw us in the middle of a large area of shrubbery.  Of course, the instant his truck appeared, Prince stopped attacking me and simply stood there innocently, as if we had somehow wandered off the road and found our way there.  When the truck was gone, he continued his assault upon me. I was so furious that I actually contemplated tying him to a tree and walking home by myself.

"This is it," I said, when he had finally calmed down, and I stalked back home, practically dragging him with me.  Once I got there, I considered all of the options that so many professionals had provided to me (none of which had worked) and then I considered what my father would have done.

My father had trained German Shepherds in the military.  When I asked him once what would happen if he ordered a dog to do something that it did not want to do, he said it would do it regardless....because it would be afraid not to.  While at the time I was affronted, at this point I wondered if there might not be something to this advice when it came to German Shepherds, and I grabbed a newspaper, rolled it up, and hit the wall with it as hard as I could..

"No!" I shouted.  "No!  Don't you ever bite me again!"  Each time I yelled it, I hit the wall with the paper, while Prince stared at me with something akin to astonishment.  Then he did something he had never done before.

He put down his ears, and slunk away from me.

I've heard that there is no point in correcting a dog unless you do so immediately, but obviously Prince knew exactly what I was scolding him for, because he never nipped me again.

Sometimes punishment does work.

After Tim recommended that I have Prince neutered at an early age, I went to talk to the veterinarian that he worked for.  The first thing Prince did upon meeting him was jump up in delight and hit him with his left front paw, leaving an enormous red welt down one of his cheeks.  I could see that the veterinarian was both annoyed and intimidated by my extremely large puppy, but he tried to keep a stiff upper lip.

"What you are dealing with is a potentially extremely dangerous dog," the veterinarian said.  "One day, he will more than likely attack you."

"But I'm his owner," I pointed out, thinking I had never heard of a German Shepherd that actually attacked his owner.  (Nipping was another matter entirely.)

"One day, he will attack you, even though he loves you, to punish you," he said.  "And with a dog this large, someone could potentially be seriously injured.  Then, you will be coming back here and I will have to put him to sleep."

"I'll think about it," I said, and went home, where I actually did think about it.  I had always intended to neuter Prince eventually, because I believe there are already too many dogs in the world that nobody wants.  Yet I wanted to wait until he was mature, and I knew, from past experience, regardless of what any veterinarian would tell me, that dogs neutered early do not develop the same way as dogs who are neutered later.  And I was, already, a little bit vain about my dog's looks.

I wasn't entirely to blame for this.  Every time I complained about his bad behavior to people, they would murmur in sympathy and then add, "But he's gorgeous!"  Which made me wonder if even good looking dogs (like good looking people) tend to be excused for their bad behavior more often.

In the end, I decided to wait.  Sooner or later, I thought, he'll grow out of this bad behavior, and I'll be glad I did.

What I should have known is that the apex of Prince's bad behavior was about to arrive, and I was going to have to deal with it in a manner that I never thought I would.

Positive Reinforcement

When I spoke to Tim, the behavior modification specialist, the first thing he did was ask me what I did when Prince bit me.  I told him that I immediately corrected him by saying "No" in a very loud, firm voice.

"What does he do then?" he asked.

"He usually just bites me again, until he gets tired of it," I admitted.

"I'd like for you to try something new," he said.  "Positive reinforcement.  Every time you walk Prince, and you've covered so much distance, and he hasn't bitten you, I want you to give him a treat and tell him good dog.  Then I want you to call me back and let me know how it worked."

I said I would, and the following day, I got a bag of chopped meat ready, put it into the breast pocket of my coat, and set out with Prince.  After we  had walked past the entrance of the park and stopped approximately a quarter of a mile past it, I took out the bag of treats, said "Good dog" and gave him one.

Prince stared at me in astonishment before he snapped the treat up.

This might work, I thought, and continued on the walk, figuring I would give him another treat after approximately another quarter of a mile.  I was actually feeling pretty good about it, thinking it might work...until Prince hurled himself onto me.

Stunned, I tried to ward him off, but he persisted at nipping at me, and my coat, until he had snatched the packet of treats from my pocket, torn it open and consumed the entire bag of treats in a single gulp.  Then he jumped on me again and gave me several more nips for good measure, as if punishing me for having treats that he hadn't know about.

The following day, I called Tim and told him about the unfortunate consequences of the experiment.  He next suggested that each time Prince jumped on me and nipped me, I should fold my arms and turn my back on him.

With some trepidation, I followed his advice the following day, only to have Prince leap up on my back and rake the back of my head with his teeth.  At this point, near tears, I returned home and informed him of this new development.

He suggested I consider early neutering.

Puppy Aggression

For puppy aggression problems, my vet recommended I review a pamphlet the office circulated especially for such issues.  There were two important points the owner of an aggressive puppy was supposed to keep in mind at all times:  1) Assert dominance over your puppy by making him obey commands before he gets a snack or a meal, and 2) Exercise your puppy.  Having already started my puppy on the commands before treats program (sit, stay, lie down, come), I came to the happy conclusion that exercise would probably be the magic bullet that would solve my puppy's aggression issues.  Therefore, I purchased a leash and collar, and prepared to begin walking my puppy a mile every day, through the park located by my home.

Unfortunately, Prince's reaction to our new program was the last one I would have expected.  He immediately came to the realization that while I was walking him, I was as much a captive of his as he was of mine, thereby affording him the opportunity to nip me with impunity...and without pause.  He joyfully attacked my ankles each time we reached the border of the park, and continued to do so sporadically throughout our walk.  By the end of the week, every pair of pants I owned had holes in them.

Frustrated (and bruised), I decided to consult my local humane society's dog advice column next.  This informed me that puppies all bite, and all puppies need to be taught not to bite...by doing the exact things I had been doing.  They had no further advice as to what to do in the event these options failed.  So I decided to consult my puppy's breeder, thinking it was perhaps an ingrained response of a herding breed.

"Every time I walk him, he nips my ankles," I told her.

She told me that it sounded as if he were trying to get away from me (!) and the only thing she could recommend was walking him on a shorter leash.  I therefore wrapped the leash more tightly around my hand the next time I walked him, so that he couldn't reach my ankles.

In response, he went after my legs, instead.

Our walks began to take twice as long as they should, primarily because we spent at least half the time involved in altercations in which he would repeatedly nip me and I would shout, "Prince, No! Prince, No!" to no avail.  I therefore decided to consult a dog behavioral professional at a different veterinary office, whom the receptionist assured me would be able to assist me in eliminating my puppy's aggressive tendencies.

The following day, at a scheduled appointment time, I called Tim, the training specialist.

When I brought Prince home, a few days after Thanksgiving 2008, I had never trained a German Shepherd before.  Due to my father having trained so many of them (and my having so little to do with any of it), I was under the somewhat erroneous impression that a German Shepherd was a very easy dog to train.  A smart dog should pick up things quickly...or at least, that was what I thought.  And, at first, it seemed that I was correct.

Prince was housebroken in 2 days.  He had exactly 2 accidents in the house...at 8 weeks of age.  All I had to do was take him outside, wait for him to relieve himself, and give him a snack.  The next time I took him out, he immediately went, I repeated the process, and that was it.  I have housebroken poodles, Shih-Tzus, chihuahuas, Miniature Schnauzers and many mixed breed dogs, and while some of them were pretty were quick to catch on, none were quite that quick.  Prince was the smartest dog I had ever housebroken.

Pleased with my almost effortless success, I went on to the basic commands of obedience that I had learned years ago were essential for all dogs to know.  I taught Prince to come as easily as I had taught him to go potty outside.  All I had to do was call him, wait for him to come to me and give him a snack, and he caught on.  I taught him to sit by giving him a snack as soon as he sat down while I held a snack, and to lie down and stay in the same manner.  Each time, he would look at me in an almost condescending manner, as if he somehow expected more of me.  Inordinately pleased with myself, I even wrote a letter to the lady who had bred him, extolling his rapid learning ability.

Ironically enough, it was only a few days afterwards that the chewing problem began.

Prince didn't chew up toys, like my small dogs had.  He didn't chew on furniture, or flooring, or books, or even bedding.  None of those things were worthy of his chewing efforts.

Prince chewed on people.

At first, I tried saying NO in a loud, firm voice, and yanking away whatever part of me he had decided to sink his teeth into.  This only made it more exciting for him.  He would simply lunge at me and try to chew on another available part.  Shouting NO had exactly the same effect (i.e, none).  Clapping my hands, stomping my feet and making loud noises were similarly useless.  On his first visit to the vet for shots, I explained the situation to her and asked for her advice.

"You can't let him get away with that," she said (as I had seriously considered doing so)."You have to correct him immediately."

"How?"  I asked.

Whereupon she provided me with a pamphlet titled "How to curb your puppy's aggressive tendencies."

Relieved, I took it home, read it, and prepared to tackle my German Shepherd puppy's chewing propensity.

Training a German Shepherd

My father was convinced that no dog in the world was a match for the German Shepherd in terms of intelligence.  He actually trained them in the military as a young man...and had the scars on his forearms to prove it.  My mother is a devoted fan of the German Shepherd, as well...primarily because when my father was serving in Korea, and she was living alone in Indiana with two small daughters, she purchased a German Shepherd for protection.  This dog...Brutus...not only accomplished this exceedingly well, he also helped me learn how to walk when I was a baby by letting me pull myself up on his body and walk with my hand on him.  I called him Brutee.

When I was 5 years old, we got another German Shepherd...Prince I...who was also the model of patience with my parents' young family.  My father took dozens of pictures of me as a child with my arms wrapped around his neck, hugging him as if I were trying to choke him.  The only person Prince I didn't care for was the garbage man, because he would try to sneak up and take the trash away.

We had other German Shepherds when I was older...Prince II and Count..both of whom were extraordinarily protective and extraordinarily patient.  The only fault Count had was that he liked to steal our dolls, and run away with them with his ears folded down!  

I grew up with the impression that German Shepherds were the smartest dog in the world, too...but what I never realized was that their very intelligence might make them a little bit more difficult than the average dog to train.  I discovered this the hard way...when I purchased my first purebred German Shepherd, Prince Blackstar (or Prince III) from a breeder in Columbus, Nebraska.  

Prince's parents were German imports, so Prince is bigger than the average German Shepherd in America...he is over 100 pounds.  I suspect Prince's ancestors were also possibly used for police work, due to various ingrained habits he arrived with, as well as herding, for the same reason.  This made Prince's puppyhood an especially challenging time.  Yet I actually learned more from training Prince than I have from training any other dog I have owned, and in this blog, I would like to share some of that for anyone who is trying to train a German Shepherd and may be encountering situations similar to those which I did, or for anyone who needs a good laugh.  

I'm pretty sure Prince approves.