A Very Bad Dog - Part 1

The first indication we got that Prince had a markedly different attitude toward men than he did toward women occurred when my boyfriend's brother came to visit.

Encouraged by Prince's very favorable reaction to the neighbor lady, I was more than happy to have him stop by, and was looking forward to his reaction when he discovered how friendly Prince was.  After all, I thought, it wasn't every day that someone gets to meet a friendly German Shepherd Dog.

To my surprise, the first thing my boyfriend's brother did when Prince came romping toward him was to back away from him slightly.  Then he began to turn around in circles, laughing a little under his breath and holding out his hands each time Prince tried to come up behind him.

"What're you doing?" I asked, taken aback.

"Making sure my back isn't turned toward him," he said.

"Why?"  I stared at him.

"Because he's trying to jump up on my back," he explained.

As I watched, I realized he was right...Prince did seem to be circling him, looking for an opportunity to jump on him.  But I figured it was an anomaly, something about my boyfriend's brother that he was reacting to, and not something I needed to be particularly concerned about.

Over the course of the next several weeks, I discovered I was dead wrong.

Each time one of my boyfriend's male friends came to visit, Prince would bide his time until they happened to turn their backs toward him.  Then he would lunge forward, jump up and hit them with his front paws as hard as he could.  Since he was tall as they were when he was on his back legs, the result was frequently devastating...one of them spilled coffee all over himself when it occurred, and a second one (who unwisely came over without a shirt on) ended up leaving with a gigantic welt across the middle of his back.

My bed, my pillow!

Each time Prince would jump up on someone, of course, I was appropriately horrified and would yell and/or scold him severely.  Nothing I did seemed to faze him, though (and sometimes it actually seemed to make it worse).  Each male visitor was a new victim to him, to the extent that eventually I wondered if I would simply have to keep him locked up each time a male happened to come over.

Being the dog people that they were, they all encouraged me not to do so, obviously holding the opinion that it was something Prince would outgrow.

Unfortunately, they were wrong, as shortly thereafter Prince began to develop a second inexplicable and even more alarming behavior.