Gun Dog Forum

I have a 14 month old GSP that just got fixed. We have been battling an issue with him for the past nine months of being very insecure. He has gone to work with me every day and is free to roam in the building. Kids and people frequently pet him walk him on leash and give him treats and work basic commands with him like sit and stay. @ 5 months he shut down to everyone. Hides behind me when others approach gets territorial around other dogs he does not know. @ 9 months he spwnt a month with a trainer. No collar used no beating was there with other dogs and went through some basic field stuff with birds and guns. Fast forward to now and we are srill battling the insecurities. Any help on maybe what to work on with him would be much appreciated.

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Some lines of GSPs have insecurity bred into them.
I don't know that there is a way to work through them. I have always felt like ignoring it was about the only thing that worked. If you try to encourage him it just seem s to get worse. I don't have any other advice, do not have a lot of experience with this. IT does seem like it may have a cause since it started at 5 months....Cj

TxBarley99 wrote:I have a 14 month old GSP that just got fixed. We have been battling an issue with him for the past nine months of being very insecure. He has gone to work with me every day and is free to roam in the building. Kids and people frequently pet him walk him on leash and give him treats and work basic commands with him like sit and stay. @ 5 months he shut down to everyone. Hides behind me when others approach gets territorial around other dogs he does not know. @ 9 months he spwnt a month with a trainer. No collar used no beating was there with other dogs and went through some basic field stuff with birds and guns. Fast forward to now and we are srill battling the insecurities. Any help on maybe what to work on with him would be much appreciated.

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I had a dog once or twice ..maybe more,well more than more that come in for training at 9 month old or thereabouts .
Took me 2- 3 weeks just to get to know the dog and get it used to the New environment and daily routine .
I sure would like to know how and what was achieved in a month doing " Basic field stuff" ?
Even more curiously ..(From a behaviourist viewpoint) . Sure would like a video of that Free to roam and kids people pet him stuff .

I've had 2 GSPs- one like yours and one not.What you are going to get for the future , usually starts to show between 5- 10 months. I think it has something to do with the breeding usually . Are you sure nothing happened of which you are not aware?
Hate to say it, but I don't think there is much you can do.

Sharon wrote: Hate to say it, but I don't think there is much you can do.

Like Sharon I don't think there is much you can do about it. I have a 3 years old springer spaniel here. When he was 5 months old he got a fright when he met a perfectly friendly but much bigger dog and ran off into a wood. It took me 4 days to find him and catching him was not easy because he was also, by then, very suspicious of people.... including me !

I worked on his fears and suspicions and they did diminish but have never gone completely away. The thing that helped the most was taking him to shoots and giving him retrieves on fresh shot birds. He is a very keen retriever and this, to a certain extent, got him over his fears of other dogs and of people ...... but only in that situation !

He is still suspicious of all strangers whether human or canine. For a while I thought this was due to his having been lost but since then I have discovered that one of his litter brothers has the same behaviour. Something went wrong in the breeding , not in the socialisation.

My springer is a good worker and a very good family pet so I kept him .....but I will never breed from him.

Bill T.

Whoo Boy...

I'd say that ignoring it is a start.

But I'd also talk to a behavorist/obedience trainer in your area. This stuff is what they deal with day in and day out.

It is, kind-of-sort-of, a problem that the breed is prone to, in the same way that Labs are prone to getting fat and GWP's are prone to be overly fur sharp.