I’m going to wax Christian for a minute as I bump this thread. If I had a child with a behavorial problem, would that necessarily make me a bad parent or prove that my parenting skills were bad? If I had an otherwise healthy fetus should I choose to abort it because of a defect? I took care of a newborn that was in NICU because of a botched abortion. The hospital ethics committee browbeat the parents into abortion because the child would be so horribly handicapped and would have no quality of life. Abortion was the easy out. The infant needed surgery for a minor problem and his horrible outcome was having a limp. I had to care for him for prematurity and saline solution burns. Should I euthanize my close family member because they’re bipolar? I realize my dog isn’t human, but that makes him all the more vulnerable to not having his life valued. I realize human life is exponentially more valuable than any animal’s life. I guess I have to ask — do we live in a culture that values life at all? Do we abandon our imperfect baby at the hospital if we didn’t get the chance to abort it, dump our senile grandma at the nursing home, or do we try to make the best out of a challenging situation God has presented us to try our faith and character?
Here are my dog’s positive traits and commands he knows —
puppy night-night (the command signaling no more interaction for the day)
sit
stay
down
wait (hang around the general area while I’m gone)
kiss
shake
potty
roll over (quit training that because with a GSD’s joints it looked very painful)
jump
take
put (here)
drop it
give (to a person)
find (person/toy)
swim
go away
“Can’t reach it” (toy dropped too far away)
back up
eat (when he hasn’t touched his food and isn’t sure if his ‘pack’ is eating, or permission to eat when it isn’t)
outside/inside
crate
bathroom
bedroom
up (the rare permission to get on the couch)
no bite (getting too mouthy)
How many people’s dog’s know and obey that many commands? When I get up in the morning, I get my tea, sit down, drink it, and my dog doesn’t interact with me until I signal him that I am ready. When I come home from being out, he knows he gets no attention till my purse or packages get put down. He skirts/rebels against that by nudging my hand with his nose because it’s so hard to contain himself. I pretend to let him get away with it because I overwhelmingly want to glomp him, too. This week we had nice weather. I decided to throw open the living room patio door so I’d feel like I was outside. My dog kept going to the other door requesting to go outside. He’d go to the patio door, but wouldn’t go out. That’s not the door he’s been allowed to go out of, so he wouldn’t go. It’s been several days, and he still looks to me for the ‘ok’ to go out that door. My dog knows that he cannot go into bedrooms or bathrooms except under command. I’m a softie so I let him lay with his feet in. We have an understanding- feet say “I want in, please,” and my allowance says, “I know you do, but, no, and I love you so you can have a taste and feel a little bit included.”
For a dog that knows this many commands (I’m probably forgetting some), is so well behaved and obedient, should the first option be death because he’s afraid of strangers, or should I try to work with the dog’s psychiatric issues? I’m not going to re-home him with a bunch of young kids he’s vying for pack order with. I’m looking for a home with a strong Alpha male and /or female that, like me, can control my dog on a word, look or hand signal.
One command I just realized I missed-
Finger snap= at my side.
I can also leave food out below nose level all night (those bad, late night snacks) and my dog won’t touch them. He’s occasionally allowed to sniff in the general direction of the counter, garbage, etc. before he gets the look or an outright “no” for over sniffing. If only children were so well behaved...!
I hope this works out. Your GSD sounds like a loyal boy.
It’s not uncommon for pubs that experienced trauma to show aggressive towards strangers and other animals.