Dog Just 'Went For' A Visitor, Need Help!

I know it's late at night, but thought I better write this while the memory is fresh.

Back in December/January, we were struggling with Anton as he had some issues with barking at strangers - especially men. He didn't really lunge for them or anything, just barked and would not stop. We got a behaviourist in, who assessed that it was his nervous disposition - so we were to remain calm when opening the door, get him to sit beforehand, etc. We also purchased a basket muzzle to give visitors more confidence with him and just in case the worst should happen.

He's been improving steadily over the months, but tonight has really shaken me up.

I had a couple of male friends over tonight, both familiar and quite confident with dogs. I had put his muzzle on before I brought him over (he had been staying at my nan and grandads, his usual home, but they were out, so we bought him over as he's not keen on being left alone). I did the usual wait-sit-come-sit-stay routine that I do at the door, and when he was calm, took the lead off, expecting a little barking, but nothing too uncontrollable. He went over, no barking. Brilliant, I thought.

Then I sat down on the sofa bed roughly between the two guys, and one of them was sat behind me making a fuss of him. Again, he was fine, and went off to explore a bit, before quickly returning to my friend. My friend went out and stroked him again, and suddenly Anton just flipped. Barking, lunging, the lot, just fixed on the guy. I got a hold of his collar and firmly told him 'enough', and, slowly, he calmed down.

Luckily, the guy understood that Anton has issues (I had explained before they came in), and was willing to have him stay in the room. I suggested that the eye contact my friend had been giving him may have freaked Anton, so this time when Anton approached, he averted his eyes. Success, he was able to stroke Anton, no problem. Anton then came to me for fuss, returned to my friend, and again started going crazy! Not sure if my friend was giving him eye contact here, I was watching the dog. At this point, my mum came in and told Anton to get in the living room, which he did.

This really shook me up - the guy wasn't hugely phased by it, a little freaked, but didn't make a massive fuss. This was definately the worst Anton has ever been - the only link I can make is that all the people he has taken an extreme dislike to are tall men. The first was my uncle, who he barked at a lot, then let come in, then barked at whenever he moved. The second was a different friend (this was on a walk, during Anton's most nervous phase). We walked over to meet him, the friend went in too quickly to touch Anton and Anton barked and backed off behind me (he didn't stop barking for a long while). Now this - but as the guys all look very different and this one was sat down, is it linked? Or pure coincidence?

Outside of the house, bar that incident with the second friend mentioned above, strangers are greeted nicely, and in the house, he is usually friendly once he's seen who it is and they've given him a couple of treats.

My mum's boyfriend thought it might be because I had the two guys sat either side of me, and Anton got jealous (I don't really buy into this one, Anton wasn't paying me much attention when he blew his fuse). As he was excited to be coming to an active house from a house he'd been alone in, could this have had an effect on the extreme way he reacted?

We'll be getting a behaviourist in again ASAP, but can anyone suggest why he reacted to this friend the way he did? Has anyone else dealt with a dog like this? Can anyone suggest how we might prevent another occurance of this? How should we handle this type of situation if it should ever happen again?

At the moment, we will obviously continue with the muzzle-calm-routine.

I know it's not going to be an easy one to crack, but I can't stand the thought of him being sent back to the rescue centre or, worse, being pts. Doesn't bear thinking about.

Sorry for waffling, just didn't want to leave anything out.

Not sure what made him flip like that.

Ollie has issues with strangers and in particularly like Anton them coming in the house, he doesn't favour men or women if he doesn't like you he will bark at you.

He is a lot more confident when out now mainly because I handle the situation and am in charge he has learnt this and when on his long line he is even better because he has the chance to get away if feeling threatened, haven't cracked it in the house yet though.

Ollie is not put in a situation where he has too meet people if he doesn't want too. We do however let him into the garden when people knock and ask them too stand still and let him do his barking and moving around them and sniffing, one of us is always outside with him and watching him closely, when this routine is over which is quickly we ask the person in they come in first Ollie follows, we can then gauge quite quickly whether he may or may not tolerate them.

If he doesn't seem he is going too we put him into the kitchen where he can see us and hear us behind a gate. We do keep trying slowly to introduce sometimes he accepts this later in the visit and will lay quietly and happy as long as they do not attempt too move towards him or too stroke him or give eye contact.

If we have to have workmen in Gorden always has too take time off it needs two of us one for Ollie normally me and one to deal with the workmen normally Gorden.

We have found no rhyme nor reason to this behavior he has been socialized well as a pup even though he hated it from day one, we never pushed it we have had to socialize at his pace not ours but we have never overcome these issues and doubt if we ever will now he will be 4 in June.

He came from a good breeder we visited many times and all her dogs are family dogs first and live in the house.

Ollie's parents have wonderful temperaments and show no nervousness in fact they loved to cuddle you and sit on your feet. His mum did have an accident 10 days before the pups were born she fell down a 30ft hole and had too be dug out by the fire brigade whether this affected him I do not know.

He is what we call very special needs does not like his routines changed and some days can seem overly wired too things like yesterday afternoon and evening and he has been barking all night at what we think is nothing but there must of been something he could sense so I have been on and off the sofa, otherwise he would not settle and sleep.

We have learnt to manage things for his safety and the visitors, but we are a quiet house so he doesn't get a lot of training for this.

I would say keep up with what you are doing but learn too read his body language you will find you can step in earlier and diffuse the situation then Anton is not set up too fail.

If he has been in and out of the kitchen when visitors have been here we never end on a bad note we walk them too their car with Ollie on the lead to say goodbye this he accepts easier and although he will not be fussed unless of course he likes them it doesn't matter it means he has been around them albeit for few minutes with no signs of nervousness. We then walk back too the house on a positive note and plenty of good boys and treats.

The behaviorist would be good we haven't used one that is our personal choice, but I would not advise not too use one just make sure the behaviorist is good and understands your breed.

I had a rescue rottie/GSD cross years ago & Anton's behaviour sounds very much like that dog. It was very difficult with my dog as the behavioural changes when he was about to "kick off" were very subtle & you had to know the dog really well & be very vigilant. It was nothing more than a slight stiffening of movement & postural changes that made me realise he was feeling very uncomfortable & his reaction would escalate very quickly. I ended up keeping him in another room when we had visitors as I could never relax & I always wondered if my anxiety contributed to the problem.

I saw a fantastic behaviourist who explained the problem really well (I ended up studying canine behaviour with her & hence my interest in dogs).

I would really advice seeing your behaviourist again. This is potentially a risky problem & a large dog like Anton could hurt someone if you don't keep both your visitors & Anton safe. The problems are always worse in the home environment as this is Anton's "comfort zone" so having people that he sees as intruders or possibly a danger to him in his safe place will make him feel a lot worse.

I don't think it would be very helpful to just reiterate the advice I was given as no-one can be sure that Anton's problems are the same without seeing him so it would be best to see your behaviourist. But you will have to be prepared to be patient & take time to work through his issues.

I wish you all the best with him though & I hope you manage to find a way through this.

Not sure why he could of been like this, I did think that when he did it the first time, I don't think I would of allowed him to return the second time, I would of got him to ''down and stay'' if I was going to keep him in the same room. I know you said your friend was alright as he was told about Anton's issues, but still we can not mask our underlining fears/nerves/scent and subconsiously he could of been nervous which would of been picked up very easily by Anton triggering the second reaction.
Reah was people aggressive when I had her particularly with men, and defo with men with gingerish hair, if she did take flight to them, I immediately removed her and I wouldn't try the second time that day.
It could be that (I believe you said) he's usually at your grandparents home and GSD's are natural protectors, usually (I believe) a one person dog, so it could be a factor in this behaviour.
My son has two, Sabre will be good around anyone, even though alittle vocal and talking over you but Meg can be choosy who she takes too, and if she shows any sign in her body lanuage he immediately removes her to a place thats her space, usually behind the babygate across the kitchen door where she can remain in visual sight but not be in contact of hands.
Chances are there were body language signs on the second attempt that may of been overlooked, not suggesting that you weren't vigual, just sometimes these signs are very small, and I do think that sitting between the two men would set Anton up to fail personally not through jealousy just simply because of the situation that you have given him visually, remember sometimes clothes/colours of clothing can trigger stuff if the dog is already unsure of a situation.

Best of luck, I would suggest that you keep doing what your doing and perhaps bring Anton in and get him to sit near you allowing him time to sus the situation for himself at his own pace.

Thanks so much for the advice, everyone.

As a couple of you said, the body language here was very subtle, but nonetheless, I should have recognised something, as he usually fidgets when being stroked by new people (he likes to make the most of it and get a full body fuss. ), but with this friend he just stood and stared before he kicked off - it happened so quickly, and with no apparent trigger. Maybe the staring could have something to do with it, he was really having a staring contest before he flipped - maybe a slight change in my friends expression triggered him?

The problem with separating Anton is that he gets quite vocal and gets extremely restless. Here, I'm thinking we could maybe introduce a 'chill out' area that he associates with good things and being alone. Then if he isn't happy with a visitor, we could put him there without the trauma for everyone.

What I find strange is how few people he has reacted to like this, which makes it even more unpredictable.

We'll hopefully have the behaviourist in during the week, where I'll run over everything with them so we can find a suitable way of dealing with Anton's problem.

Was he being stroked for too long? did he feel like he couldnt get away?

I sometimes find people (brave people, usually men_sorry to be sexist-) are abit keen to try to "make" the dog like them, rather than to go on the dogs pace.

In retrospect, I would have opened the door into the kitchen wider so Anton could see he could escape - I think I had it open to slightly for him to consider it. When he flipped, he didn't seem to be thinking about flight at all, but it is a possibility that thinking he couldn't get away may have contributed to this.

I also probably should have told the guys to ignore him - one did anyway, but the one he turned on was quite eager to say hello, so Anton didn't get his usual sniffing in.

What you say does make some sense, as the guy was stroking the top of Anton's head quite enthusiatically - maybe too much so for Anton, coupled with the constant eye contect.

You are right it is usually men. when we use to go away in the camper van and Ollie was staked out we would say he is nervous please give him time but you always got one who thought he could sort it for you. The times I lost my temper.

One of the reasons we gave up the camper van idea.

Nervous dogs and stroking on head not a good idea for strangers. Ollie will let me, Gorden the boys and the Grandchildren but anyone else is a no no.

If he is happily sitting beside someone if they can subtly and gently stroke his side or his chest that is better if he is showings signs of being stressed out not at all would be better let him just sit and ignore him is probably the best way too go let him build their trust.

Yes, definately going to tell strangers to ignore him until he's settled, and then if he's sat/stood nicely to stoke his sides and back but to avoid the head - this was, in some ways, similar to when he barked at the guy who went in to fast to stroke him - he was going for the head, and Anton did not like that at all.

Ignoring usually works, as Anton is generally uninterested if they are - he paid minimal attention to the guy who was ignoring him.

Thanks for your advice, it's good to hear from someone who is dealing with similar problems in their own dog.