Hi,
I had to put my two cents in since I have a rescue GSD. He was eight months old.
When we first got him a year ago, he was great, but since then he has started to have fear of strangers. I took him to a behaviorist and we concluded he had a fear based aggression. The vet gave me the following plan:
I ask all My friends to call first. I put the gentle leader on him, have him sit next to me and ask my visitors to ignore him when they come in. If he is calm and not barking I give him chicken. The minute he barks we ignore again. Sooner or later he gets the idea. They are here to see me, not him. After about five minutes I have him go to his bed and stay, also in the same room as us, again, if he is relaxed, he gets chicken. Eventually, I say to him "would you like to say hi to whoever?" I have the visitor give him a cookie and then I call him right back to heel before he get to thinking about nipping at there knee. In this case I have given him the command to say hello and heel, so he has not made the decision on his own.
It has worked great, it's only been a month and he is so much better. My vet feels that in a year I should be able to have guests over and not worry, but I don't know if that will happen.
Good luck and keep at it.
Liz
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