Zoey is an 8-yr-old GSD. I've had her for 6 months. She spent the whole first 8 years of her life with her breeder, in the middle of a national forest. The breeder never spent much time training her animals. Coming to the middle of suburban America, with cars and steps and strange-looking dogs, and nobody she knows, has been very stressful for Zoey. In the beginning, there was no treat she would eat, she wouldn't climb stairs, she ate lots of paper (no need of a shredder!), and buried many things along the fence-line (including a blanket).
I've pretty much let her adjust. When she showed fear on the stairs, we only encouraged her if she approached them herself. One day, she saw the three of us at the top and charged up them. Now she has no problems with going down any stairs, and goes up those with a back (still afraid of open steps, so she goes down into the basement, but must be let out to the outside stairs to get back up).
With the paper-eating, we simply removed them from her if we wanted to keep the papers. At some point, she just stopped taking them off the table or even touching them when on the floor. In fact, I can offer her paper now and she turns it down.
I still fear she may sometime pick up my keys and bury them -- unless the object is big, I never see it again. However, she started out burying everything she was given (dog bones, toys); now she eats the bones instead. I think this was "adopted dog" syndrome. She was afraid she might not be fed sometime in the future and was burying a stash.
She is great with people -- kids can pet her through the open car window without me around. As long as it is a two-legged kid! She's been introduced to the mailman (one advantage of the forest is she doesn't see the mailman as an enemy). I've got different workmen coming into the house quite often (it has had a lot of work done on it) and she is friendly with them all. One of us uses a cane; initially, though she had no problem with it as a cane, she was frightened of it when used as a stick (holding it in front of him, petting her with it). Now she has no problems with it. A friend on crutches visited and she saw a new friend.
She is fine when I leave and, when I return, just notes that I am back. She does, however, see me as the one stable person in her life.
My problem with her is her fear-aggression around other dogs. She went to the first session of obedience and attacked the other dogs. She was obviously highly nervous. She barks at any dog she sees and lunges at them.
I bought Secrets because you advertised it would show me how to stop all aggression (and I would love for this dog to be able to enjoy other dogs and compete in obedience). As soon as I downloaded it, I read the parts on aggression. What I read was that a dog at her age is stuck -- too old to become acclimated to other dogs. No hope. Live with it.
I don't believe this. Personally, I think she is still working through the sudden, extreme change in her life situation. Every day she seems to be a bit more laid back, a bit more confident that the sky isn't going to fall again. I think taking it easy with her and giving her private obedience training will gradually give her the confidence to meet other dogs. (Watching Cesar Millan IS frustrating for me: he can get dogs like Zoey over their problems in a few sessions. I'd hoped that there was some secret that Secrets would have. I am disappointed it doesn't.
I'm going back to my methods; just wanted you to know I felt you over-promised on your ebooks.
