maturity and behavior changes

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I have a 15 month old German Shepherd Female from European Working lines. Very gifted social dog I have had for three months. She has bonded beautifully with our family. I am getting ready to show her in obedience trials within the next month or two. She has never shown any timidness or fearfulness. In fact shortly after I got her I took her to a work day to build a police dog obstacle course. She was around loud noises people hammering throwing boards around etc, and could have cared less. Wtih in the last month however, she has gotten skittish about being approached from behind. Could this be an age or developmental issue. Like a late puppy adolesence. She has never had any bad experiences that I can think of and is for the most part an overtly confident dog. Just curious if I could generate any thoughts about age and development issues.

Can you tell if she's having any pain in her back or in her hind legs ? That
could account for her actions. Are you sure there was no person that might
have been around her when you weren't?

I don't think her behavior could be a normal life change.

No pain. Extremely athletic dog with OFA prelims that show excellent hips. Really confusing behavior that is inconsistent with her personality. I had heard that sometimes during adolesent stage there can be a little stress behaviors that show up for a while. She's had her first heat cycle about 2 months ago, but still very much a puppy in her demeanor. She never is left alone really, but that's an excellent point. I'll make sure to monitor who she's around.

Thanks for the reply.

I must admit that my first thought was also that she was experiencing some pain in her rear quarters. You do honestly sound like a very knowledgeable and responsible owner, but I still think I would be tempted to have her looked at by a professional, even though her hip scores come back good. I hope that you can find an answer soon.

Hmmm....

I am definitely no expert, and I have never dealt with the same problem before, but at 15 months she is probably going through a lot of maturing. She is no longer an outgoing, trusting puppy. It seems like a very reasonable age for her to start becoming more wary of strangers approaching her, and it doesn't sound that unusual to me. Fozzie became much less trusting of strangers at around her age, as did Gonzo.

I would work on desensitizing her to various people approaching her from ALL directions. She should be allowed to look at them, but she definitely shouldn't be excessively skittish.

I do appreciate the advice and replies, the problem does seem to be subsiding. Some one at my training club thought it might have been the addition of my new police dog. (Im a police k-9 officer) He is a really dominant male and it may have disturbed her idea of pack ranking. But that was a confusing idea to me because they get along so great.

Trying to figure them out is just one of the little things that make dogs so interesting.

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Originally Posted by psettle

Trying to figure them out is just one of the little things that make dogs so interesting.

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You are so right about that. :) I hope this problem just resolves itself
with time. Do you have any pictures of your dogs to share here?

At 15 months and with a new male around she may well have had her first season or at least a period of time when she was close to a first season. This would have made the male very interested in her and she would have been very aware of her rear end though not at all ready to mate.