I've had my six month old German Shepherd/Blue heeler for about 3 months now. He is a very beautiful and healthy 45lb pup that is very friendly and smart. Unfortunately, the first 2 months of his life weren't the best start for him. He was bred by a irresponsible and ruthless farmer, from the stories I hear about the place (I was never there) there was a lot of larger dogs that were mean to the puppies. They shot the dogs they didn't want and were cruel to the ones they kept.

When I first got him home, he was very timid and scared. He would cry when I picked him up and absolutely would not like me put a collar or leash on him. Over the past 3 months i've worked with him and he has made a remarkable turn around. He loves going for walks, almost all his shyness has disappeared and for the most part he is a normal puppy. The only evidence of his past is extreme submissiveness to people (including urination- but this is getting much better and should correct itself) and he is also shy around multiple dogs. He doesn't mind being around just one other dog, or dogs his size, but as soon as I put him in an environment with more than one dogs, especially large ones, he freaks.

I've been taking him to the local petsmart and letting him play with the other dogs in the neighborhood and he is also getting better, but I have noticed a few things that I don't like and want to make sure this won't be a problem in the future. When he is afraid or just doesn't want other dogs to bother him, he has learned that insted of trying to run away he can just snap to get rid of them. While this is not a common occurrence (most of the time he runs) I have seen it happen more and more. Usually his hackles are always up, infact they come up almost every time he is around another dog until he gets comfortable. Please note he is not like this around all dogs, there have been plenty of situations where he has sniffed and played with no problems, as long as the dog is his size or smaller and that’s the only dog around.

From what you've heard, would you call this behavior fear aggression and is there a possibility that as he gets older and bigger (I.E. more self confidence) the problem could worse? If so, what should I be doing now while he is young?

Opinions? Comments? Suggestions?

Oh, and this is my first post. Nice to meet everyone