German shepherd killed puppy, need advice

[Dawghaus]

Hi everyone. I'm hoping to get some advice on a situation that happened yesterday with a friend's dog. She's a german shepherd, almost two years old, she's not trained at all. She lives with a retired lady who lives in a huge property with other family members, there are 4 homes on the property. The lady's son just brought a puppy home, a west highland white terrier, 3 months old. Yesterday the dogs were together, the puppy was on the ground and the dog was smelling him. The shepherd's owner was present and decided to pick up the puppy and in picking him up the shepherd grabbed the puppy from her hands roughly. There were no puncture wounds and she didn't shake the puppy but the strength of the grab was strong enough to cause internal injuries and the puppy died last night . Everyone in the family is destroyed, they all hate the shepherd now. I was thinking that the movement up triggered her to grab at the puppy, she wasn't being agressive when the puppy was on the ground, there was no growling, she was just smelling the puppy. What do you think? Was she being agressive in grabbing at the pup? And what can they do now, they will be getting another puppy because the kids are all emotionally destraught.

[neilsattin]

Hi Dawghaus,

What an unfortunate situation!

If you essentially mean by "untrained" that the dog doesn't understand a structure through which to release stress and emotional energy, then that could definitely be a contributing factor.

I think it's doubtful that the shepherd is "aggressive" (unless there's some history with other dogs to suggest otherwise). I'm imagining the situation, and can picture the owner picking up the puppy much like, perhaps, she would pick up a squeaky toy for her dog to play with. So the older dog probably perceived the puppy in that manner at that moment, and then grabbed the pup from her owner's hands. So, yes, it wouldn't surprise me at all if this was done in the spirit of play - play with her owner - not aggression.

Even if it were "aggression" then the answer is really the same in this kind of situation - show the GSD what to DO with that energy when she's stimulated by a puppy. It would require that the owner recognize the situation and get proactive about it - channeling the GSD's energy into a tug toy when around the next new pup, for example.

Keep us posted, and I hope that these thoughts help...

[Dawghaus]

Hi Neil, Thanks so much for replying. I was thinking that she was indeed playing when she grabbed the pup from her owner's hands especially with the upward, rapid movement. However since the outcome was so horrible everyone who lives with the dog reacted by thinking that she was being "aggressive" and was therefore a danger to any future dogs that would be brought to live on the property and to the kids as well. Unfortunately over here (Chile) the majority of dogs live a life lacking in any regular means of releasing their stress and emotional energy. Most dogs live outside, are not allowed in the house and aren't even taken for walks. It's very sad. They just don't understand over here that a dog is an emotional being. Anyway I just wanted to confirm my suspicion that she was not being "aggressive" . In the past she has played nicely with dogs that have come to visit. Although once when I was visiting, she became overstimulated when a small dog was visiting, she wouldn't respect her space and they got into a fight. She was around 7 months old then. I don't think this has happened again since then.