Just to add, I did used to be a assistant trainer for several years (assistant is nice, always declined to teach my own class, I do enough of that during the week). Worked with lots of dogs and owners one-on-one of different breeds. However, doing sport work with a GSD does take some experience. Steve White, goes across the country trying to stop police departments from using overly harsh techniques - would love to learn more from him.

Hard headed perhaps? Otto is a stubborn headed DDR boy too. Maturity didn't come until close to his 3rd birthday. He wants what he wants, not that he doesn't want to make me happy. He goes out of his way to do 'the right thing' once he realizes I'm annoyed with him. Unlike Morgan, that crazy old WGWL bitch is a much harder dog than Otto will ever be. Morgan doesn't care if she's being bad. Tonight she was bothering the cat, I called her the big bad bitch, I swear she smiled and nodded.

Train train train. Poor Otto never had a chance to get away with any nonsense because Luther was a hard dog before him. Too bad the old GSDRing.com is undocumented history. The archives of WHY does Luther do these things would have been educational. Luther grew up to love the work, live for it. When he showed up for Rally OB class, other owners would groan that Mr Perfect is here...

A hard dog makes you work harder, learn more, think more about behavior - cause and affect. You bond deeper with a hard dog. Possibly because you spend more time trying to get them to behave, dammit

I love the spirit of my hard headed dogs!

I agree with 'hard' being tough to define. Before I really knew what I was doing in regards to training with Risa, I used to correct her on a prong collar. Didn't seem to matter how gentle or hard the correction was. It didn't phase her. For those who don't know, Risa is a very soft dog. She'll still slink out of a room if I get frustrated opening a jar! If I raised my voice to her, she'd roll over exposing her belly and refuse to do anything. But a pop on the prong did nothing in regards to her understanding of what I was asking her (and did a number on our relationship). I'll admit I did a lot wrong with her in the beginning. But the ability to be unphased by a hard correction does not mean a dog is hard. Risa is a very handler soft, sensitive dog.

My feelings are that if you don't want to use corrections or "rough him up". . .don't. No one says you have to. If you feel comfortable using corrections in your training, that's fine. But there is no requirement to do so.

If you're unsure what to do, try and evaluate the WHY of his behavior. WHY is he behaving in that way? Does he want to be closer to the other dog? Would he like more space? You can use those things as a reward for proper behavior OR to prevent problems in the first place.

When working with Risa, she'll reactively lunge at dogs (out of fear). So I keep her at a distance where she's comfortable and/or I reward behaviors that are appropriate with distance (and/or food). With the puppy I am currently training, she wants to be closer to other dogs and will throw herself to the end of the leash to do so. So I reward her good behavior by walking closer to the dogs and/or giving her treats.

= excellent point! this thought process can be used with all aspects of training.

90% of the time it's because he wants to have Doggie Social Hour. He wants to meet the dogs and play with them. Here lately though, he's discovered he has testicles (literally, I was there when he discovered them. It was a very exciting day) and is increasingly trying to be Mr. Billy Bad@$$.

Then that's something you can work on. He just needs a bit of self control. If you have other willing people with dogs, I would do some Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT) with him. (More info on BAT here and here.)

With BAT, the idea is to use the functional reward--what the dog wants--as the reward for proper behavior. I'll use Callie (the 11-month old puppy I'm training) as an example because she is similar to your guy. She loves other dogs and will throw herself at them in an attempt to get closer. She is also rude and needs some work on doggy etiquette. I've done 2 BAT sessions with her so far.

Since Callie is rude, I find it really important to mark calming signals with her and reward those with decreased distance. With Risa, who has calming signals in her repertoire, I usually reward eye contact with me because I want focus from her. So I usually set Callie up as far as I can from the other dogs (at least 10 feet) and I give myself some room to back up if she gets crazy. I wait. If she licks her lips, sniffs the ground, shakes off, scratches herself, or looks away from the other dog, I click (you can use a marker word if you prefer) and take one step closer to the decoy dog. AFTER I have taken the step, I also give her a treat. (Click = treat and, initially, you want to reward with food and the functional reward. The functional reward must come first, though.) I then wait again. If she gives me another calming signal, I click, step, treat. If at any point she gets too close and starts whining, lunging, or gets a bit too out of control (the ability to read dogs well is critical); I simply turn and walk away. When you turn and walk away, ideally, you do not want to drag your dog away. They should willingly come with you (if you need to say "Let's go" or another cue to move them, that's fine). But there is no reward. You just start over.

With party-starters, you can also use increased distance to reward them for proper behavior. Instead of taking one step closer, you would just turn around and walk away. So I would wait for a calming signal, click, retreat several feet, then reward with food.

I've just recently started using BAT with my dog and the puppy and I like the results I'm seeing so far. I like that it empowers the dog to make the right decisions to get what they want. Callie learns that, by being calm, she will get closer to the other dog. (In fact, if both dogs are agreeable, you can use greeting if they can get close enough to do so CALMLY. Not there yet with Callie.) And Risa learns that, by not reacting, she can actually increase her distance from other dogs (which is why she reacts in the first place).

It does take some work to set things up. To really get into the meat of BAT, I would highly recommend reading Grisha Stewart's book Behavior Adjustment Training.

Good luck!