My Shy Boy Rascal

Rascal is a great boy! But shy, oh yea. His daily walk starts out just great, but the second he sees or even hears another human, he starts pulling in the opposite direction. I practice the "cesar's way" to correct him. I make him stand until he stops pulling or starts to relax, but that almost never happens.

Rascal came to me through rescue.........

Here he is when he was photographed at the animal center (dog pound).

He remained shy and distant at the property of the director of the GSD rescue. Whenever I went there to get photos for their website, Rascal (then was named Raza).

One day on a visit, the director says to me, "I don't know what I'm going to do about Raza". "What do you mean?" I asked. She told me that he had bit her. Not seriously, and (IMHO) not that she didn't deserve it. She had been brushing him and when he tried to walk/get away she had grabbed his tail!!!! Can you imagine, I'd have bit her too! So, I says to the lady, "let me take him to my place for a 'little while' and see if I can help him out of his shell". Well he was already a year old by then. His shell was pretty solid.

Here's what he looked like then, at my home in Austin. He was pretty happy to be out of that pack environment. My two dogs at the time were quite friendly and not at all in getting into Rascal's space. We gave him a lot of time to acclimate.

And acclimate he did:

He was way more confident, and even started to have fun. Just as long as I didn't try to approach him.