My australian shepherd is 5 years old. I got him at 4 months. It is just the dog and I at the house. He is trained really well and does amazing....at home.
Over Easter I took him to my parents. He loves my parents. My grandparents were there too but he freaked out. He is becoming more and more wary of strangers. He barked a little at my grandma but he freaked out with my grandpa and actually lunged and bit his arm (it did not break skin, thank god). He has never done this before with a person. I scheduled a vet appointment to rule out any medical issues to be on the safe side but I want to train him to stop barking with new people and work on calming him down so he can be better with new people. I don't want this to continue. I am extremely limited to access to dog trainers in my area as it is small and I have very limited funds.
He generally barks and backs up and I end up putting him in a separate area so he is not stressed. Then he ends up barking from being alone.
What should I do? I don't want anyone getting hurt but it also breaks my heart to think of getting rid of him since I raised him.
