I have a German Shepherd named Sasha.  I got her for my birthday early this fall, and she is about five months old now.  At first, she was the greatest dog ever.  She is very intuitive, attentive and easy to work with.  She seems to know what I want before I do, and we were best of friends.  Then, my husband was laid off and I began working full time from home.  Unfortunately, poor Sasha has probably suffered the most with the lack of attention.

I don’t know if it is the lack of stimulation or if she is just becoming a knot head as she gets older, but no longer is she the sweet, enjoyable Sasha she was in the beginning.  She absolutely refuses to accept that she cannot eat food from the kids’ hands or snatch things from the counter to eat.  Without fail, if there is a kid snack on their little table, she will walk by and snag it, even when we are right there watching her.

Our Rottweiler is absolutely perfect with the kids.  She maintains awareness of where they are and doesn’t run over them or knock them down.  By contrast, Sasha pushes them over, runs into them and bombards them with nips and licks which makes them crazy (they are two and four so not very well-balanced yet). 

We have tried positive reinforcement, discipline and a range in between, but that darned dog refuses to learn not to take food or blow past the kids on the way out the door.  In other areas, she seems highly intelligent, so I am left to assume she is just being stubborn on these points.

Whatever the case may be, we are not enjoying having Sasha around and are at a loss on how to get her to respect the kids more.