Speaking of German Shepard's

[ismnotwasm]

2. They are not little dogs

They are almost wolf like in appearance and I think strike an almost instinctual fear in some people.

My husband has MS and when we take her out, we have her run back and forth between us, he is in his electric chair. I make sure the field is clear of people and dogs, although she ignores other people.

They other day, I let her go to run to him a shorter distance, and she saw a small kiddo on his bike, (she is attracted to wheels right now). I hasn’t seen him. She veered off toward him, scaring the child, until she realized it was the wrong wheels. She recalls beautifully, but you better believe we spent around 15 minutes with that child and his family, to alleviate fear.
We had her sit, lay down etc., at the same time acknowledging that she looks scary.

Our dog actually likes kids, but she’s big and could easily knock one over, so I’m pretty careful.