AITA for not letting my friends play with my German Shepherd as they reinforce negative bad behavior

I have a German Shepherd that is being consistently trained since she was a puppy. She is doing well with command, however is still not fully consistent in her training. The problem is some of my friends treat them like any other dog. When they play with them they encourage the dog to jump on them and when the dog ignores commands they don’t address it. Even when they have walked the dog on lead in the past, they let her pull which just contribute to detraining her. I continuously tell them to be more careful and strict but they don’t put too much thought to it

To me this is a big issue. I plan on having kids in the next 3–4 years and if I cannot get the dog trained to a point where I would feel safe having her around kids, then I would not feel comfortable starting a family yet. Because of that, it’s extremely important for me to be strict with her training and develop strong, consistent habits.

Recently I told my friends, that I don’t want them playing with her. And in response I got that I’m “taking the fun out of having a dog.” And that "A dog should be allowed to play in the way it wants to". To this I said that unless they started to respect my wishes and be stricter with her training that "I would prefer to not have them interact with her." I also explained my plans for kids in the future but they thought it was a non-issue.

For context: She gets daily physical exercise walks, structured play, and training sessions, as well as mental stimulation through obedience work.

AITA for not letting them play with her

One thought on “AITA for not letting my friends play with my German Shepherd as they reinforce negative bad behavior”
  1. NTA

    I don’t let one of my grandchildren play with my dog because of similar issues.

    I need my large mutt to stick to his training to prevent jumping because he can knock me over and could harm the younger grandchildren since he is larger than them.

    Respecting the training if someone else’s dog is just common sense!

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