(QUESTION)
Now that my puppy is a little over a year old, she is sometimes growly with other dogs. When she was younger we went to puppy class, the dog park, NAVHDA training, and such and she was always fine with other dogs. In fact, she was often submissive. She gets along well with the other dogs in our home. The problem doesn't seem to be with a certain type or size of dog, or male or female. She did have an incident with a big dog at the dog park a few months ago, where the big dog picked on her and pursued her (but she wasn't physically hurt in any way). She got sick of him harrassing her and stood up for herself. I really didn't think anything of it at the time, but since then she's gotten increasingly more reactive and less tolerant of dogs being in her "space." I don't know what to do to fix this problem.

(ANSWER)
Small Munsterlanders, because of their breeding in Germany to be sharp on fur, have a definite propensity to be snotty with other dogs. The episode at the dog park probably brought it to the forefront for your dog. When my dog, Abi, had a similar incident with a Drahthaar, she initially only reacted badly toward dogs with beards. She was one of our main guide dogs, and if a Shorthair or Vizla got out of the truck to go hunting, Abi was 100% fine with it. But if a Drahthaar, Spinone, or Griffon got out of the truck, she'd start growling. After a while, she was growly with all dogs.

We've recently been having discussions about this issue among Club breeders, as we're weighing the pros and cons of adopting the German system of breeding/testing. We are concerned about our dogs becoming even more sharp with dogs, and possibly ending up sharp with people too. I agree that it's a genuine concern. The Germans test sharpness on fur by giving a dog a furred animal with "claw and fang" (usually a raccoon or a cat) and if the dog kills it, it passes the test, which is then marked on its pedigree. In Germany, they use SMs for killing wild boar, fox, and such, so they feel the sharpness is necessary. In the US, the three breeds that currently have a German-bred variety and a US-bred variety, the German Wirehaired Pointer (Deutsch Drahthaar), German Longhaired Pointer (Deutsch Langhaar), and the German Shorthaired Pointer (Deutsch Kurzhaar), have known sharpness issues within the German-bred varieties. The US-bred varieties are much less sharp. The Drahthaars are the worst, because their breeding culture highly values sharpness. Those dogs are not generally thought of as house pets. Some of us are concerned that if we follow suit and go to the German system, the strides we have made in reducing our SMs sharpness with other dogs will backslide. We believe the only way we could avoid it is to require our dogs to test in more than just the German system and that we'd need to develop a culture where our dogs are valued on their successes in things like tracking, search & rescue, retrieving, and service work. In my opinion, this is definitely one of the "cons" about going solely to the German testing system, because I don't know anyone who doesn't want their dog to have good manners around other dogs, and it's difficult to manage many of our dogs as it is. New SM owners especially have difficulty. It is quite common among US hunters to hunt our dogs with our friends' dogs, so they cannot be so sharp as to be unable to hunt collaboratively with dogs have never met.

I'm not suggesting bad behavior be overlooked, but I do think it's important to understand the nature of the beast. A Munster's sharpness cannot be corrected or "fixed," because it's a trait that has been bred into them. They must be sharp in order to possess the killing nature required to hunt furred game with claw and fang. Rather, it must be "managed." The clue I saw recently at the Clinic with your dog that makes me think she may be expressing a natural tendency to be a bit bitchy, is when her sister (who she knows well and trains with often) had totally submitted to her and was lying on her back, but your dog continued to growl. It wasn't a fear or stress reaction, her body language didn't indicate either. She just didn't like Tess being in her space. That is exactly how Abi would act under the same circumstances (sitting with me by my chair). One time Abi tried to attack a dog who was being walked on a lead by my chair (where Abi was staked out), because the dog showed interest in our pile of dead ducks.

My recommendation is that you watch her body language closely when other dogs approach and praise her so long as she is behaving. But if she growls, she gets a firm correction so she knows you will not tolerate that kind of behavior. By "firm," I don't mean you should put her on the ground and lie on her or get physical with her in any way. Abi had her leash snapped with a firm "no," and if she didn't immediately stop growling, we'd turn away from the group and leave the area, and she'd get the silent treatment from me. As soon as her body language told me she'd given up on being snotty, we'd go back and start over. I had friends help me with this at NAVHDA training. You'll need to be very careful with your timing, because if you treat or praise a little too late and she's already started to stiffen or growl, she'll think she's being rewarded for it. Over time you may be able to reduce the incidence of this behavior, as I was with Abi, but it will always be something you'll have to manage.