Is this a good dog? - Page 1

An acquaintance recent discussed about the temperament of her dog, who has IPO3 and whose temperament she thinks is ideal; she emphasized solid nerves as very desirable. She left the dog walked out of sight and I was able to walk up to the dog and take the lead ( the dog did not react to me). Even though I did not mention it , I was thinking that if a stranger can walk up to a dog and just walk away with it, how is this a good GSD?
Seems like this is desirable in sport which has a strong social component and dogs should just fit in. Any views?

it is what most police also wants today, overly social dogs

There are dogs that will  seriously bite the sh...t  out of you if you casually walk up to touch them , but the explanation often heard in the sport community is that such dogs are so acting because they are " afraid of you" . Kind of hard to wrap your head around.

Interesting how this gets tied to police dogs. I get an ever increasing number of bodycam videos asking for help on where the police dog was sent to apprehend a suspect, only to find the bad guy holding the dog like they’re best friends. Confidence AND dominance should be the police dog's best friend.

I sold a good 8 month malinois to a friend, that titled him in KNPV, most honest dog for his own, walks of leash between kids, other people and dogs, but strangers cannot pet him, and you cannot give owner a pat on the shoulder when the dog is around, 

police and airforce in holland have shortage of dogs, but are all afraid of this dog, cause their handlers all are first time handlers and dogs should be overly social in a crowd, 

these overly social dogs, how do they ever expect them to turn around to be a badass dog when the shit hits the fan, this is e serious issue of todays dogbreeding, and selecting, desire is a labrador type shepherd with a button that can switch their agression on and off

yeah, such type prevail today - social to an extreme, actively demonstrating to everyone a friendliness and readiness for submission.
but that's what been found to be most suitable for mass consumer. on breeders part it's beneficial, risk/responsibility free trend as well.
thus this get promoting as an exemplary and ideal standard for breed.

Interesting thread. My two yr old male gsd is great with children and family members. He lets kids and family pet him and cuddles with them (just doesn’t like anyone to wrap their arms around his neck which is understandable). However with people he doesn’t know he is more reserved....he will let strangers casually pet him, but if they become too “friendly” he will pull away from them. He has to be muzzled at the vet. He does not like being confined in a small room with strangers and growls when the vet or vet techs examine him. When he was around one, he went to the vet and a young male vet cornered him to examine him. He barked and the vet continued to approach him so he began growling. That vet is now afraid of him and will no longer examine him so a female vet now examines him. We took him to the vet two days ago. A female vet and a female vet tech walked into the examination room. He didn’t bark or growl at them. He was fine but they said they were going to muzzle him. As soon as they put the muzzle on him, he began growling. He did not like being examined. He did not pull away during the exam, he just continually growled. As soon as the vet finished examining him, she removed the muzzle. He didn’t growl or snap at her once she removed the muzzle. He then let her and the vet tech pet him.

I live in a condominium community where one of the rules is if your dog bites a person or another dog the dog must be removed from the community. My 7 year old female GSD (from American show lines) is very friendly to all people and especially loves children. Her personality is ideal for my living situation.

I have seen two types of quick to aggression dogs which the sport community may write of as acting out of fear of a transgressor. One type wants to immediately hurt a transgressor without any provocation ; some are vocal about this behavior others are not. Have seen quite a few males from old Czech blood and some of DDR blood act this way.
The other type is not vocal but has a very confident and imposing presence ; they seem expert in sensing fear in a transgressor and takes a kind of pride in controlling that fear. These dogs are slower to bite but you can tell that the will. I have seen one male heavy on old herding lines and Frei von der Gugge.

Personally I like the dog to be suspicious enough to not let someone physically restrain them but also social enough to let me hand someone the leash if I have to walk away a minute and allow a vet exam if I am with her.

I think it all depends on what you want the dog to do, mine primarily does narcotics detection and also IPO occasionally. She is ok with me handing the leash to someone for a minute if they ignore her, isn't bothered by people close or inadvertently touching, yelling, loud noises, but does does not like strangers petting her. Strangely enough she likes staring at and touching strangers herself though. Wont bite or growl but gives a nasty stare and if they don't stop fast enough she barks and jumps away.

The only time where she would bite is if someone would try to physically restrain her, has to be muzzled at the vet and turns into Tasmanian devil. She has a complicated back issue and has been to countless different vets countless times and it only gets worse every visit.