How friendly should your dog be............ - Page 3

If we're walking in the neighborhood and someone approaches us to chat my dog just sits at my side patiently waiting for us to continue on. He's not interested in being introduced to the "stranger" but isn't opossed to a petting now and again. He's just not gonna go out of his way to be fussed on. As far as people giving my dog commands....not even the children in my home are encouraged to command the dog to do anything except the basic sit, laydown and out when playing ball with him. Funny this was mentioned cause just the other day my brother was here trying to give my dog commands the dog ignored him of course and my brother proceeded to say "stupid dog, he won't even lay down when he's told"; so I tell my dog to lay down and immediately without hesitation he does it and I look at my brother and he's irritated the dog proved he's not stupid but quite the opposite in listening to his master and only his master. My dog is also funny about food. He won't take it from anyone and at best will drop it at your feet. He will only eat the food in his bowl and anything that falls out of it he won't touch. If you hurled food over my fence and left it in the yard he wouldn't touch it. I never even really worked at this too much it's just his ways I guess.

Agar So I throw poisoned dog food in a bowl over the fence?

Thank you everyone for posting! I thought most would say what was said. I believe that my shepherd is a shepherd- not a lab in shepherds fur and not a petting zoo. I find most pet owners want thier dogs and every one elses to be LABS (nothing agaisnt them personally) but I have shepherds for a reason and it is not to be the towns petting zoo.

Not sure what everyone means by friendly? I want Aloof, reserved, always having a mind set for work. I do not allow people to pet my dogs after their socializing period as a pup. I do not want them thinking of everyone as someone that is going to pet them or play with them. I want their loyalty and devotion and I don't want them to focus on everyone as a potential friend. I absalutly do not allow feeding after puppy socializing is over. I absalutly do not allow giving commands after puppy socializing period. My dogs are for work and I want them to have this mentality. Either they are focused on me and the enviroment or they are focused on all their potential buddys. In their original enviroment of herding, protecting sheep and watching for theifs etc. they were suspicious of everyone. They did not run up to strangers to be petted.Although I don't want them to be overly suspicious, I do want them to understand that their family is the only ones that can be fully trusted to lead them and care for them. I want my dogs to accept who I accept but not be buddys with them, and this needs to be taught by not allowing it. These are my opinions. I am not a mean spirited person, but I want my dogs to not be confused as to who they belong to. Personally I think that many working dogs are over socialized and sometimes lose their identity as a working dog. I am referring to k9's and other professional dogs. Too much P.R. political correctness and concern that the whole world loves them and that they love the whole world. I did not want to get onto this thread because I know it is real touchy to many who do not agree with this, but then I am not working with your dog, just mine. Good topic though

After reading some of these again GSDLVR asks a very good question. What will the Cop dog do if bad guys yell "AUS"? I have seen this happen. It happens because the dog has had too much positive interactions with those other then the handler. The dog is responding to the command, not the person. The dog has to know that it is the person that he is responding to, and the one person only. If you are sure your dog will only respond to you then test him. But don't test him with your intensions to see him pass. Do it to find the truth.

Yes... I truly agree with you... (olskoolgsds).. GSD's cant read what you have in mind and they can feel what you feel... the command is just a verbal link but you can see herding shepherd dogs who simply watch the handlers hand gestures and obey to completing the task... I have a female who with a hand signal I can recall but when she sees me angry and sees me raising my hand at somebody agitated she simply GRAB the sleeve and will get agitated also. I learned to NOT to let your GSD tolerate people who are too dominant with me. A dominant dog can be a good buddy once your able to let him OUT but he should just be BETA, and the ALPHA should be you... An Alpha uses his head and not his barks and bites ... a simple GROWL should give the beta understanding that he should obey.

I'M SORRY ... I mean, they CAN READ your mind...

My puppy was NOT a friendly puppy - and that bothered me. We figured he would have an iffy temperment. Now, he is very sweet to strangers when they approach him. We have socialized him since he was 8 weeks old and now he is 1 yr. He does not do schutzhund. Anyone can come up to my dog, however, he will NEVER go to a stranger even when called. He is very aloof but very sweet when you get to know him. Just don't come up to our house - then he becomes psycho dog until we calm him down. But, he's still young.

olskoolgsds, I'm curious at what age you stop allowing random people to socialize with your dogs? My boy is 5 1/2 months old right now and a social butterfly. I don't plan on doing hardcore work with him (nor do I have the knowledge that I feel I should to teach him to be a HARD dog) but I do take him to the workplace with me and he provides me with a sense of protection--I work in a male-dominated industry and am often in my office alone dealing with strangers. I don't want him to be MEAN, but I also don't want him to be a golden retriever in GSD clothing. I always figured the aloofness would come with age, but I don't want to be encouraging him to bond with everybody in the meantime.

Don,I'm not certain he wouldn't touch it under those circumstances but it'd be pretty hard to get the bowl over the 6 ft. fence WITH food in it right?? He's been poison proofed but I haven't really tested him on every possible scenario. But now you got me curious to see if he'd eat out any bowl in the yard since he is fed always in the garage.