Aloofness - Page 1

I saw a poster comment about aloofness in the GSD and it's been percolating in my head for a bit but an incident today prompted me to talk about it.

When I saw the comment I thought to myself "well, aloofness like so many of our terms, is often defined differently from person to person."  Different people probably picture aloofness in different ways and various scenarios, which is why I didn't comment on that post at that time.

But out on a walk with my male today I had an experience of aloofness with him that once again, raised the bar in my own personal definition of the word in respect to the GSD.

When I first read the comment about aloofness, I had thought to myself that perhaps it didn't really apply for my guy because he loves people.  He loves people and he adores children.  He will sit with, nuzzle on and be companion to children for hours if you let him, they hang the stars in his eyes.  But walking today I had an incident that got me thinking that perhaps I was looking at it the wrong way.

What happened is this.  We were walking along, I had my head down lost in my own thoughts when I suddenly noticed that he'd stopped.  There was no barking, no anxious posturing, whining or anything more than he'd stopped and was looking forward with both ears perked up.  I was a bit bemused (read clueless) until I looked around and realized that about 10 feet in front of us, standing half in the woods and half on the easement was a big, beautiful red doe.  Closest I've ever been to a deer (tbh) and I'm probably damn lucky she didn't have a fawn with her (ie would be ready to go all protective Momma on my distracted self).   She looked at us and we looked at her for a good 10 seconds, before she turned and jumped back into the woods and went sprinting off.

At which point my guy, glanced back at me with a casual, "Keep going?" kinda look and we continued our walk.

Point of the story being, he was watchful and aware of her presence but neutral, calm and clear-headed about the situation.  He didn't escalate it by barking or going into prey drive or trying to rip my arm out of the socket and when the situation changed, we went on about our business.

As I continued the walk, I got to thinking that in truth this is how he always is when on leash.  He's aware of what's around him, watchful but neutral.  Other dogs bark and lunge at him, he ignores them, squirrels or deer dash under his nose, he makes note of them but is attentive to his handler.  Even when people approach him, he will sit at my side and if they touch him (as kids sometimes do) he mostly ignores them *unless* I give him an 'okay' then and only then will he amp up the "OMG PEOPLE I LOVE YOU" reaction of tail wags and wanting to crawl into laps.

So I suppose given my own personal criteria, I misjudged my boy when I thought he wasn't 'aloof'.  He is, when on-leash, unless purposefully released by me to be otherwise and for the record, none of this was behavior I ever taught him, just the way he came out of the box so I would have to say that the potential for the 'aloof' GSD is still in the gene pool.

Not sure that is really being 'aloof', at least not the way I understand it [but as you say, interpretations differ].

But it IS being a very good boy;  and a very good example of what and how a proper GSD ought to be & behave.

No, we have not lost it all from the breed yet !  Congratulations RLHAR on having an excellent dog -  and I bet

that is no small thanks either to his having a great owner.

Great post, thank you

Training does have a lot to do with it, too. And as you say, people interpret it differently. Some (those lacking in knowledge) may interpret fear of strangers as aloofness.

I just came back from a trip to the fair with my Hearing Ear service dog. She behaved very well, except for trying to eat some horse poop.  When someone's dog got loose and ran up to her, she stayed seated, though she did wag her tail, and woud have sniffed noses if the dog had allowed it. She greeted humans in a similar manner, when permitted to do so. Polite sniff, gentle tail wag, and offering her paw when told to (though she'd usually offer the paw to ME instead!)

I met a young woman in a wheelchair, and asked if she'd like to say hello to my dog. I had her offer her paw, and then said, "She gives kisses, too." Star must have heard me, because she did exactly that, much to the woman's delight.

A lot of this has been trained, though. You cannot have a service dog going up to every person they meet and wanting to say 'hello'. I have corrected her routinely for sniffing strangers or trying to approach them without permission when out in public. OTOH, I don't recall her being the sort of dog, even as a puppy, that absolutely HAD to go up to everyone, wiggling and wagging and expecting to be petted. That's more golden retriever behaviour.

Thank you, Hund and Ibrahim!

Sunsilver, I've always contended that I did my boy a disservice by not training him for therapy/service dog but I never had access to those programs.   He's always shown a natural instinct for the work though, from his behavior on leash to the time he helped steady people and the work he's done with children both family and strangers.  If I'd actually trained him to the job I fully believe he would have excelled.

To me that is exactly what  I want in a GSD.  The perfect dog.  What a good boy and the fact that he loves everyone particularly kids is even better.  Thank you for sharing,  can you post his pedigree.  Nan

Nan, 

Sure thing!

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=640962-erik-vicona

Lucky you! He sounds wonderful! Was he always like that, even as a youngster?

Yes, even as a youngster he was always a thinker on the end of the leash.

To be honest, at the time it was a little heartbreaking because I had bought him to do IPO with and here he was, a calm, thinker of a puppy with very little prey drive while at the end of a leash.  

The breed was always a thinking and discerning breed, it's needed to differentiate friend from foe and threat from indifference. That was a wonderful behavioral response by your dog in THAT situation, and that is what we all strive to have.....congrats!