Nervous, timid dog as watchdog? - Page 1

Hello,

We bought a lovely 3-yr.old GSD female from a local breeder specializing in show dogs. We have had GSDs for many years, and love them for their loyalty, intelligence, as well as their protectiveness. We saw our new dog on several occasions together with her owner before we bought her, and she seemed to be a little aloof towards us, but very affectionate  towards the owner and responsive. We liked these traits, as they seem to be typical of the GSD's nature.
 
On bringing our new dog home, we found out that she was extremely nervous and skittish, bolting at the slightest noise, and running from visitors. After a little over a week, she has warmed up to us considerably, shows affection and loves to play and go for walks. She is still shy around visitors, though, and skittish inside the house. She is alert to what is going on outside of our property, but does not bark, nor does she bark when anyone knocks at the door. Will this ever change, or his her fearfulness simply genetic? I should also add that she gets along very well with our older dog (an excellent watchdog), and is not vicious towards our free-range chickens. She is a very sweet and sensitive dog, and we are already very fond of her, but are concerned about her fearfulness around strangers, and would like her to be more of a watchdog and be more protective.

The reason for wanting a watchdog is that we live in a fairly secluded area, and on occasion a few shady characters have trespassed onto our property, but quickly left when our 2 barking GSDs stormed towards them.  Our oldest dog passed years ago, and the one still with us is quite elderly.

I should add that the dogs are with us when we are outside, and they are in the house with us when we are inside and at night.

That's too bad. Usually with a dog like this it is hard to get him to be "normal" let alone a confident territorial dog. When you have a dog that is scared of people, there is not much to expect. You said "watchdog" and that is all I would expect. You're not expecting a guard dog. I hope the dog can just gain the confidence to be a stable dog in your family

Susnelda,
   You did not say how long you have had this dog...If its a relatively short time, she may need time to learn whats supposed to be and not supposed to be around your home...You also said that you had an older dog which is an excellent watch dog.  Being the new kid on the block, she maybe intimidated by the older dog... If the older dog is an excellent watch dog, maybe your new girl, given time will learn from her....On the other hand, if the older dog is doing all the barking, she could also be seeing it as she doesn't need to do the barking because the older dog is doing it....She may also need some encouraging from you or other members of the family..I would just give her time......In the event you have had this dog for several months and you are still not getting what you want from her, than maybe she is not the right dog for you....I have seen where it takes a while for a new dog to learn what is expected from them, and I also have seen it where they just never get the idea...
Hope this helps...

Thanks, Sam and Nonacona. We've barely had Jessie 2 weeks, so hopefully she will gain more confidence.  We have never had a dog this shy and nervous before, though, and reading about the temperament of show dogs, I thought it might be a genetic thing, as Sam seems to imply. When we saw her with her owner, she reminded us a lot of our senior dog, Greta, and this is why we chose her. Greta, who was only 10 months old when we got her, was a good watchdog from the very beginning.

According to the owner, Jessie was at the bottom of their dog pack, so maybe this helps to explain her behaviour, in addition to not having been socialized. She seems quite intelligent and listens very well, so it shouldn't be too hard to teach her to "speak". She is pretty vocal during play... and maybe, given time, she would announce visitors.
We have a month during which we can return her to the breeder and be refunded, if things don't work out. The breeder seems to be a very caring person, so it's not as if Jessie would be going to a shelter, and as far as I know, there were other people interested in Jessie as well. Of course, waiting several months would give us a much better indication of her true personality...

Thanks again for your help!