Property and personal protection instincts - Page 1

I have a question for all who have had many German Shepherds. I have had a few, always had one all my life, and now I have three. My 2.5 year old intact male has strong personal protection instincts. If he even senses a threat from anyone toward me, he will instantly place himself between me and the person and let that person know with a stare or low growl that, in order to get to me, the person will have to go through him first. He does this in a very calm way but he is serious in his manner. This is a dog who generally wears his heart on his sleeve, loves little kids and most other people, is totally social and a happy goof. But he is not particularly property protective. Contrast this to my 3.5 year old female who is fine with people off the property and in the park or on the training field, in a show or anywhere. But she does not want and any stanger coming on the property. She is very serious about this. But she does not show much in the way of personal protection instincts. The property protection instinct was brought out even more strongly when she had her first litter. It seemed to heighten this in her personality. I have another younger female that is property protective as well, has not had a litter and is not nearly as serious a guard dog as the other. My question is, is it characteristic of males to be more personal protective and of females to be more property protective, and this possibly tied to the mother and den instincts? What do you say?

I have owned 3 males and 7 females, over the years, since 1982 and all the males have been the GREATEST property protection dogs. I could not have asked for better. My first female(1982) and one of the females I have now, appear to be of the same spirit. They are calm and have even temperaments, with the exception of me. They do not want ANYONE to touch me. My wife could/cannot kiss me without those 2 females nipping at her. I never corrected the females, just altered our behavior in front of them, because I think it is cool having a dog that is so into me like that. When I am on the road, and my wife is looking out for the dogs, she had/has complete control over those 2 females, and she prefers them over the other dogs. They transfer loyalty to the wife and listen to her every word, until I reappear on the scene, and then they ignore her and it is all about me. I have no doubt that if my life were in danger, this one female would defend me to her death. I have a male that is AWESOME in the sport of Schutzhund, and has crack the watch crystal of an agitator, through the sleve(he was given the nickname "Pit"(pit bull) because of his bite pressure), but given my choice of dogs, if I am in a personal protection situation, I will choose my female EVERY time. Stephen

My female also is extremely protective of me but shows no threat to anyone coming around when Im not right there,although I wish she was more territorial like the males,I have to be proud to own such a loyal protector and friend.

My female (11 yrs) will show inclination to protect our property before we have a chance to greet the person, she is completely fine with a person after we greet them. My male (2 yrs) has not yet shown any inclination to protect our property against someone visiting. Both dogs have been extremely well socialized and taught too behave both out in public and at home when we have guests over and neither have ever experienced anything traumatic too give them reason too be protective of our property. My female has been protection trained (not at home) but has never been protective of either me or my dad against anyone except other dogs. My male has not yet been protection trained and is very friendly and outgoing with all people however there have been 2 incidences when we have been away from home and he became very agitated and aggressive towards certain people and I can only guessed that he smelled or sensed something about those people that was very negative and he felt was a threat.