My GSD protection drive seems to be diminshing as time goes by. His obidience is getting a lot better thought. Ive been told that obidience can diminish aggressiveness...

I don't have a lot of expierence with this problem or with dogs for that matter please give input.

I would also like to know if there is anyone who can help me work on my GSD protection drive in the Dade,Broward county area in Florida.

This is why i believe this...
On 09-08-05 at aproximetly 1700 hrs some older gentle man walked by the sidewalk of my home when my GSD Nino began to bark the man stopped and satred at him and Nino backed off. He barked some more then the man tried to pet him and Nino took some steps back. He has never done this before. He has allways been more assertive and Im afraid that he may have become nervous, Is it too late,or can I work on this ???

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Ive been told that obidience can diminish aggressiveness...

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not at all, your obedience will control aggression not diminish it.

How old is the dog?

Sometimes (depending on the dog) too much heavy OB at an early age can affect drive, usually due to confilct with the handler. Find a club/good helper/decoy, forget the OB for a while, back tie the dog, focus on lots of drive/confidence building.

Although from the situation you describe it sounds to me like the dog has a nerve issue (hard to say without seeing the dog)Can it be fixed? Dunno, IMO weak nerve is genetic and can rarely be "fixed" at all.. but you can build the dogs confidence to a certain extent with some decent work by an experienced helper.

Manuel,

How old is your dog? expecting the dog to be protective at a young age is unrealistic.

Second, I don't know what you mean when you say "protection" drive. Are you saying the dog doesn't have prey drive? This is when the dog likes to chase things.
Are you saying it doesn't have a defensive drive? This is when it reacts when it thinks it has been threatened.

I'm guessing that he barked at the older man because he walked funny and the dog hadn't been introduced to that before. Different things will set them off. Dogs are very cognizant of body language and he probably interpreted the older man's way of walking and standing as threatening - or just wasn't sure. He may have backed away because he wasn't sure if he the guy was a threat and didn't want to bite at that moment. Think about it, bent over and walking deliberabely probably looks threatening to a dog. I had some strange woman agitate my dog once because she had exactly the same body language as our decoy doing defensive work with a hidden sleeve.

As Sammy suggested, find a trainer to see what's going on in the dog's head. Get some of Ed's videos to help you understand what's going on and then evaluate the trainers. If you find a good trainer, you will work on your dog's prey drive and teach him the fundamentals of bitework, then do some defensive work so he understands how to deal with a threat.

good luck,

Alan...

Both of you have very good points... I'm gonna lay back on OB for a while. Nino is about 4 y/o. I also think that if you have something and you don't use it you will lose it. I cause i should a decoy to aggitate him on a regular basis and then use some type of maint. from then on.