Judy, that's what your dog is, a very nice pup. If you think that makes him the village idiot, you need to learn a lot more about dogs. He's a nice pup that should be a therapy dog or something in that vein ( i've met the dog). If you think you want a different kind of dog all you have to do is buy it, pretty simple, hell, you can buy a kick a$$, hardest dog out there, just come up with the cash, you can have the dog you think you can handle in a few days. If Angelique met your dog, she wouldn't have given the conflict advice about gunner, at least i hope not, but who knows? If you ever want to get rid of him let me know, i know a nice family looking for that EXACT kind of dog with that temperament (what you'd call village idiot, stupid dog), they'd love him, they've been looking for a year,
AL

Dogs are either naturally social, aloof, or agressive by nature and genetics. Sometimes messing with what is genetic will screw the dog up in his head. Your dog is an american line dog, most of which are either social and happy, or fear aggressive/fear biters. Be happy you have the former not the latter, because having a dog run away and bark at 30ft doesn't look very impressive, n the fear biter who bites the guy in the ass because he feels threatened n is trying to avoid confrontation is a nice lawsuit for you to boot. A mentally sound working quality dog can be social (or aloof, depends on the dog) and turned on by command from the handler... a dog who makes their own decision to bite or display aggression is either not a sound dog, or a dog that should not be handled by an inexperienced handler. The ones who are not sound of mind end up on The Dog Whisperer The ones who are for the experienced handler either end up in an experienced working home, or they bite someone, then get sold or put down.

Just accept your dog for who he is. If you seriously want to get involved in working dogs, get a 2nd dog that has all the right genetics, maybe even an adult dog, n be sure you can maintain the training every single week with a GOOD trainer. The biggest problem I see in the PPD world is people who buy a dog, then want to make him a PPD because they can't get a 2nd dog so their dog "has to do it". You can do it, but in the process you screw up your dog mentally, make him think everyone's out to kill him n have an unstable unbalanced dog who will probably turn tail when the sh** hits the fan. So thus you end up with a halfass pet, a halfass protection dog and you're no safer than you were last year after spending a year putting alot of pain and pressure on your perfectly stable happy social dog.

Oh My God!! The village idiot description is a play on words, it's was meant to be a light hearted description. My mistake. I assumed you would know I don't really think he's stupid. You are taking the title waaaay too literally. If I was a new poster, then I could understand the confusion. Lesson learned for me...

I'm just looking for him to stop him from wanting to go up to EVERY Tom, Dick and Harry willy, nilly, "wahoo, pet me, I'm sure you're a nice person, hey, c'mon let's go back to my house and play".

What I do want is him to be friendly but it would really be great if I could see any shred of evidence that if I had Joe Burglar pointing a gun at my head, my dog wouldn't sit there wagging his tail waiting for the guy to pet him with the other hand .

Like I posted before, some dogs are friendly, some are aloof, some are suspicious, some are aggressive, etc....

Your dog's genetic temperament (friendly) combined with the kind of interaction he has had with people thoughout his life so far have led him to believe that people are nice and may be a resource of something pleasant.

I personally don't allow anyone but family to touch my own dogs, I just don't see a need for it and with the extremely stable and social dogs you can end up with a dog that thinks if Mom isn't present, maybe that nice person by the fence has a cookie or an ear scratch for me..

I'd be willing to bet some money that your pup will not be waggin his tail waiting for a bone, that he will be running away cuz the dude with the gun had already kicked him in the guts to get him out of the way...

Judy...like was posted earlier, if you want a dog that is gonna bite the balls of the man with the gun, go buy a dog that will do that...read some more on the PP's.

Oh, and one more thing, I'd hope to god that even if you *had* a PP, that you wouldn't rely on that dog to truly save you in a situation like you described. The protection dogs in the movie I watched last night were shot...their owner knew he had to scoot. He was a bad guy anyway, so. Given what you said about your neighborhood, I honestly wouldn't worry too much about it...have you taken any self defense classes for yourself?

My 3 yo is a German show line, and like Gunner, very social. I spent a lot of time socializing him to children, especially, when he was a pup. He is a pet, not trained for any type of protection. I have another dog that is too protective, so I wanted this one very social. I completely agree that it is far better to err on the side of socialization unless you know what you are doing, and have a need for a protective dog.

Rusty rarely reacts when guests are over, but has on one or two occassions acted protective, and as he matures, he has slowly become more protective. My daughters report that he guards them when they walk him. I also trained Rusty to look alert on command. I say "what's up" and his ears shoot up, he stands very tall, and looks all around. He is actually looking for my husband (this is how I trained him) but no-one else knows this. He looks like a serious dog in that posture. Another thing I have used with other dogs to make them appear more protective on walks is this; when I saw someone a little scketchy, I simply pulled the dog close to my side. This lets them know that something is up, and lets the stranger know that the dog can be protective.

i'm just wondering, i correct my dogs for this kind of behaviour. someone says "come here", and they leave my side, i correct. my wife's ex-stepdad is always trying to command my dogs, and i correct them the moment they look at him. then i lay the guilt trip on him - "they're getting corrected for something *you* did". just to vent for a moment, it pisses me off when people think they should come over to your house and boss your dogs around.

but yeah, if my dogs run up to someone walking down the street, i immediately recall them. and if the person continues walking, and doesn't stop and look, or look like they're going to step on our property, i don't want my dog to pay attention to them.

now the corrections aren't real harsh, just verbal corrections and occasionally a leash correction if they still won't listen. am i sending bad/mixed messages to my dogs?

 Quote: michele mcatee

Judy...like was posted earlier, if you want a dog that is gonna bite the balls of the man with the gun, go buy a dog that will do that...read some more on the PP's.

Oh, and one more thing, I'd hope to god that even if you *had* a PP, that you wouldn't rely on that dog to truly save you in a situation like you described. The protection dogs in the movie I watched last night were shot...their owner knew he had to scoot. He was a bad guy anyway, so. Given what you said about your neighborhood, I honestly wouldn't worry too much about it...have you taken any self defense classes for yourself?

I just do NOT understand why everyone's commenting about PP training, messing up his personality, or "gee if you don't want him....". I never said I wanted any kind of PP training! Where did you all get that in my original post? I never said I wanted aggression! I never said I wanted a dog that would bite!

I'm looking for training help. For instance, why the heck can't he be trained to, I don't know, sit outside in the yard and NOT listen to a stranger call him over? Just ignore the stranger. Why can’t he be trained to NOT take a treat from a stranger (like the fed ex guy). Just not take the treat.

Where oh where do you all get the idea that I want some drooling, rabid, vicious, biting, "go for the balls" maniac?

I’m not a trainer, this is why I posted. To get training help on having him learn to be a thanks, but no thanks kind of dog to strangers.

Maybe you're all trying to help, I'm sure you are but you are so far off the mark in understanding what I wanted.

Cindy, I think you explained it to me perfectly, his temperament, combined with how I allowed interaction with strangers has caused him to believe all people are nice. I see you don't let people but your family pet your dog. I now know better for the future.

 Quote: jamie fraser

i'm just wondering, i correct my dogs for this kind of behaviour. someone says "come here", and they leave my side, i correct. my wife's ex-stepdad is always trying to command my dogs, and i correct them the moment they look at him. then i lay the guilt trip on him - "they're getting corrected for something *you* did". just to vent for a moment, it pisses me off when people think they should come over to your house and boss your dogs around.

but yeah, if my dogs run up to someone walking down the street, i immediately recall them. and if the person continues walking, and doesn't stop and look, or look like they're going to step on our property, i don't want my dog to pay attention to them.

now the corrections aren't real harsh, just verbal corrections and occasionally a leash correction if they still won't listen. am i sending bad/mixed messages to my dogs?

Jaimie, this is what I'm looking for...EXACTLY...

Some stranger says hey, pretty dog, bends down to pet him and the dog trots on over...you correct this with a NO!, a leash tug, an low zap with the e-collar, etc. Seems appropriate to me but I'm not a trainer so I wanted ideas.

Some teenager yesterday came over to hang out w/my son and I heard him saying to my dog, "SIT!" I called my dog down to me because I didn't know what else to do. This is the kind of example...I don't want Gunnar listening to strangers but he does . How do I undo my mistakes? Is it possible?

Judy,
I have a 4 year old Dutch Shepherd that is one of my search dogs. He is really friendly with everyone and will be your best friend if you throw his toy or hide for him.

However, I had a situation the other day where I was working at the office and one of our friends came in and I was at the copy machine, he did not know that the dog was lying under my desk and he decided to scare me by grabbing me, the dog came over the counter and advanced on the person with hackles up and barking and growling. When the person let go and I took hold of the dogs collar and calmed him down, he stayed in front of me and watched this person the rest of the time he was in the office. The person also tried to play with his toy with him and the dog shined him off, which is completley out of character.

This pretty much tells me that my dog knows the difference between threatening and non threatening without any type of formal training in protection.

While I know he is a working line dog and you have a showline dog and I agree that there is a difference in temperament, please know that since you have a good bond with your dog, he just may surprise you when the situation is threatening and not a nuetral "reach over the fence to say hi" type of situation.

Do you know of any decoys or helpers in your area that could help you set up a situation? I would not recommend the neighbors or friends that have no experience with this type of work. Your local Law Enforcement K-9 unit may be able to help you out also.