Vanessa - yes that sounds like territorial aggression, the home is the dogs territory whether the dog is dominant or not.

Although she isnt a GSD by an stretch Nico is a big calm confident dominant Female. She will gaurd resources from the other dogs and usually only test that boundary once as pups and she makes it very clear who the boss is. Yet 2 seconds later I can walk up and remove whatever she has without a second look.
She does have some food aggression with other dogs so I never let her near any other dog when food or bones are involved.

So while she is dominant and alpha over other dogs, she has never been possesive, aggressive or attempted to be dominant over a human, ever.

Twice she has shown me that more than likely if tested she would take action to defend me, as well as my son.

Once we were in a small locally own pet supply store and the guy that worked their had gone in the back room to try and find a neoprene vest that would fit her deep chest.
During this time a man came in the store that immediately got her attention and she didnt react with her normal YAY!!! a person reaction.
She hackled and gave a deep deep grumble that was almost too low to hear, she also put herself between me and the man and sat so that he was in her line of site no matter where he went.
He nodded hi to me and then said "Hi Pretty girl to her" In every other instance in 12 years she has been friendly and eager to meet someone. This time she bared teeth and barked like a crazy woman.
He was an idiot and tried to walk up to her, so i told him please stay back she is upset for some reason and quickly made my way out of the store.
This was such a totally out of character reaction that I can only think she knew something I didnt about this guy.

The other instance was when my son was very young, I would guess around 2. She was very maternal with him and would alert me if he cried, and fuss over him if he was crying or hurt.
We were at the lake and my dad had been out burning all day, well actually I think he had been out trying to put out a bit of a grass fire all day.
It was quiet in the house, my son was sleeping on my lap on the couch, my mom was on the other couch and we were watching a movie.
My dad walked in after being gone all day, she raised her head when the door opened and I can only guess that the thick smell of the smoke totally masked his scent because she charged, in her mind I think it was an intruder and a serious threat.

He said her name several times and I told her DOWN!!!

She stopped and down about 5 feet short, close enough to clearly
see who it was and she was obviously suprised, and either apologetic or ashamed of what she had done judging by her reaction once she saw who he was.

I got her in college, there was always tons of traffic in and out of the house, she competed in dock dogs, went everywhere with us for many many years, she is a highly stable socialized dog.
I dont know if she would truly take that last step and truly attack, but judging by those two isolated incidents she clearly will act to some point in the face of a threat to me or my son.

I was refering to the various uses of "protective" here. we've been talking about it as if it exsists but Im getting the impression that the general consesus is that it doesnt so Im just trying to sort it out that was my jibe =D

Im not sure if it exists either in the true sense,

But that is my opinion of the two events I described because I dont know how else to label them in the context of her other behavior, and with 12 years of reference point I am fairly assured she wasn't just resource gaurding or unstable.

Mary - I wasn't sure if you were confused or not lol I figured I'd just put in another .02. I think that makes like.. what.. .16 so far for this thread?

I read Ed's article on fight drive, it is an inherited quality, and is lacking in alot of todays German Shepherds.

I've had two shepherds, have known quite a few, but obviously I'm just commenting on my experiences with these two. My first shepherd, to me was what a shepherd should be. He was an American X German showline. (I lucked out!) He was a confident, dominate dog. He and I had our first fight at three months over chickenbones out of the garbage. He snarled at me like a mad dog. He never hackled at strange dogs, ignored them actually, and ignored humans when out in public also. He was a dream dog in public.
What makes me think he might protect, if only for a little while was the fact that he didn't want any roughhousing going on. If my husband climbed on me, he'd grab him nicely and pull him off. (miss that dog! )(Obviously we didn't have pack order confirmed...). He was also very protective of my daughter. In one instance my brother got stuck at the end of our laneway. The dog was fine until my daughter went out, then he became quite aggressive to my brother, didn't bite, but made it quite clear he was not allowed near my daughter. ( My brother loved that dog, though!)
My current workingline is very territorial, but never helps out the weaker in a tussle, in fact he jumps on them too! I'm quite sure he wouldn't protect us or even attempt too. However, he has a beautiful deep bark, and is a deterrant, which is all we need. As my dad always said, is not usually the bad guy that gets bitten.

It's also worth pointing out that "my dog barked at a suspicious stranger" does not mean that "my dog would protect me from aggression if push came to bite."

Out of curiosity...even though pack order has been established, isn't the pack a resource unto itself, and thus something to guard? There is a lot of benefit to being a member of a pack isn't there? I am wondering if protection/resource guarding are intermingled.

On a purely antecedontal note my dog will behave similar to Jennifer Lee's. Happy lovey thing that will drag me across the street to say hi to a stranger until *certain* folk try to approach myself or my children. Note these persons often appear to be under the influence of alcohol or illicit drugs, or are panhandlers. Has never bitten but will charge and vocalizes a STEP AWAY FROM THE PERSON/CAR, ECT...SIR voice. 4 times now I have seen this observed...the odd thing is if we are charged by a DOG, she will wait patiently for ME to defend HER.

I thought it was perhaps MY apprehension fueling her reaction, but when we got charged by an intact male Pit Bull running loose she actually sat down while I grabbed for the baton, and let me handle it. Honestly I was MORE scared by the DOG than the people we encountered. So that leads me to think they can just 'tell' a bad seed and that is their way of letting us know.

btw I agree TRUE protective behavior (I think of it as WILL attack to defend) can't be identified until the moment of truth. My dog may bite but I believe she'd let go if they hit her.

Julie - to answer your question, yes, the pack is something worth guarding and/or protecting but this "job" is left to certain members of the pack - the betas primarily. They are the "enforcers" so to speak. Only rarely will every member engage, it is usually the alphas and betas depending on the number of attackers. It is when a foe is already down and overwhelmed that the pack as a whole will tend to fall upon the intruder, being caught up in the fight. This is where cannabalism is usually observed depending on the circumstance/time of year etc the foe/intruder becomes prey/food source. This isn't terribly common though.

In the face of an adversary in the presence of a ranking member, unless the dog has the natural traits of a beta (which means natural inclination towards protecting the pac, has the drives and temperament necessary to handle the stress etc) and even if it does have the natural traits it will still tend to look to the master, the alpha, if not for protection, for direction. In this case.. of a dog that has the correct traits/is a "beta" - if at any time the alpha/owner has discouraged aggressive behavior or the dog has been corrected for its territorial or guarding/protective behaviors they will more likely than not sit and wait for you to take care of the problem and do nothing.

I think the main thing here, regarding dogs that seem to alert to people randomly that we don't exactly see as a threat, they are warning you and the threat that they perceive. They may see that you have not acknowledged this "threat" and as a good pack member, are telling you of the threat they have located so that you can take care of it and telling the threat to go away or their alpha will come get them.

My Goran is a completey different Dog from Older Fred, Goran is a Little more Licky,
Fred will and does like a Pet But overall he is a Harder Dog than Goran, that is not to say Goran, will not perform when it comes to Schutzund work he is a clever little fellow,
Fred is more imposing on people when i walk him and he looks but takes little notice of people coming by him He is not one who wants to be petted At the Schutzund Club and few do,
They will ask if they can give him a sweet and he will take it on a rare occasion, But more often he ingnores it and just looks at it,
Would he protect me if i were in trouble, i have never given it a thought, but i hope he would if i needed help