My husband and I adopted a rescued pure bred GSD that was used by a back yard breeder. We have had him 2 months but have known him for 3 months. He is a great dog but I have been told he is soft. He was 20 pounds under weight when they found him and evidently had been abused. He is going to be 3 yrs old 12/28/08. I am the pack leader and when I take him on walks I try to make sure he knows that he is safe with me. However, sometimes when we walk he seems really nervous and is looking around with his ears back. He came to us with basic obedience training, he knows sit, down and heel. When he gets nervoous, like when he sees other dogs or hears a noise, I try to get him to focus on commands he knows. He does bark when people approach the house. My husband and I are wondering if he will ever be protective? I have been told that all GSD's have the protectiveness in their make up. Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks

What do you mean by "soft"?

"Protectiveness" has to do with defensive and fight drives (fight drives being the end result of good training in protection and solid temperment).

"Softness" is how the dog handles corrections delivered by the handler. A soft dog can be quite protective. Equally, a hard dog can be worthless as a protector. The two qualities are really unrelated.

I'm going to put up some links to some articles that I think will help you understand what I'm trying to say a little better, and hopefully lead to a better understanding and relationship with your new companion.

http://leerburg.com/pupqa.htm#sharp

http://leerburg.com/qaprot.htm#fight

http://leerburg.com/hardpuppy.htm

http://leerburg.com/qasoftdogs.htm

Alyssa,
Thanks for the reply and info. Ok, I read all of what you sent. I am going to reread it because it is a lot of information. I do know that our dog seems to have good prey drive from what I can tell with my limited experience. He loves to play tug of war with me and shakes his stuffed toys like trying to kill it. I have noticed that although he is good with our cats (always monitored) that when we are on walks small animals get his attention easily. The defensive drive is another thing. However, one time my husband, Hans and I were at the vet's because Hans had a upper respiratory infection. While we were waiting for the Dr. to come back into the room someone walked by the other closed door with another dog and Hans went from calm to police dog in like 2 seconds, barking and growling at the door. He usually gets along well with other dogs and was socialized because he was fostered in a home with 4-5 other dogs. One of the dogs that was fostered with him was a doberman that was jealous of him and he would try to bully Hans. On one occasion the doberman tried to take some food away from Hans and Hans pinned the doberman (that outweighed him by 15 pounds) to the ground by the neck. The woman that fostered hiim said that Hans never started anything but always ended it with the doberman being pinned. I am going to do a lot more reading on this site. Thanks again.

Pat,

I don't know how to assess if a dog will be protective or not. When I was a kid we had a female GSD, her name was Brenda. She was not like our Hans is now. She had some prey drive and liked to chase balls but was no where near as drivey and assertive as Hans is. She would bark at strangers she didn't trust from a distance, but only very occasionally. We'd know if someone was coming to the front door because she'd let out a low growl, but she didn't light up like Hans does. One day we had some workmen in our yard that she didn't like and she barked and growled and hid under the house, like she was afraid of them. We didn't think she was particularly protective.

My dad had ALS and at one point during the progression of the disease he was on crutches. Dad worked in the construction industry, and at that time in our area some of the bigger road construction outfits were owned by Italians. One of these guys who my dad had worked for used to come over to visit him once a week. They'd be talking to each other, look at me and my little brother, then switch into Italian, then start laughing really hard. Obviously sharing some joke they didn't think young ears should hear

One day Tony was over visiting and he and dad were standing in the living room talking. Dad was on his crutches. Tony started talking the way Italians do when they get going, loud voice, hands waving. Brenda saw this and just went nuts. She ran over and inserted herself between Tony and dad and put on a real threat display with barking, growling, showing her teeth. Tony just about messed his pants. This was totally unexpected. We had no idea Brenda had this in her. She obviously interpreted Tony's actions (hand waving) as a physical threat against dad and she wasn't going to stand for it.

From that time after whenever Tony came to visit and Brenda was in the front yard he'd just sit in his car until one of us came out to escort him in. Brenda was never aggressive towards him again, though he did make a point of keeping his voice and hands down when he talked to dad

I guess the moral of the story is that if you don't work with your dog and train him or her in protection you may not really know how the dog is going to react in threatening situations until one comes up. Brenda's protective action in defense of my dad was totally unexpected. We'd never seen it before, and didn't really see it after. I suspect that she made her own judgment as to what was a threat and what was not.

Rich

I m wondering who told you this dog was soft?
as Alyssa pointed out, soft is different from nervous in the dog world.

Dogs can be socialized well, but that doesn't mean they will get along with every single dog they come across. Just like we don't get along with every person we meet.

And, this isn't directed at you, but this whole scenario:

 Quote: Pat Wolfe

One of the dogs that was fostered with him was a doberman that was jealous of him and he would try to bully Hans. On one occasion the doberman tried to take some food away from Hans and Hans pinned the doberman (that outweighed him by 15 pounds) to the ground by the neck. The woman that fostered hiim said that Hans never started anything but always ended it with the doberman being pinned.

Does not sit well with me. That tells me that the foster home had no right having those dogs at all. Allowing a fight to get to that point more than once is just insane!
Jealousy is a very complicated emotion, with a lot of thought going into it. Dogs don't have the ability for that.
I see what was happening as competion or them trying to sort out the pecking order. Which should be done by the pack leader (HUMAN) not the dogs themselves. IMO!
Again Pat, that little rant there wasn't directed at you, i just wanted to point out that the fact that those fights were allowed to get to that point (one dog pinning the other on more than one occassion) may have alot to do with why your dog is the way he is with some strange dogs.

Wendy

 Quote: Pat Wolfe

The defensive drive is another thing. However, one time my husband, Hans and I were at the vet's because Hans had a upper respiratory infection. While we were waiting for the Dr. to come back into the room someone walked by the other closed door with another dog and Hans went from calm to police dog in like 2 seconds, barking and growling at the door. He usually gets along well with other dogs and was socialized because he was fostered in a home with 4-5 other dogs. One of the dogs that was fostered with him was a doberman that was jealous of him and he would try to bully Hans. On one occasion the doberman tried to take some food away from Hans and Hans pinned the doberman (that outweighed him by 15 pounds) to the ground by the neck.

What you are describing here is not defensiveness, rather, it is dog aggression as a result of a dog that was allowed to be tormented and terrorized by another dog (frequently the cause of dog aggression).

I agree that it is dog aggression you are seeing, not defensiveness.

soft dogs can still be aggressive. It's just a different sort of aggression than a hard dog.
A hard dog can stay in his drive after a correction, a soft dog will not take that and will essentially shut down.

When you were told your guy was a soft dog i think they were saying that Positive re-enforcement training would work better for this dog, than anything correction wise.