There’s a particular German Shepherd at my local off-leash dog park who takes it upon herself to “pull over” “speeders.” She will run up and challenge dogs who run too fast; as soon as they slow down to a trot, she moves out of their way. I don’t think she’s had any police training. I’m not sure if she’s just excited by the rapid movement or motivated by a Germanic fondness for order and rules.
It would be funny, except that a lot of dogs come to the dog park to run around and burn off energy, and this sort of behavior deters that. An off-leash dog park isn’t supposed to be too sedate.
My German Shepherd grandmother’s German Shepherd (a family joke, as Gram was also German, with the last name of Shepherd!) used to herd us kids all the time. Sweet wonderful dog who liked us all in a nicely tidy bunch so he could keep an eye on everyone. I think it comes from the Shepherd instinct - these dogs were bred to keep groups of animals together, so the ones who did it without teaching were bred to have more pups who’d do it without teaching.
Sam did it in mostly the way you describe your furry traffic cop - running to the side he didn’t want us to go on, and closing in so we’d return to the herd. But if you resisted, he wasn’t above taking your jacket or your hand in a gentle mouth and giving a little tug to make his point clear. Never broke skin, though, never. Best nanny ever.
Yeah and the German Shepard is also very intelligent more in learning then other dogs able to take orders, it is also used as a seeing eye dog as well.
Good question. More use of the Chihuahua could be beneficial for police forces.
e.g. A criminal barricaded in a house; it would make more tactical sense to release thirty hungry chihuahuas into the house instead of one german shepherd.
My son used to be a customs officer at the airport and has told me about a line of beagle/pitbull crosses a guy was developing for drug and other contraband that was doing some very impressive work. The amount of smells the could remember was well over a 100 various things.
The responses to this thread are rather disturbing for me. You see, my mother recently acquired an un-neutered male German Shepard for free off of Craigslist. Why no, she’s not sure of his background, but he sits when he’s told and can shake your hand. Gee, no, she doesn’t know anything about his parents, but he sure is pretty.
Her idea of exercising a dog is to walk him across the street to the mailbox and take him a couple of feet down the street on a potty run.
No, she’s not planning on enrolling him in doggie training school, or teaching him anything, or even putting him to work. I don’t have a dog, but I’m familiar enough with them to know they need significant exercise and a purpose, or they find a way to do both (and not always constructively).
Not necessarily. German Shepherds can be somewhat high energy but not all of them are. They make good seeing eye dogs for disabled people for example. They are certainly not a lap dog but some do well mostly indoors. That isn’t a reason to not visit your mother. If the going gets tough with her, just tell her that her dog needs a walk. Take a Frisbee or a stick and you can both take your your aggressions out while having fun together. As long as German Shepherd is well-bred and trusts you, they can adapt to most situations and are great fun to have around.
I’ll second that. German Shepherd Dogs can be excellent family dogs – 40 years ago, we had one who had been a mess when rescued from the Baltimore City Pound, but she recovered and went on to become a great childhood companion and mother hen for three kids and a pair of kittens.
In fact, speaking strictly of the dog issue, I’d advocate visiting your mother more often. A guarding breed, GSDs can be standoffish with, even suspicious of, strangers; but as soon as you’re “in the pack” they will do anything for you. “Don’t be a stranger” is literally good advice when dealing with them.
Every dog my family had when we were kids was at least half German Shepherd. There are a lot of pictures I can only tell which dog it is by how tall my brother and I are. They can definitely be wonderful family dogs and great with kids but I will second the don’t be a stranger advice.
We generally ran as a pack, the kids in the neighborhood and the dogs and a couple of times a visiting aunt or uncle tried to take a kid in for dinner when they didn’t want to and the dogs simply placed themselves between the kid and the adult and made it clear that continuing was a poor plan. A known adult came out and the kid was in huge trouble for resisting and making the dog think there was something going on.
I dont think thats very thoughtful nor educated, does she live alone?
A dog will lift the burden of being alone, which helps eliminate or avoiding depression, (someone to talk to) keeps the mind sharp, and gives 60% more secerity from burglars to thiefs depending on its breed. What you need to do is socialize with that dog, depending what ages hes at just being around himand greeting him once an a while will confirm you are part of his/her pack.
As for the socializing, which she really doesent have to do unless shes a person who takes them to big doggie parks, dog shows ect, just freinds an family socialized on a minimun basis is fine, you dont want a dog that greets in a stranger, that completely destroys the line of the dog, being that they are a working breed if its not constant working it loses his purpose to have him greet in a stranger an dosent cover atleast that basic then thats even worse, now days all breeds are becomeing couch patatoes an live a crappy life of skyscrapper quarters (small apartments) …which lets the dogs do absolutely nothing which leads to more moralitys of bad temperment understanding, which leads to more dogs in shelters an which leads to thousands an thousands of uthinized dogs.
Well in this era skyscrappers house a few thousand apartment per building, an theres hundreds of thousands of skyscrappers, less land via farms…so people will have to do there part and locate dog parks or local woodlands to take there dogs…everything is becoming concrete now days which is not sustainable to wild life, which in terms dogs will depend on humans more than ever.
Not even vegatation is being sustained, why would man kind need so much road, so much pavement, nothing can grow out of a road so nothing can survive…I personally think dirt roads do just as well as a concrete roads, an theres just way to much cars which are responsable for around 200,000 animal killings per year…what a waste. Having little to do with dogs specifically, I think in terms of overall life in general, as in sustaining healthy eco system which in terms helps dogs…this should literaly be the starting change in how life should come back to…
Besides, you should only eat what “You” kill, to balance the life cycle of your eco system.
I think I’m more worried about a dog that has limited social interactions and has basically my mother as a companion (and is exposed to very few other people or situations that he becomes possessive of her). I have no desire to have a dog come after me because I hugged my mother goodbye and he saw it as a sign of aggression towards her.
But then, perhaps I’m just rationalizing another excuse not to go to my mother’s house…
You are showing a little unwarranted fear there. I can’t help you with mother situation but I can tell you that the vast majority of German Shepherds will never hurt a person even if they do seem protective with their owners. The key to most of them is to never show fear even if they are showing signs of protection for their owner. They are guard dogs and they can sometimes use that to intimidate people. Most are friendly to everyone as long as their owner is around however.
You just have to establish a friendship with them like you would any other dog except they are smarter and bigger than most so just let him get know you and play with him. It usually only takes a few minutes to establish the basis of trust and they are almost always fine after that forever. I have met exactly one German Shepherd out of hundreds in my life that I was scared and that was only because he was poorly bred and an abused rescue. Even with him, he just jumped on me one too may times and snarled and I punched him the face as hard as I could and we never had any problems after that.
They are really sweet and smart dogs in general. You just can’t let them intimidate you because they respond negatively to that.
