why do people think it is ok to say gsd are aggressive?

[nanulya]

This is just a rant, not an actual aggression issue.

I was walking my dog in my friend's neighborhood and we were passing someone's front yard and a little dog came out yapping at us. I put mine into sit as I could see the owner coming out after his dog. So my dog is sitting, minding her own business, while that little doggie is yapping away in front of her. My friend's 2 year old son is hiding behind us as he got scarred of the yappy one.

Do you know what the owner of the yappy dog said? No "sorry", no calling his dog away or reprimanding it for barking. He went on a whole speech about how MY dog can, and I quote, chew up and spit his dog. and then he told my friend's kid to come out and pet his dog, cause unlike MY dog, it won't bite.

Seriously?!

[Caledon]

rude!

[Silvermoon]

You could have said... No, he prefers to chew up and spit out owners of yappy dogs!!!

The nerve!!

[ayoitzrimz]

I hate people sometimes. Every single yappy little dog that comes up to us biting at Einstein's ankles and barking and lunging like mad at him is dismissed with a simple "oh he doesn't like shepherds" or "oh he just has little dog syndrome".

If my dog decides he had enough of the little critters I'll just tell their owners "oh sorry, he just doesn't like little dogs" or "oh sorry, he has german shepherd syndrome". It should be ok then no?

[and since sarcasm is lost on the web - I was being sarcastic...]

[Hunther's Dad]

I was walking Bear (my Aussie mutt) one evening, when a 4 pound barking slipper (off lead, of course) decided he was going to try to nip at his heels. The owner, of course, stood by and did nothing. So I barked back at him. Loudly. Obviously, "Pookums" (or whatever its name was) had never even been talked to in anything other than a whisper before then. But he definitely got the message.

Part of why I had to join " * The Midnight Dog Walker's Club™" with Hunther is people like that. He has his "issues," but so do too many other clueless dog owners.

( * The club where you walk your dog at night in a light industrial area, so as not to give him a chance to act up. Unfortunately, I guess GSD's like him are part of the reason people say that GSD's are aggressive. Sigh.)

[GSDGunner]

It's sad that people are so uneducated about this breed.
Most people just see a big bad GSD and think it's going to eat them or something.
Try walking in Petsmart someday and have your GSD bark at a little yapper and see the nasty looks you get.
There was a class going on one day in the middle of the store. Gunner was about 7 maybe 8 months old. And he was big at that age.
Some little yorkie or whatever it was came barreling towards us on a retractable leash. It was barking it's fool head off. I put Gunner in a sit, but he was definitely interested in the yapper heading towards us. The owner finally started retracting the leash but the dog was straining to get to us still barking and bordering on growling. Gunner had enough and let out a very loud bark. All the people in the class stood up and boy did I get some nasty looks and head shakes.
All they saw was the big bad GSD picking on the cute little helpless yorkie.
It's a shame that there is such a stigma attached to these dogs and little dogs who act the same way are considered "cute".

[nanulya]

I know, right? The fact that my dog was calm and ignoring the yapper is a sure sign of her just waiting to pounce and chop it up

Since it is my 3rd time of encountering someone making a generalization about GSDs, I wonder if it is a US thing? I'm originally from Europe, and there I was always under impression that GSDs are the most intelligent and friendly dogs around. I have not heard of GSDs being labeled as aggressive till I came here.

What you guys think?

[Stevensondrive]

it is not the dog it is the owner. Lack of training is almost always the cause. GSD owners generally spend more time training and socializing their dogs.