The Reputation of the German Shepherd Dog

[EchoGSD]

My Echo has often been described as a golden retriever hiding in a GSD costume...she is very outgoing and friendly, loves dogs, kids, etc. She is tolerant of adults, allowing them to approach and even pet her, but she does not generally greet them at all. She simply waits quietly until the person is done petting her, often looking at me as if to say "Can we go now?".
The only exception to this rule outside of immediately family is one good friend, Anita, who owns 2 pappillions and Echo's best friend in the world, Glory, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Glory and Echo are only a few months apart in age, grew up together, trained together in multiple locations & classes, camp together, show together, visit each other's homes, etc. Echo would go home with Anita & Glory without a backward glance!

[Josiebear]

Originally Posted by EchoGSD

My Echo has often been described as a golden retriever hiding in a GSD costume...

Josie is also a Golden retriever of German Shepherds! . I get that alot, isn't it nice when you hear that kind of comments from people? i love it when good shepherds can do the breed good!.

[codmaster]

Actually as friendly as the dogs might be, it is really not the correct standard temperament for an adult GSD. they are supposed to be "aloof but approachable" (USA standard).

I also run into this because I have a 2.5 yo male who has a very friendly temperament also. Very friendly and sometimes even pesty most of the time although he can be also very protective of us and also a little dog aggressive towards other big dominant, or would be dominant, male dogs. Kind of a contradiction, I know but that is Baron!

[Ocean]

I also have a non-aloof, non- breed standard GSD male. He is actually a big, black, dominant, intimidating dog with the strut of a stallion, and has excellent protection work. But whenever he meets a stranger, little girl, little boy, adult, he extrovertly approaches with a big tail wag. But he has an ulterior motive. He sees every human as a potential ball thrower. So he'll pick up anything from the ground, little stick, big branch, a rock and present it it to the stranger. So he looks the human in the eye, wags his tail and thinks, "OK, human, do your thing."

[Miss Molly May]

Molly is now 16 1/2 weeks old and I have been taking her once a week to the school my wife teaches at to play with her students ever since she was 8 weeks. She just loves it each student would get a few treats to feed her with a command either sit, down or the most popular command "nice to meet you"(shake a paw). Well this week we were there and one of the teachers seen her and made a formal complaint because she was scared of her. Molly never showed any kind of aggression to her or any students if anything she whimpers wags her tail and licks everyone to death!! doesn't even jump on anyone! well now I am not allowed to bring her to school. Its sad because those kids just love her and my wife was using Molly as a way to keep her students motivated week by week (good conduct and focused they earned the privilege to play with Molly and it worked great) All the students even made her Valentine cards.

[Kamahi]

Kamahi's only 7 months old... and already people are saying "whoa, he's huge!"

Just today, on our way to the hiking trail, I was getting the dogs out of the car, and I hear these kids say "awww, those dogs are cute" and their mother says "Don't go anywhere near those dogs! they look mean!"

Then, we were walking down the trail, and another family was down there. the kids start saying "Aww, such cute dogs!", I even hear one kid say "That's a German Shepherd, I bet he's smart!" (That literally made my day.lol.) They asked their parents if they could pet them, and of course I said go ahead, they're real friendly.

Kamahi and Charlie licked the kids' hands and wagged their tails.
That made my day a whole lot better.

[WGSDlover]

I find that most people are terrified of Colt my 12 month of GSD. He is 70 lbs so he isn't a monster but still pretty good size. I constantly get stopped when I am walking in my neighborhood and the #1 quetion I get asked is if "he is friendly" or "is he aggressive?". Colt is the biggest cuddle bug in the entire world and wants the attention and love of every person he sees haha. Even when I take him to the pet store people are terrified of him. He is by the way very well behaved and trained, heels when walking, sits when I ask, etc... So to me it seems obvious that he is well behaved and other people shouldn't be afraid. I also have taken Colt to the kid park next to my house sometimes and you can hear all the parents whispering to their kids to not pet him or be near him. I usually will just sit there on the bench and relax with Colt until some brave soul comes up and pets him haha then they all realize that he is ok and come and greet him. It is interesting to me because I used to have a very agressive dog (rescued) that everyone thought looked so friendly, but I always had to tell them not to come near him if we were on a walk or at the vet or something like that (granted I was not taking him to the park). I like to believe that other's would have faith in me that I am a responsible dog owner, and wouldn't bring an aggressive dog to a kid park.... but people just don't trust german shepherds for the most part. I have also seen adults terrified of him (don't want to go down the same aisle as us at the pet store, stuff like that). Most kids though are excited to greet him and he LOVES their attention.

[Kamahi]

Originally Posted by Kamahi

They asked their parents if they could pet them, and of course I said go ahead, they're real friendly.

Oops. That should have said,
They asked their parents if they could pet them, so their parents told them "If their owner says it's alright", and of course I said go ahead, they're real friendly.