Dutch Shepherd Forum

Is there an average or general time when a DS will start to feel more protective towards its family? My DS is friendly with most people, he is only 2 months though. I have read on some sites, that Dutchies will love everyone they come in contact with and then all of the sudden, almost overnight, they become alarmed and aggressive toward people coming in their home. I just want to know what to watch for. I talked to a man that stated that his DS seemed to have woke up one morning, at around 5 months, and out of no where began to act aggressive toward strangers. I know that each dog is different, I just wanted to know if anyone had any advice or opinions. Thanks!

I have no clue what sites you read but dang, there seems to be a lot of fiction floating around.
Their (protective) personality depends for a large part on their bloodlines. Some dogs will stay rather friendly all their lives, others will be defensive from day one (and that is not always a good thing, really, since they feel uncertain and consider everything and everyone a threat)
Well balanced pups should be friendly and should be raised to interact with people. As they mature, they may start to distinguish between good and bad, welcome and unwanted. A pup may bark at the approach of a stranger, but as soon as the stranger interacts with them, expect the pup to be happy and friendly. The level of future protectiveness depends on both the pup, the pups age (pup vs adult) and the way it was raised. There is no magic age and 'protect' is also subjective. I have no doubt my adults, every one of them, protect me. But that is possibly quite a few levels above what you expect from your brindle baby. My year old young stock, right now, would try, but still fail against the 2x4. We are working on that, and I feel confident that they too will in the future be ready and willing to take on a real fight. But I cannot tell you yet at what age I will feel like my mission was accomplished. Probably another year yet, not sure. They will bark at the door though, quite convincingly.

Thank you Judith for all the info I guess maybe I need to stop looking at "sites" and just start talking to people on here and reading others forums. I couldn't find any information in local bookstores on Dutch Shepherds. Like I've said before, most people where I live have never even seen a DS. They are amazed by him! I want to raise a great beautiful dog and we have been socializing him as much as possible. For now, he seems to be doing very well on knowing who is welcome and who isn't. I have seen people around him that he will let pet him and others he wants nothing to do with. I would like for him to be protective of our family, I just don't want him to fly off the handle on someone, who enters the home invited. I hope that you or anyone else on the forum doesn't find me annoying, I just want to raise the best DS I can. I respect the breed very much and want to raise a respectful dog, that gives the breed a good name.

Dingo was (and still is) a very friendly dog that I never had on a leash when he was a pup. We lived in a typical Dutch neighboorhood, lot's of houses, cars, dogs, kids. He never showed any signs of "unfriendlyness" towards anything. But around 8 months I did notice a change, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't an awakening of his protection skills.
It was the "let's try out some fun-stuff" period... He started by stopping people who walked up to me in the dark. Since almost everyone knew him it was no problem at first, they laughed, I told Dingo to "get back here!!" and all was good. But at the same time he had gotten beyond cute puppy-looks, and was scaring some people, they would no longer go "awww, how cute, can he have a cookie?" but cross the street instead.
Now a DS is smart, he sees this. And I think it was just that that caused Dingo to think he was awesome, strong, and well, super Dingo.
He no longer walked off leash at night, he stopped some people who were walking towards me in a faster or weird way He never showed agression, just a confindence look "one more step my friend..."
Nobody ever tried that one more step so I do not know what he'd do, he's pretty fair, probabely would give them a little warning pinch first
So as much as it may seem he had suddenly started to protect me, I think it was also the confidence he got out of how people suddenly reacted to his presence. I believe he was born with the actual protective skills he has. Ivil is quite a different dog, she is much more tolerant, but has shown she can also do her job if needed, but if I want to be sure, I'll bring Dingo

So...just wait and see :dswink"

Thalie has been friendly happy go lucky since I got her at 1.5y, she is 9 now. Anyone can walk up to her and her tail is wagging and she is happy, no aggression what so every, unless you are in a bite suite but then she is still all about fun. Sadie is different, she is 1 year old. She is more protective, she will bark, and protect me and get between me and the other person, but once she sniffs and sees that they are a friend, she is all happy.

Boaz was much friendlier as a pup. He's almost 2 years old and I think his interest is more about food these days. Every time he meets a new person he sniffs all over for food. I'm really starting to think I need to feed him more.

Funny thing, though. I took him to the ATTS temperament test and the second station is supposed to be a super friendly person. Well, the woman was afraid to look at Boaz and just tentatively held out her hands to him. I was not allowed to speak or I would have told her not to worry. Come to think of it, he was sniffing everybody during that test.

He still really loves kids. We met 3 young girls last night on a walk and all of them were petting him at the same time.

Thank you all for your stories and giving me ideas of your experiences. I have also seen Soba give that "One more step my friend" look. It was actually entertaining to see a dog get out of its fence the other day on a walk. The dog starts to run toward my son, who is 4, and Soba did not move toward it, he just stopped in his tracks in front of my son and gave the look. The dog, who has ran right up on us in the past, stopped and looked at us as if it were thinking, "Ok I will slowly turn around and just go back" and thats exactly what it did. Soba went back to being comfortable and we continued on our walk

kchristy wrote: The dog starts to run toward my son, who is 4, and Soba did not move toward it, he just stopped in his tracks in front of my son and gave the look.

That's exactly what Boaz did during the last station of the Temperament Test (ATTS). It is where a man wearing a floppy hat and long over coat come toward us in a threatening way hitting a whip on the ground. I was told that it was considered a great response.

blackpuppy wrote:
That's exactly what Boaz did during the last station of the Temperament Test (ATTS). It is where a man wearing a floppy hat and long over coat come toward us in a threatening way hitting a whip on the ground. I was told that it was considered a great response.

That would be interesting to do with Thalie after having Ring training. The whip to the ground would defiantly alert her. In the ATTS test, what is the response they want from the dog? Thalie would probably bark and be on the ready for the attack command.

The test is judged with consideration to the breed and the type of training the dogs has had.

The dog will pass the entire test if he recovers quickly from the stimulus at all the stations. The scoring for each of the 10 stations is from 0 to 10. For the station I described, 0 would be runaway and fail (I think) , 10 is if the dog attacks the man (Balto did this). And I think 5-6 is for what Boaz did.

The scoring is very complicated and there are 3 judges for the test and they conference after every station.

So, I can't really tell you all the details. In Ring does the dog wait for you to give a command to attack, or does it take initiative and attack on it's own. Whatever the answer is,that's what the judges would expect and they would score accordingly.

BTW, Boaz failed the test because he did something that comes naturally to him. He prefers to jump over certain surfaces, and would not walk on the wire grating. Talking is not allowed, so I could not tell him he had to walk on it. In retrospect, I should have trained for that.

blackpuppy wrote: That's exactly what Boaz did during the last station of the Temperament Test (ATTS). It is where a man wearing a floppy hat and long over coat come toward us in a threatening way hitting a whip on the ground. I was told that it was considered a great response.

That is awesome, at what age do they take this test or is there a specific age?

They have to be 18 months or older. Here is their website, it describes the tests and has testing dates.
http://atts.org/

Thanks!

I went and checked it out, its all pretty interesting. The statistics were great to look at. Thanks again!

It's very interesting to watch, too.

very interesting. In Ring Sport, once you are at a trial and in the ring, there is no talking, but there is a signal that the dog is trained for before the bite is allowed, either the attack command or an audible hit by the decoy on the handler. So I guess if a guy in a hat hitting the ground approached, thalie is not supposed to bite but she would bark alot.

I would love to put Soba through the trial to see how he would react. Dutchringgirl I'm sure her barking would be enough to get the point across! Your dogs are beautiful

kchristy wrote:I would love to put Soba through the trial to see how he would react. Dutchringgirl I'm sure her barking would be enough to get the point across! Your dogs are beautiful

thanks Kchristy !

I would love to do the test too and see how Thalie reacts. We havent done Ring in a while now and I think my bite suite is buried under a bunch of stuff.

It would be interesting

I looked at the test dates and the dont do alot around the states.