Dainel Boon ---
Regarding your rottie --- and in your own words --
“and has good social manners. but.......he will not allow anybody to approach closely, either on his daily walk, or riding in the SUV...”
Sir, this is not good social manners for a dog, and is not good training regardless of if it’s a protection dog, a police dog or a family pet. Generalized aggression towards everyone but the handler / owner is an outdated training goal / method only used by certain military patrol dogs who police walled areas of secure facilities, It is not at all suitable for a dog out in the general population. Your dog is, as you describe it indiscriminately protective of you in public and that may be a problem for both you and him someday, worst of all you seem at lest somewhat proud of his behavior. Think about it, what if a small child runs up to you and your dog? Do you not thing that there could be a situation when this would be a major problem or liability for you both? I urge you to investigate further training, for the sake of you and your dog. I personally am all for protection dog training, if done well and appropriately, however what you describe is not that.
To everyone else who responded talking about how great and protective their dogs are ask yourself this --- would you feel well protected if you were just carrying around a nickel plated desert eagle that you had never shot, knew nothing about how to use the thing, but had confidence in that it sure “looked scary” when you flashed it to people. Walking around with an untrained dog regardless of it’s breed, size, barking ability, apparent lack of socialization or anti-social behavior or so forth and thinking that it is anything other than a deterrent pure ignorance. Go and watch and read about protection dog training, see what the response of most green dogs is to gunfire, see what it takes to teach dogs to bite in the proper manner (think about it -- if your beloved fido bites an armed bag guy’s leg his time on this earth is probably going to be real short) --- you don’t have to become a master at these techniques (I don’t train but have worked extensively with various working dogs) to appreciate the fact that it’s very involved and that placing any confidence in an untrained dog is folly. Yes sometimes the family pet nails the bad guy but good, just like sometimes the guy who has no training and a 25 or 32 pocket pistol he has never shot successfully defends himself with that weapon --- but I would not recommend it and would sure not count on it.
None of what I have said is meant to disparage trained protection dogs, I personally think that patrol / protection dog training and competition is great, however like armed personal protection it’s also a lot of work and something that has to be done well or not at all. I hope for the safety of you and your dogs that you realize this, as someone had to say it.
Real stories of K-9 valor:
http://www.napwda.com/valor/