# Civil vs. bad nerves



## eddie1976E (Nov 7, 2010)

Being "civil" means the dog has a naturally suspicious side? Maybe I have this wrong...If that is the case could some dogs with bad nerves who lack confidence and put on a show to keep people away be mistaken for being civil? You know the kind of dog that someone who lacks knowledge says "my dog is very protective".


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Yes, they are mistaken for civil.


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## DaniFani (Jan 24, 2013)

Yeah, a lot of the DDR dogs around me are mistakenly called "civil" and/or "protective" when really their environmental nerve threshold is extremely low and their number one response to anything (it seems) is aggression. It's one of the reasons I'm not too fond of the new fad of DDR dogs. I've just seen so many with very poor environmental nerve, combine that with breeders breeding for the "black sable, with huge blocky heads" (this takes over all their marketing/advertising), and nerve seems to be put on the back burner or excused for "sharpness/protectiveness". I'm a huge stickler for environmental nervy dogs, I hate to see dogs that are so on edge in their environment, "turned on" by any noise, suspicious of everything, they absolutely have aggression, but it seems to be their go to action without thinking. I don't like that. And this is all anecdotal and from what I've seen in my area. I'm sure there are some decent DDR dogs out there, just haven't seen them, and so far they aren't really my cup of tea.

ETA: Although, some people call exactly what I described, as sharpness. Some people like very sharp dogs. Some people call sharpness/civil-ness (word?) "protective" it's just not the kind of "protective" I like. I like to see thinking before aggression/defense. Not just straight up aggression/defense. If that makes sense.


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## eddie1976E (Nov 7, 2010)

Looks like I put this in the wrong area...Mods, please move. Sorry!


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## Cassidy's Mom (Mar 30, 2003)

eddie1976E said:


> Looks like I put this in the wrong area...Mods, please move. Sorry!


I don't know if you did a moderator notification on your thread or not, so I went ahead and did one. 

If you need to bring something to the attention of a moderator or administrator, simply posting "mods, please move" is not sufficient since it might be awhile before someone comes along and sees it. Moderator notifications will send an email to the moderator/s of that particular sub-forum and also to all of the administrators.


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## Persinette (Jan 31, 2015)

Cassidy's Mom said:


> I don't know if you did a moderator notification on your thread or not, so I went ahead and did one.
> 
> If you need to bring something to the attention of a moderator or administrator, simply posting "mods, please move" is not sufficient since it might be awhile before someone comes along and sees it. Moderator notifications will send an email to the moderator/s of that particular sub-forum and also to all of the administrators.


I never knew this! Good to know!


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## Nigel (Jul 10, 2012)

@Dani your ddr discription sounds like the mals I've encountered here. Haven't seen much in the way of ddr dogs to form an opinion, Czech dogs seem to be what I encounter more of around here and none have been overly "civil"


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## eddie1976E (Nov 7, 2010)

Cassidy's Mom said:


> I don't know if you did a moderator notification on your thread or not, so I went ahead and did one.
> 
> If you need to bring something to the attention of a moderator or administrator, simply posting "mods, please move" is not sufficient since it might be awhile before someone comes along and sees it. Moderator notifications will send an email to the moderator/s of that particular sub-forum and also to all of the administrators.


Thanks...didn't know


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## mycobraracr (Dec 4, 2011)

Civil and nerve get confused all the time. Some civil dogs are called nervy, and some nervy dogs are called civil. When looking at the dog, you have to look at the hole picture. About six months ago I was checking out a two and half old male GSD. I started flicking a rag around and doing some prey work. The dog instantly went full hackles head to toe, backed up some with full teeth, deep barks and when had the chance to bite would only grab on with the front teeth. If I attempted to work up the line to pet the dog, the dog come off and attempt to bite me. Everyone in the stands watching was commenting on how great that was. "How the dog was all about the man". IMO it was horrible. The dog was biting out of fear. He did not want to be in that situation. The dog showed zero confidence in any of his actions. Again, backing up or to the side, slight avoidance, full hackles, showing me all his teeth, shallow bite, not calm on the bite. You have to look at the whole picture to see it. It's not just one of those things that said nerve issue to me, rather the combination of them. 

Now take another young male GSD I've started. While flicking a rag around on the flirt pole, the dog was staring barking and dragging his handler towards me. That dog didn't care about the rag, he wanted to bite me. Not out of fear. Everything about this dog said pure confidence. Head up tail up piercing eyes, forward body position, good barks. Then when given the chance to bite, the dog bit with a full calm grip. Every chance that dog got to get more rag in his mouth he did. He would just keep digging and digging, pushing me to keep fighting with him. That was a nice dog. 

I lost my train of thought. I will revisit this later.


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