GSDs were bred as an all-round utility dog, not just for herding cattle.

Mines great. Everyone thinks shes so cute but, god help anyone who breaks on. Been told her breed is capable of bringing down a stag single handely so a robber would be a doddle. I have had to call her off deer before now and she is very obedient.
She is a pet though and I would NEVER chain her up and use her as a guard dog.
Mind you. If someone broke in I would be that worried about them hurting the dog I'd probably attack them 1st.

Thank you -)

Well said.

If you're talking about an essentially untrained "aggressive" dog to guard one's house or property then I prefer a good security system.

Got to disagree with you there Azz, GSDs shepherd sheep/cattle they do not guard them, they keep the stock to an area designated by the shepherd, they don't flock guard. They also should not be dominant either, they should be biddable & tractable & dominant dogs are neither.

As for the"Wary of strangers"that was a UK addition to the breed description during the 1940s to 1960s to allow for the awful temperament of most of the breed that had been bred in the UK during this period of time . The actual wording of the breed standard was"Noted suspicion of strangers"this covered up the fact that most of the UK bred show dogs couldn't be handled by the judges in the ring. This is the reason I have never owned a GSD from UK only bloodlines. There are still dogs bred for the show ring that have the same awful temperament today.

My BCs have always been better watchdogs than my GSDs & the Cavaliers even better ones

GSDs are a shepherding breed all the same, the do not make good "guard"dog ie a breed that protect & deter intruders on their own. they need to be trained & have a handler to act as a "protection"dog.

The Mastiffs(as in all the breeds that are termed Mastiff not just the breed "Mastiff"this includes Bullmastiffs, Neos, Dogue De Bordeaux, Tibetan Mastiffs, etc etc)were developed solely to guard & protect. Some of them are very formidable dogs like the Central Asian Ovtcharka
The GSD temperament & character should be
No mention above of the fear of strangers

yip that is why the csv came about..they needed a dog that would work alone without the handler(and a few other reasons) for 'guarding' the 'iron curtain'

Rupert caught the window cleaner climbing over the gate the other day. He wagged his tail and went to say hi A few weeks ago he barked and ran for his crate because someone in the garden behind us dared to speak to him. And he has no objection to the post man opening our front door to leave parcels in the hallway.

However, he discovered an intruder at my parents one evening while out in the garden alone. Once my parents were aware and dealing with the intruder (who turned out to be a young girl hiding between our car and the fence seperating our front garden from the back from a gang who wanted to beat her up) he was his usual friendly self. Until my parents actually investigated and found here though he was apparently behaving really aggressively.

In this country it is not legal to use a dog as a security dog/ guard dog unless you have a handler with it. This came into effect after many people were bitten by dogs (mostly GSDs) left loose in enclosures or chained and unsocialised / abused to encourage them to be aggressive.
Any dog can be made aggressive, sadly.

Not in my experience, my gsds and all gsds i know, would have protected me and also my property whether i am in or out. This was once proven when one of mine stopped an intruder entering my property when no one was home. She was and has never been trained to do such a thing, but my home is her home and so she protected it.