The first part of my post on this thread was to point out that people see/define things differently. Being aware of a moose up ahead on the path, and being on alert status (wariness) is great; lunging at a stranger, growling with teeth bared at a stranger (what I have seen some on this forum describe as wariness of strangers) is not great to me- it is aggression to me. Replace the word moose with stranger in the first part, and it is still okay, and I am now prepared for that (although if you've followed any of my posts on this forum, you'll know I didn't choose a guardian with a "guardian" in mind). Please don't ask me who defined wariness that way, it is the general concept that I've gotten as I've read the forum, and the language is probably more from this thread, since it's what I've been reading most recently.
At this time, Astrid has been widely socialized from the day I got her, until it got to be too cold to take her all the time. I took her everywhere. The biggest problem I have with her out in public is that she wants to play with other dogs that don't want to play with her, and she pulls at her leash and barks to get to them, which scares others, as she already sounds like a 200# dog. She has played very well with other dogs in puppy class, and has not shown aggression to others in public (I also don't let others approach her without permission and having her sit/down first, but not always successful with this, esp if another dog is around). The aggression problems that I've had have been about resource guarding, so far. I'm on watch for other behaviours, always. If you read all of that first post on this thread, you also read that I'm continuing to work with Astrid, because I know she is going to be a great dog! Our family experienced a trauma with our last dogs, which I won't go into here but have posted elsewhere on the forum, that makes me unsure if Astrid is absolutely the right dog for our family, but at this time,
everyone in the household has agreed to participate in her training and work on the issues that we're having. If, in the end, we decide at some future point that Astrid just doesn't fit well with our lifestyle, we'll have done our best to make sure that she is well trained and well socialized for her next home, and her next home will be picked out with a lot of care (masteneo has offered to drive up from TX if she needs a home, lol
).
The standards remark was made tongue-in-cheek, and it wasn't about "softening" the standards, or even "changing" them, really, just rewording so that ignorant newbies (i.e. me) get a more accurate picture of what a Mastiff is like. The Fila standard (I noticed it wasn't AKC) was much more blunt, not a lot of leeway for misunderstanding there.
---------- Post added at 09:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:43 PM ----------
@dpenning: I'm well aware of the risks
....I've mentioned my last pup was a St Bernard, right? Cotton was definitely a lap dog...on the couch, in the bed, in the car (really had to work on setting boundaries in the car)...her person's lap was her preferred spot, and she tried to get as much of her body on said lap as possible.
Astrid might settle her bum on my lap for a moment whilst she noms on a toy, but really, she is not a lap dog. Oh, well! We have talked about our next pup (so, companion for Astrid) being a St Bernard or Bernese Mtn dog, maybe a rescue. There were no rescues when I was actively looking, and we found Astrid instead.