Can a German Shepherd protect you from a gang of thugs?

See the GSD on the right? I’ll tell you about him. I was walking one night after dark by a park, on the road and there were 5 punk late-teen kids hanging out in the back of a pickup, being boisterous and obnoxious. They started talking smack about me when I was still 150 yards away (yes, you can hear loud punks yelling from quite a distance-for those of you with nothing to do but make stupid comments regarding hearing them). A couple of them were sitting on the open tailgate of the truck. I had just Tobie (the dog on the right) with me. He would heel perfectly, but he assessed the situation and walked up a bit in front of and to the side of me between me and the truck. As we got closer he never barked or growled. But he gave that “GSD glare” (those of you with GSDs know what that look is) to these kids and the ones on the back of the tailgate scooted WAY over away from us. The others jumped out of the pickup bed and walked toward the house-I guess in case they had to run inside. Tobie, all 107 lbs of him, continued to glare at the kids as we walked by. Those kids never so much as squeaked.

This was only 1 of multiple times Tobie AND Koda (the one wearing the backpack) had my back and protected me. Yes, they can and will guard you-maybe. Will they attack the “thugs”? Maybe. Unless they’re trained PP dogs, it’s hard to know.
-Susan Conner