Caucasian Ovcharka Society of America 

Along with health and conformation, temperament is an important consideration when breeding. A poor temperament dog can be out of standard just the same as one with poor form, and potentially more dangerous. Unfortunately, many Caucasian Shepherds are being produced with poor temperaments, having weak nerve and low threshold.

There are three main aspects to temperament: drive, nerve, and threshold. Drive is the internal mechanism that pushes the dog into action, nerve is the innate confidence a dog has in situations, and threshold is the level of stimulus at which a dog's drive is triggered. It is the balance of these three things that forms a dog's (and a breed's) temperament. 

For a Caucasian Shepherd Dog to be within standard in terms of temperament, he needs to have strong nerve, good defensive drive, and a decent threshold. A CSD should have a good drive to defend his family and territory. However, the dog needs to have good nerve and a decent threshold in order not to aggress inappropriately. Too low of a threshold and the dog will go into defense mode in inappropriate, and potentially dangerous situations. Too high of one and the dog won't have his drive triggered, creating a Caucasian Shepherd that won't guard. Of those two situations, too high of a threshold is a much safer place to be and breed from than too low of one.

Unfortunately, many Caucasian Shepherds are being produce with both weak nerve and poor threshold, creating potentially dangerous dogs that often either end up in rescue or euthanized. A dog with poor temperament, be it from weak nerve or low threshold or both, should not be bred.