Caucasian Ovcharka types which I have now and Boerboels which I had previously do show some small differences in male and female guarding behaviour that they also seem to share as breeds. Primarily it's the females which initiate action as said here by Admin and others, so for me they are easier to handle and deal with because they wear their feelings, leaving no doubts as to their intentions. Quite often a male will appear and even often intentionally disinterested and then suddenly decide on closer inspection no deal.  This can take everyone by surprise, not always a good thing.

I had this very thing happen last night.

I picked up my godson from the airport in the middle of the night, I haven't seen him in almost 14 years as he's been away in boarding school and then finishing a PHD in physics in London. On arriving the females were there instantly making a big noise (I've never know such a large heavy dog/breed to be quite so incredibly swift) he's a tall strapping stranger and they didn't like that much. I took him in through the gates trusting this would be all good and true enough this action alone was enough to relax them and they went away without even a sniff which is so typical.  However the large male standing a little behind only then decided to get all territorial, once we were in. Standing his ground and growling like a devil dog.

Unfortunately my godson who as much as he loves dogs is also just not as handy around them as one could wish was basically in the process of enveloping the rabid sounding beast around the neck in a deep heartfelt embrace something he hadn't seen fit to even do to me. I had to very quickly intervene and call for  help on the intercom so I could get the godson into the house safely with an escort while I very smartly clipped a restraint on the dogs neck, keeping him in the gate-lock which was luckily still open for this purpose. He wouldn't stand down, as rigid as a tree trunk and mightily tall on his toes. We always leave a few short leads clipped to the side gate as it's quite a hike to the house from the car park if we need them in a hurry. After ten minutes or so waiting, five which were spent him glaring fixedly down the path grumbling deeply I took a leisurely stroll with him back to the house, he sniffed all over snorting like a grizzly then settled down.

The godson never ventured out for the rest of the evening as it was very late anyway and went to bed eventually. In the morning no problems at all, no one minded him one bit in fact the male was all over him insisting on being cuddled, throwing him high five's and sticking to his side like glue as he toured the gardens before breakfast!!? Females wagged their tails but didn't bother even getting up. They had been going mad all night at the wild boars at the bottom far perimeter fence and needed their sleep.

I think it might also depends on how alfa your females are, particularly in the Boerboel as this role can be quite dramatically reversed, but generally males seem to be quite consistently one step behind. At least that's how Im seeing it, it might be something else entirely of course as dogs often seem completely and utterly inscrutable, especially the shepherd specialists.

Once my wife complained that suddenly when ever she came home in the early evening and patted the dog he would ignore her but growl instead without even getting up. I told her indignantly it was utter nonsense as he never did that before to any of us. She insisted. So with a little investigation it turned out he was growling generally and pre-emptively in the direction of the hills and not at her at all. Oddly he seemed to do this only when she arrived. He was being protective, eyes fixed on the horizon. Instead of jumping up and welcoming her as any other dog might he was growling a warning instead. It turned out to be a troop of large muscular nomadic primates that had turned a large tree into a semi-permanent roost. She always arrived just after dusk after they had already noisely settled down. Once they left for richer pickings after a few nights using the tree he stopped doing it entirely and all was well again.