ORIGINAL: camelcluch
For game and family safety there is only one that comes to mind; Chessies!! There is no question that this is the best of what you are looking for.
Yep. I knew my answer soon as I read the post... figured I'd see if anyone else said it first. One of the few dogs that is known to be generally protective and very driven to retrieve. I've seen labs that are protective of certain areas (trucks especially), and I've heard of a few protective Goldens. Personally, Attilah the Hun could come storming up our driveway on an elephant shooting flaming arrows and my Golden would be nothing but excitied to see him... but then Dutch has never been in a situation where he needed to be protective of me or my fiancee. The fiancee's black lab is a bit more people in-touch, and I think would indeed go to bat for either of us if the need arose.
But generally, I think that a Chessie is a good way to go. They can be rather stubborn though, but that is case dependant. If you have kids around and/or lots of company then there may be better choices for you.