boxers as guard dogs

[micmay]

My Taz has always been very protective. The kids are 1st, me 2nd, and daddy last. He has never shown aggresion unwarranted. Years ago we had a peeping tom and it was a whole new "I want to kill that person" bark. Taz never got ahold of the freak but I believe if I had let him loose on the guy he would have seriously injured him. I have always felt comfortable letting the kids play in the back yard alone with him because he would probably kill someone who tryed to hurt his babies. As long as it is a person we feel comfortable around he will slob them down

 

[samsonite]

Hopefully, Samson's "guarding" tendencies will never be tested, but he is a great "alarm". I thought it was so funny when he was about 6 months old and started getting his "mean bark". Just like a kid in puberty, his bark was changing! I guess he's getting used to the usual neighborhood going-ons; sometimes he forgets to bark at the mailman or the UPS truck, but every Tuesday and Friday he goes crazy at our neighbor retrieving his garbage cans!

The way Samson will jump between my son and anyone playing too roughly with him is a sign to me that he will stand up for us. But I hope he never needs to!

 

[Irinikm]

A lot of what you want your dog to be able to do, has to do with where you live and the situations you are likely to enter. This is also a cultural thing and a situational thing. Of course, people who train their dogs for guarding do not want neither to make their dog suffer nor to create a killing machine that will attack anything that walks.

However, there are cases where it is actually OK for a dog to attack a person whether we like it or not. (again a lot depends on where you live). The thing is to make sure that your dog will do that only when you feel that it should and to do it in a way that will minimize harm to you, to the dog, and to the potential threat.

I don't know the training standards or practices around the world, but i have been present in all the guarding training Martin received and i did not witness anything that could hurt the dog or make him feel uncomfortable.

Irene

 

[kassa]

The problem with "guard dog training" is that it's hard to measure what's reputable and what's not. Cost is not an indicator of quality training.

The plus of a WELL TRAINED guard dog who's trained to attack is that he's also trained to STOP when commanded to do so. A loving pet, thinking for himself, is less likely to be quite as under control. So while you can compare an untrained or poorly trained "attack dog" to a loaded gun, a well trained attack dog is a bullet you can call back.

Boxers and Rottweilers tend to excel at a certain kind of guarding -- mainly holding. In holding, they will let an intruder IN, but not let him leave! It's not necessarily a vicious thing, either, just sheer intimidation. More than one innocent workman has reentered a house to get a tool and been confronted by the formerly friendly family pet who is determined to keep him there until the owner says he can leave.

They are thinking and guarding dogs -- that's sufficient for most needs. There is a test given by the American Temperament Testing Society (ATTS) that measures protectiveness, among other traits. If you seek their website you may find a test near you. This provides the dog with a series of challenges in a controlled setting (strange noises, including a gunshot and rocks in a metal bucket, walking on peculiar surfaces, and greeting a series of strangers from totally neutral to friendly to peculiar, to threatening. The whole test is done on a 6 foot lead, with no handler interaction (other than holding on tight).) The dog's reactions are carefully noted and scored against his breed -- obviously you want a different reaction from a working dog than a toy dog.

The neutral stranger just exchanges pleasantries with the person and ignores the dog totally. The friendly stranger greets the dog as well. The peculiar stranger is dressed in some outlandish fashion but quite a ways away. Then the peculiar stranger comes closer, and slowly becomes more threatening (never getting closer than the leash length!) Threatening is usually yelling and waving a stick around.

It's a decent way to gauge a dog's reactions. I'll never forget the fire of a little french bulldog when the threatening stranger approached -- it's not all about size, but heart.

Don't do these tests yourself, though -- you want it done in a controlled environment with people who know precisely how far to go. But if you truly wonder if the dog would step up in an emergency, it might provide your answer.

 

[Daisys_rjm]

The plus of a WELL TRAINED guard dog who's trained to attack is that he's also trained to STOP when commanded to do so. A loving pet, thinking for himself, is less likely to be quite as under control. So while you can compare an untrained or poorly trained "attack dog" to a loaded gun, a well trained attack dog is a bullet you can call back.

That is a very interesting point, I'm 100% certain that Daisy would protect our family with her life if needed, and at the same time I'm 99.9% she will never need to. However, what if she were to misinterpret the actions of a stranger in the home... could I effectively get her under control.

I'm thinking back to when I was a child and we had to call an ambulance for grandmother after a fall. Her TOY POODLE escaped my mother's grip and literally attacked the ambulance attendant! It was absolute chaos until we finally got this little 7 lbs dog under control... Clearly the little dog misunderstood the situation... it's a good thing grandma had a toy poodle and not a Saint-Bernard LOL.

Although I wouldn't send my Daisy-girl to "protection" training, I can see why it could be a good idea.

randy and Daisy

 

[Missfeisty]

Lucy is an excellent natural protector. In fact I have to remind her to tone it down a bit, cause we live in a retirement community and there's really no need for her to protect us against that poor guy who can barely walk down the street!

But I feel secure knowing that while retirement communities are considered "easy targets", they will most definitely think twice about trying anything at our house. And I've stressed to my mom that when she schedules repair people to come out, to make sure she tells them Do Not Come In Until I Put The Dog Away. And of course once they enter there are boxer photos all over the house....

 

[RentsOSketch]

Boxers with Police

There is a police unit in Wisconsin that has boxers for their police dogs, rather than German Shepherds. Every year when all of the county and state police forces get together, the other police forces tease them saying that their noses are too short to smell anything and that they are too nice to be police dogs. Then almost every year, at this same get together, they have competitions and the boxers almost always win. It turns out that you will almost never find a more dedicated dog than a boxer.

Sketch is afraid of everything it seems, but then if anyone is walking around the house late at night, he gets really protective, almost like his alter-ego superhero side comes out. One time I was working nights and I came in around midnight I guess. I heard the most demonic sound from the other side of the bedroom door, and it turned out to be Sketchy protecting his mommy. I opened the door and his hair was standing up. It took his mommy to say, "it's okay baby" before he would chill out. When he calmed down and recognized daddy standing there, he gave me appologetic smooches and his butt wiggled. :D I love that...

 

[Boone's. Fmly]

Watch Dogs

I tested Boone right after we got him to see how protective he would be.....well to make a long story short, he pee'd all over the floor he was SO scared. LOL I'm not so sure about Lexus....she's more of a "threat" than Boone would be.

My best watch dog was Max our St. Bernard....he was a gentle giant, but was a big intimidation to people. We just lost Max a couple of weeks ago and now I don't have any one to tell me when someone is outside. Last night one of DH's friends stopped by and the dogs didn't even know he was there...they didn't even bark when he knocked. I think I'm going to have to invest in a door bell now. LOL

 

[ehope]

cassius has come into his own "adult" bark. it's not really a fully bark more like a gruff wroof when someone rings the doorbell or he hears somone on the stairs outside. But he only does it when he is alone with me in the house. ny husband has never heard him do this. so, he is definitely protective of the mommy and i think he would probably react of something actually happened to me. but the second he realizes its the neighbors or the neighborhood kids he's all but wiggles and hamming it up.

although i think that i feel far more protective of him than the other way. if something happened I would put myself in harm's way rather than let him be hurt.

 

[LuvDaBabies]

Justice would make an excellent guard dog, she already protects me and our youngest son. She's so funny at the dog park, she comes back to check on me and gets a tad defensive if another dog gets too close to her mom (we're also working on realizing that it's okay for mom to pet other dogs).

She also lives up to her name when other dogs get in a scuffle. If two dogs are "fighting" (in her opinion) she goes and throws herself between them to make them stop. It's really kinda cute cause she's doesn't do it agressively, just matter of factly.