Would your dog defend you?

[Gempress]

This was mentioned a bit in another thread, and I thought it was interesting. Do you think your dog would bite to defend you? What makes you think so?

I know that while most of us would like to think so, the reality is that few pets would actually do more than bark/growl/snarl...although that in itself usually extremely effective.

Out of all the dogs I've ever had, Voodoo is the only one who will bite in defense. He once mistook the vaccuum cleaner for an intruder in the middle of the night and attacked it. Poor pup was quite embarassed by the mistake!

Zeus is too good-natured, he doesn't even bark or growl. My golden retreiver and my rott/husky mix would put on an impressive show, but wouldn't go beyond that.

How about your dogs?

 

[RD]

Ripley has been around in threatening situations but his reasons for barking and growling are to protect himself, not us.

I don't think Eve will be a very protective adult. She's a lover, not a fighter.

Dakota has proven that he will bite in my defense.

 

[squirtsmom]

I know Squirt is very protective, but I dn't know if she would bite. Last week the telephone man was over and he was HUGE. She made quite a fuss, and we had to put her away for him to go by. I think she would probably bite him. She was fierce.

 

[Gempress]

Ripley has been around in threatening situations but his reasons for barking and growling are to protect himself, not us.

His Ripliness? Show self-interest only? Perish the thought!

 

[Renee750il]

Bimmer and Kharma? Absolutely. They don't even bother with barking unless they can't get at something or they want to warn me. They'd rather be quiet and let whatever it is get into range . . .

Shiva makes a LOT of noise. I think if it came down to it, she would, but she'd have to work herself up. Once she found out how easy it was for her to overpower and she got over that hump, I think it would be a different matter from then on.

 

[planet molosser]

I test my dogs with Civil work at the local club. We work in defense then play.
Defense comes out natural then we work on bite work while the guy threatens me..
I only TEST them after they do CGC TDI ATTS and tons of socialization work.

I have had only 1 case in which my dog had to push it with a threatening person. But im lucky thank god.

One of my owners were followed home in long island they tried to car jack her and the dog went up and into the window protecting her and the baby.

Other times they protect more so with 4 legged predators vs 2.

I do have one dog that would NOT protect me she is easily put into avoidance all her defense is FEAR based. She has weak nerves thus we wont breed her...

I could post pics but truth is that is NOT what I want people to picture when they see the breed. I want them to remember the control and stability the dogs show when in public and how when called upon they will defend.

 

[ACooper]

I know Phoebe would, about 4 years ago we were adding the second level on our house, and we had a construction team coming and going. All the kids & hubby were at work & school. So it was me and Phoebe home alone (no Orson back then)

My computer & equipment was exiled to the laundry room to keep out of the way. She happily laid under the desk while I typed away. She loves people and didn't mind the men coming and going at all.

One of the men decided it was ok to come to work drunk, and when he entered the house she got on full alert. Now I didn't know he was drunk, but she did. When he started down the hall where we were she went NUTS, she came charging out like a mad dog, got between us and showed teeth!! I was very confused because she is the sweetest girl in the world. He took a step closer and she lunged, I grabbed her in time and then I could smell the booze......................long story short, he was fired by his foreman and Phoebe got extra treats.

I am pretty sure once Orson is grown he would too, (one never knows though) but it is in the nature of most dobes to protect who they feel BELONGS to them.

 

[DoggyLuva1128]

My dog Blackie, 5 year old toy poodle, would bite to defend me. When I was 12 or 13 I was at my cousins party and I went to her room with her to watch tv and we fell asleep. In the middle of the night around 3am this guy named Willie about 18-20 yrs old came in the room drunk, me and her were both laying in the bed with skirts on (and shorts under of course), and he bent over to the bottom bunk where we were. It was obvious he had bad intentions so my dog got into defense mode, he began to growl at willie and that's when I started to wake up. When Willie put his hand next to me my dog jumped at him and bit at his hand viciously. I woke up and kicked him in the stomach,my dog let go. Immediately my mom ran to the room when she heard all the noise. Anyway other stuff went on after that, but the point is my dog would attack for me. It did surprise me because I never seen him growl or even bite. I remember given him a big hug & lots of kisses. He's a good boy lol

 

[SisMorphine]

Wally has a good civil when startled, but when pushed he will back down, he's been tested. But it's a higher level he needs to be pushed at, so his civil will be good enough for 99.9% of people with bad intentions.

Mike will protect me absolutely. He is one of the few dogs I've met with a proven history of protecting his owner (he bit the old owner's boyfriend after he hit her . . .which is why he ended up at the shelter). But even if he would protect me, that isn't good enough. I want to have control over the situation which is why I am training him for personal protection. His civil is pretty fierce anyway, so I doubt he'll ever actually need to bite.

Mike normally:

Mike doing civil:

Athena's breed is supposed to be naturally protective, but I am training her for sport bitework so I am not sure if she would ever engage off field on an unsuited person. I will not be training her for any protection work at all, but I'm sure just looking at her will scare some people off.

 

[DoggyLuva1128]

Isn't it amazing how a dog has great instincts? They always know when to be in high alert. They have a great source of judgement.

 

[Duke'sMommy]

I honestly dont know if Duke would. He just turned one and Ive notice he has become more alert while on walks and isnt all excitied to meet new people on walks especially at night. He always makes sure he stands between me and whoever is walking past us and just watches them. So I dont know what he would do. My boyfriends dog on the other hand would. The other night I was at his place sleeping while he stayed out abit longer and his dog was sleeping on the floor beside the bed. My boyfriend said when he came in the dog just charged the door barking, grawling and ready to attack until he realized it was my boyfriend coming through the door. And of course during all the excitiment I stayed asleep, lol.

 

[planet molosser]

Great pics SIS and I agree.
A dog that is naturally protective as a breed stills needs to be tested.
Would like to see more pics pls.

 

[SisMorphine]

Great pics SIS and I agree.
A dog that is naturally protective as a breed stills needs to be tested.
Would like to see more pics pls.

Of Mike or everyone else's? Unfortunately that's the only picture I have of Mike working, and it's from the first week I had him. He's since gained 10 pounds of muscle! I'll have to try to get more pics of him, we backed off of the bitework for a while to focus on some obedience issues, but we started back up again 2 weeks ago so I'll try to get some pics of him sometime, maybe club on Tuesday night, we'll see

I can show you video of my club's dogs working, but alas nothing more of Mike.

I want to see pics of other people's dogs doing civil and/or protection if they have them!!

 

[DanL]

I don't think Gunnar is mature enough at this point. He'll be 2 in a couple days. He'll bark and growl at strangers outside, and he gets agitated, but I'm pretty sure he'd back down. I've experimented with my son, we will start to wrestle around and make noise to see what he'll do, he'll go after my son but it's more like he's playing than defending.

Planet Molosser- how can you have a therapy dog that has been trained in bite/protection work? Is it a certified therapy dog, by TDI? I didn't think they allowed dogs who were trained like that to participate.

 

[RD]

Sis, I'm curious. What goes into practical personal protection training (not sport bitework)? I've been thinking about this a lot lately - I know Dakota will protect me but I'd like to have more control over him in situations he determines are threatening. I've contacted Schutzhund clubs in my area but not only are they purely for sport, they wouldn't even evaluate him because he's a border collie.

 

[SisMorphine]

Planet Molosser- how can you have a therapy dog that has been trained in bite/protection work? Is it a certified therapy dog, by TDI? I didn't think they allowed dogs who were trained like that to participate.

I know I wasn't asked, but there are some societies that allow it and some that don't. The thing with bitework, especially personal protection work, when properly trained the dog is a member of the family and very social. You would have no idea someone had a PP dog unless it was necessary. And quite often a sport dog becomes equipment fixated, and used to the strict routines that are used in most sport work, and would actually be pretty useless in a real life situation. In my mind there is no reason to have an anti-social dog, especially one doing bitework. And if the dog can't differentiate between when to bite and when not to then there is something very wrong.

 

[planet molosser]

Hi Dan great avatar.

Not all my dogs have been tested for TDI.
3 Have and passed Coz Ali and TEDDY.

Today Coz would NOT pass since he wont let a strange man roll him but will do it for kids.
Coz is the only one that has done allot of bite work.
Most of my other dogs are tested via ATTS and Civil without bites.

But we did NOT stop therapy work with him for that.
Bite work is not the question on the TDI form . The question is has the dog ever "bitten " someone ?

NOt the same. Maybe it is different with Delta society?

However we did stop Therapy work at hospitals with Coz when he started to protect the kids from the nurses who gave needles.
He could smell see the fear in the young ones and started to protect so no more Therapy work for coz.
But we still do school demos, tv interviews, and fairs to showcase a protective dog can be protective and social at the same time.

 

[SharkyX]

I don't know if they would actually defend me or not.
I know the put on quite a show when strange people come to the door and have barked and growled and what not... but as has been pointed out, that could be just for show.

Although I must admit I'm not overly worried about it. The fuss they put up would more then scare the heck out of me, they both tend to wrecklessly throw themselves at the door barking and scratching when they here someone come in downstairs in the middle of the night. I'd think it would have a similar effect on anybody dumb enough to enter my house unwanted.

 

[SisMorphine]

Sis, I'm curious. What goes into practical personal protection training (not sport bitework)? I've been thinking about this a lot lately - I know Dakota will protect me but I'd like to have more control over him in situations he determines are threatening. I've contacted Schutzhund clubs in my area but not only are they purely for sport, they wouldn't even evaluate him because he's a border collie.

I'm new to the sport world, but so far have found that with the two most popular of sports, Schutzhund and French Ring, they are based on very strict patterns which don't change. And in Schutzhund especially they are only allowed to bite the middle of the sleeve (in French Ring the decoy wears a full body suit and the dog can bite anywhere . . . crotch bites are funny ). A well trained dog in either sport can actually run through the program themselves with little to no help from the handler (I've seen it happen . . . auto-pilot, crazy stuff). Even though this is cool for the sport, this also means that most dogs can't translate what they do on the field to the real world.

Basically as far as training it for real it is mostly about getting down strict obedience and teaching when it is appropriate to bite and when it is not, and is very heavily based on socialization. If your dog isn't social in addition to being protective then IMHO it isn't a true PP dog. I would LOVE to see a BC doing personal protection. They would rock at it!

The site that the videos are on seems to be down right now, but when it's up I'll post up some examples of what a true PP dog is.

 

[Scooter]

I doubt it at this point unless she licked someone to death! She loves everyone she meets at this stage of 7 months old.