Your Dog's Guarding Instinct!

[JacksonsMom]

Does your dog have a guarding instinct?
Not as in resource guarding, but guarding ME, yes. To a point. Only in the house though really. Out in public, he's pretty nonchalant about other people and dogs. He's mostly all show, because if someone really was trying to rile him up, he'd likely go run and hide under my bed lol.

He's never shown aggression but before he knew my uncle well, he's a big tall guy with a deep loud voice, and my uncle came in and was just goofing around but he started barking back at him really loud and stomping his feet goofing around and Jackson actually didn't back down. He was somewhat growling under his breath and still barking at him, and he would look back at me to see if this was alright or not. I told my uncle to knock it off LOL and then he gave him some treats and Jackson watched me hug him and then all was well.


How does he/she act when somebody comes to the door of your house? Invited?
Uninvited?

Jackson ALWAYS alert barks super duper loud in his obnoxious high shrill alert bark when someone comes to our door or driveway. We live in the country though w/ no neighbors so visitors are rare and the only 'odd' cars we get are UPS, mailmen, fedex, etc.

Once someone walks in the house, if it's someone he knows (any family member, or close friend), he pretty much stops immediately and goes to happily greet the people he knows.

If it's a stranger to him, he barks a bit staggered out longer, but will quiet down once I tell him to and once the new person is obviously welcomed by us. I often have the stranger just hand him a treat or I'll drop one on the ground when he stops barking. He usually doesn't want to be pet but occasionally he will go over and sniff a newcomers hand. He's much better if stranger just walks in and basically ignores him. He's worse with people that think all dogs love them and won't stop trying to get him to like them lol.

But yeah he's perfectly content to just lay on the couch nearby and watch this new person from afar.


And for my own curiosities sake, when did your dog's guarding instinct develop?

Not right away. I kind of recall as a puppy saying 'he never barks!' but I think by 6ish months old, he had definitely established 'his' territory.

 

[JacksonsMom]

I think there is a huge difference between fear reactivity, alerting and guarding.

Very true actually. I kind of feel like Jackson has a mix of all 3 though depending on the situation.

He's more of an alerter than anything though.

 

[Julee]

Does your dog have a guarding instinct?

All do, save Copper. Useless dog.

How does he/she act when somebody comes to the door of your house?

Barking, hackles, the whole nine yards. Copper just gets really excited and bays.

Invited?


All hush up and simmer down when asked to.

Uninvited?

Nobody comes uninvited. That's why I have dogs.

And for my own curiosities sake, when did your dog's guarding instinct develop?

Em's was from a veeery young age. As a young pup, she somehow made herself frightening enough to run a bear off of the property.

Shadow, around 6-7 months. Shortly after she was spayed.

Bloo had them when I got her at around a year.

If someone came into the house with the intent to harm us, my dogs would act on it, save Copper. Shadow might not act on it too effectively, being 12 and kind of feeble, but she'd try.


I should note that I am referring to guarding the house/property.

 

[Toller_08]

I think there is a huge difference between fear reactivity, alerting and guarding

I missed this earlier, but yes, I agree. I think both Journey and Ripley are capable of actually guarding, but all three of my dogs are more geared toward alerting and Dance especially is just very reactionary without thought. Ripley sometimes too.

 

[Ozfozz]

Oh, you mean that fly-off-the-handle bark/growl fest that happens every time someone pulls into the driveway?
Yeah, all of them do that.
Cobain and Ruby will quiet down first, but it always seems like Rigby and Oz are fighting over who gets the last word in.


With the recent string of break-ins in our area I have started to wonder what exactly each of them would do in the event that someone broke in when we weren't home.

We figure Oz would bite, especially if the intruder acted aggressively toward him. With age especially, he's become quite the asshole old man. Which in a sense is good as no intruder is going to expect the sweet little beagle to do anything.

Cobain has always been good about placing himself between Rigby and myself at any perceived threat. I'm not sure how far he would go though.

Not sure about the others. Don't really want to find out.

 

[RD]

Does your dog have a guarding instinct?
How does he/she act when somebody comes to the door of your house? Invited?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

No seriously. The answer is no. If she had an instinct to defend territory, I think I killed it in her a long time ago. She's been trained from a young age to be relatively quiet, so no barking or flipping out.

She lets anyone in, if they're invited. Happily. I so infrequently have people over that she is overjoyed at the prospect of new two leggers potentially throwing her toys for her. She will usually greet people at the door with an orbee in her mouth.

Uninvited?

Unknown strangers entering the house when none of us are home is something that doesn't happen. If nobody is home, she is crated.

A stranger (to her) wielding anything resembling a large weapon is apparently allowed into our doorway, but not up the stairs. When my roommate moved in, she was fine with existing around him all day until she saw him bringing his airsoft rifle into the house, and she wouldn't STFU or let him up the stairs until he put it away. So there's that, I guess. No airsoft in the house according to the fun police.

And for my own curiosities sake, when did your dog's guarding instinct develop?

She's not territorial, but she's handler-oriented and defends me quite fiercely if any commotion occurs around me. And by fiercely I mean she's an ass and crotch biter. I pity the butt cheeks and/or genitals of the people who think it's funny to try to play fight with me, because as soon as physical contact is made, the dog appears out of nowhere to put a stop to any shenanigans. Other people can play fight a bit before she intervenes, but I'm not allowed to at all.

She's shown the instinct to come to my defense since she was quite young. I have absolutely no issue with it as she's legitimately defended me in a couple of situations that could've turned nastier had she not helped me out. I appreciate that she's always got an eye on me, even if it does mean I can't do wrestlemania in the living room with my boyfriend.

 

[HayleyMarie]

Does your dog have a guarding instinct? I'm just going to talk about Panzer since he is actually a guardian breed, so yes Pan has a guarding instinct. But we did a lot of training so his guarding instinct is only allowed when its actually needed. For example he is allowed to alert to things walking outside the house, but he is not allowed to go into crazy guarding mode when he starts over reacting and jumping at the windows and door. We also did A LOT of socialization with him. I take take him in public and busy crowds and I don't have to worry about him. When meeting strangers he is polite and is happy, but is not act over enthused about meeting them. Unless its a child, those are the best things ever. Pan loves them. I can take him hiking in the woods and he won't start freaking out and go into guarding mode if people start walking towards us. He will might bark, but we have been working on him to harness himself in so he does scare the crap out of people. Which he does anyways because of his size. When we do meet people in that kind of setting we usually start talking to them or say hello to them before they get close so Pan notices them right away and knows that its OK since we are talking to him, plus usually everybody starts talking to Pan right away because he is so awesome looking. ha ha


How does he/she act when somebody comes to the door of your house? He gets all barky and jumps at the door, until I tell him to cut it out and sit down.
Uninvited? No idea yet and I don't want to find out. My guess he is probably makes a huge scene. I should add people he knows quite well he allows to come in and out of the house no problem, even when we are not home.

And when did his guarding instinct develop? At around 8 months old I noticed it starting to develop. I did not really allow him to act on his own when it came to him trying to be protective, since at that age he has no idea what he is actually doing. Now, if he guards correctly he is allowed to do it on his own merit. His protectiveness instinct is still developing and his breed is very slow to mature. He is 17 months old right now I don't see his instinct and temperment fully developing until 2-3 years old.He still very much has a puppy, young adolescent brain.

 

[GoingNowhere]

To the best of my observation ability, I think that Boo alerts and reacts, but doesn't really guard. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending upon how you look at it), her reactivity often involves moving forward at a person rather than away from them. She's not the kind of dog to run away and hide, hackles raised, barking. Rather she will stand her ground and bark at the person (and if not corrected quickly, I've seen her jump up at a person before [not to bite, but to make a bigger scene]). That said, if the person were to continue to move at her, I'd imagine that she'd back up, staying the same distance from them until they changed course. Once they are no longer in her personal space or if they are sitting down, she tends to ignore them, which is why I think that she is more reactive than anything. She also will happily take treats from said scary people only to go back to barking at them once they stop feeding her. Because her show isn't obviously cowardly and she is a chow mix, people often assume that she is being territorial or guardy. Grabbing her collar to restrain her sometimes makes the reaction a bit worse. This comes in handy when there's a stranger at the door and I want to look like my dog is particularly tough. She sometimes holds up her end of the act relatively well. Othertimes, not so much. At least big black dogs with pointy ears look intimidating.

Of course, I've battled with the question of whether she is reactive or guardy for quite some time because she very very rarely reacts outdoors. I've come to the conclusion that the reason for this has less to do with the fact that she is guarding the house and more to do with the confined space and the fact that she is more comfortable there, so she doesn't look to me for guidance as much as she does in new outdoor environments when she's unsure.

But then again, who really knows. It could be a combination of all three. She certainly seems to be part chow, so it wouldn't surprise me if she had a bit of a guarding instinct underneath her anxiety.

She's really not that bad though. With about half of the complete strangers that come into our house, she might bark twice when she first sees them walking up to the house and doesn't give a crap once they come inside. The other half are intimidating and invoke a reaction that is similar to what I've described above. Out and about, I've seen her react to about two people in the seven years that we've had her.

 

[Raegan]

Not at all. I like my dogs completely oblivious to strangers, if possible. I do have one funny story about Marsh though.

I very very rarely have to go someplace over night without the dogs, but twice I did earlier this year. The first time I had a neighbor let Marsh out while I was gone, but I didn't have time to ask her the second time so I asked someone from work. I wrote her a whole long care sheet for "let him into the yard and give him a scoop of food when you leave." Seriously it was like three pages with two different emergency numbers.

That night she texted me "Marsh won't let me near his crate." So I called, and in the background I hear

BAROOROOROOROO GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, @#$% YOU, YOU'RE NOT MY MOM BAROOROOROOROOROO

the biggest, baddest, mean dog voice I have heard Marsh use, ever.

Apparently, it is really important to him that I introduce people into the home.

It's funny because it's so unlike Marsh, usually he is so indifferent and easy going. I really didn't expect something like that to happen at all, or else I would have brought her over before hand. But he was alright when I got back and I haven't had to leave him since.

 

[Moth]

Watson not so much... he can be a territorial little **** though towards other dogs.

Menchi is a guard dog in the truest sense.

She alerts to perceived danger/threats.

It starts with her going into guard stance...chest out, head up. This is followed by the Shar Pei snort of warning and alert. If she decides there is really a threat that turns into a low rumbling growl that comes up from the pits of hell. She will also step between me and a perceived threat at that point.

When folks come at the door there is alert barking... She will settle if we invited them in and then investigate and greet if we are at ease.

I think some of these things started to become apparent as early as 6-8 months of age with her.

 

[SaraB]

Does your dog have a guarding instinct?

No. My dogs are not real dogs and they invite strangers into our house.

The only thing they alert to is other dogs.

How does he/she act when somebody comes to the door of your house? Invited?
Uninvited?

My dogs don't even wake up 90% of the time when someone comes up the driveway. I might hear a couple excitement barks once the person is actually in our house, but otherwise nothing. If I wasn't home, they would all open the door and invite a robber in. Probably bake him cookies too.

And for my own curiosities sake, when did your dog's guarding instinct develop?

Never. They are fake dogs.

 

[Slick]

Not at all. I like my dogs completely oblivious to strangers, if possible. I do have one funny story about Marsh though.

I very very rarely have to go someplace over night without the dogs, but twice I did earlier this year. The first time I had a neighbor let Marsh out while I was gone, but I didn't have time to ask her the second time so I asked someone from work. I wrote her a whole long care sheet for "let him into the yard and give him a scoop of food when you leave." Seriously it was like three pages with two different emergency numbers.

That night she texted me "Marsh won't let me near his crate." So I called, and in the background I hear

BAROOROOROOROO GET OUT OF MY HOUSE, @#$% YOU, YOU'RE NOT MY MOM BAROOROOROOROOROO

the biggest, baddest, mean dog voice I have heard Marsh use, ever.

Apparently, it is really important to him that I introduce people into the home.

It's funny because it's so unlike Marsh, usually he is so indifferent and easy going. I really didn't expect something like that to happen at all, or else I would have brought her over before hand. But he was alright when I got back and I haven't had to leave him since.

Thanks for the laugh on a really long day of work. I can just picture this perfectly

 

[Tortilla]

Does your dog have a guarding instinct?
Nope, not at all. Seamus will alert bark if he sees a person or animal walking outside the house, but that's about it. Heck, I was robbed at gunpoint while walking him, and he just stood there quietly. He can get slightly guardy around food with other dogs, though.

Paris doesn't alert bark or guard at all.

How does he/she act when somebody comes to the door of your house? Invited? Uninvited?
Seamus barks at the noise of the doorbell more than the actual person. As soon as the person comes in, he stops barking and ignores them. Paris excitedly runs to the door with her tail wagging as soon as she hears the bell ring.

 

[Finkie_Mom]

Does your dog have a guarding instinct?

Kimma and Bubbles make a LOT of noise when someone, say, comes to the door. Bubbles is all excitement/alert. Kimma, I'm not so sure sometimes. She's never attempted to bite anyone, but there have been a couple of occasions when we've been out walking when she's stood between me and a stranger (both times only after the stranger has said something to me and began approaching) and let out a low growl. It caught me by surprise for sure, but I'm totally OK with that behavior, TBH, since she stopped as soon as I said, "OK thanks."

Jari's got nothing

How does he/she act when somebody comes to the door of your house? Invited?

They freak out barking LOL. Except Jari, who will stand at the baby gate near my door and stare, sometimes howling with joy. If it is someone they know, they will stop barking/making noise quickly, but if it's a stranger, they will keep it up for a minute or so longer. Once they are quiet and sitting I let them in to say hello.

Uninvited?

Not sure! I've had people come to let them out at times (in-laws and friends) and they've never had an issue. But I've never had someone unknown come in uninvited.

And for my own curiosities sake, when did your dog's guarding instinct develop?

Kimma was reactive as a puppy/adolescent, then nothing, then maybe when she was around 2.5 was the first time I saw her "stand between me and a stranger" thing.

 

[pinkspore]

The upshot to owning a vicious bitey dog is that he makes a nice security system. I routinely leave him in the car with the engine running and the air conditioning on because nobody is dumb enough to get into a vehicle with that.

 

[crazedACD]

Hahaha no.

Sometimes there is mild alert barking/woofing if the neighbors have friends over walking around. They don't alert to the neighbors in their normal day to day activities. None of them will ever bark/react to people out and about.

I will say though my four...they all pick up when a situation is weird. Person rustling in the trees at night? A person walking funny, in big clothes, or just standing around and being weird...the dogs are not sure what's going on. When Skye especially is concerned, I am very concerned.

Romeo and Fiona are extremely people friendly. Zoie is happily friendly. Skye is reserved around new people but will climb in your lap after a few minutes.

They do bark when someone knocks on the door but you could come straight in and have no problems.

 

[MilliesMom]

Does your dog have a guarding instinct?

Not really, they're pretty much all bark. I think it's a competition to see which one will bark the loudest thus getting noticed first. Because, you know, that person at the door just MAY have a pocket full of treats.

How does he/she act when somebody comes to the door of your house? Invited?

We have the front foyer gated because the dogs tend to rush it when we come in or somebody knocks. They sound vicious, like slavering Hounds of Hades and would probably give a burglar pause. Until Jesse opens his mouth. I swear, he yodels. Not a deep, manly sort of sound either. More like something that would come of the vocal pipes of Heidi with a bronchial infection. We ring the doorbell and knock when we come home just to get him to do it. When people are actually in the house Jesse will go hide because he's not really a people person. Holly gets so excited she'll stand in the middle of the room and wail. Then she'll get totally overwhelmed and run upstairs to her couch. She comes back down when she's calm again. Rig will stand there and bark at people until they come through the gate to greet him properly (much pets and ear scritches). But he does look totally intimidating when he's barking.

Uninvited?

All uninvited people are pizza delivery guys, so if we ever get broken into they'd be safe if they brought along a Domino's Pizza box. They'd show them where I keep my jewelry if there was actual pizza in it they were willing to share.