Protective But Not Aggressive Breeds

[mumof3]

So I haven't gone and read all 27 or so pages of this thread, but wanted to jump in with my personal experience.

I'll back the individual temperament being more important than breed, having been protected by a GR and by a cattle dog in two seperate incidents. But also, the circumstances of the dogs early life...

I've had a few dogs over the years, mostly adopted from the pound and occasionally wrangled from an abusive owner. I'd say that the best protective dogs I've had have all been dogs that were rescued by us from unpleasant circumstances. Dogs whose life was a misery until we got them. This happened with the GR I had when I was a child, and with a particular cattle dog bitch that my DH had when we first got together. There have been other dogs we have had over the years who have also come from sorry situations, and all of these animals had an excellent temperament, bonded with us extremely closely, were highly respectful of the pecking order in our pack (dog / human and cat family). I'd say they behaved in a way you might expect a wild dog to behave, being excellent with pups (including children) - tolerating the pain they inflict endlessly, looking to their leader for direction at all times, getting alot of pleasure from pleasing their leader, and playing their role in the pack. I'm sure circumstances could ruin a dog's temperament but in our experience, a bit of hardship earlier in the dogs life has seemed to result in animals who ticked alot of boxes. Please don't read into this that I think abusing a dog is a good way to get it to be a good dog! I'm just saying that previously abused dogs have been excellent pets, and quite protective - this has been my experience and I thought it was worth some discussion. Perhaps we just got extremely lucky.

I should add that we have lived in circumstances where it was very useful to have a dog who would protect us, and our property - like our ute. I've seen dogs protect children from a brown snake, had a dog stop my husbands mates from dragging him out of the rain when as a very drunk 20 year old he laid passed out on the lawn of a friends place (we were all young once right?), we even used one of our dogs once to find a 2 year old child lost at night on a cattle station (the kid had a bitch in heat with him and our male dog lead us in a beeline straight to him over about a kilometer in the scrub when the SES had been searching for about 8 hours and we had him in about 20 minutes)

[Zhou Xuanyao]

A job i'm on at the moment, lady owns one of the largest Rottweilers I have ever seen. His head is waist high on me, i'd say 80kg, that is probably conservative.

He is docile like a big bear when she is home, the perfect family pet. When they are not home though, they leave the house unlocked and the back door open. The dog has the run of the yard and the house, and his temperment is the opposite when his left alone to watch the house. Forget locks and alarms all that means is they gotta be quick that won't stop you getting robbed, this guy you better believe there will not be any burglaries at this address.

[tarope]

So I haven't gone and read all 27 or so pages of this thread, but wanted to jump in with my personal experience.

I'll back the individual temperament being more important than breed, having been protected by a GR and by a cattle dog in two seperate incidents. But also, the circumstances of the dogs early life...

I've had a few dogs over the years, mostly adopted from the pound and occasionally wrangled from an abusive owner. I'd say that the best protective dogs I've had have all been dogs that were rescued by us from unpleasant circumstances. Dogs whose life was a misery until we got them.

.

Good on you for adopting from the pound, great stuff. My Rottie was an ex-cruelty case and it took 6mths before she lost her fear, I've never see such a hand shy dog and was only 16mths old.

When she lost her fear, she too started to protect us something I never expected and yes they know they've been given a second chance. We've had her over 5yrs now and what a wonderful girl she is.

Edited April 10, 2010 by tarope

[Jed]

Not going to wade through 27 pages of posts.

To answer the OP question:

If you want personal security then get a can of mase and a whistle.

What is "mase"?????????

[Jed]

Tarope, "protective" and "aggressive" are not the same thing in dog language.