Labrador Male Or Female

[lab_staff]

ok so really what sex gets on better desexed females with females or none desexed ones or desexed males together or none or both ive always had desexed female entire male and they where fine ?

[labsrule]

Based on my experience, I would recommend a dominant black male labrador would probably be your best bet in terms of scaring potential intruders as big black dominant labs can be very scary, they have deep barks, they are large and can be pretty intimidating and in my experience I have found they are normally pretty protective/terrritorial of your property and their family and will always alert their family to anyone on their property.

Everyone laughs about Labrador's guarding/protection ability, but not me as some of my Labs have proved themselves very capable in this area.

My black lab boy (Fitzy) who I lost last year to cancer was a supremely confident fairly dominant dog who was extremely protective of me and he proved it on more than one occasion, including bailing up two police officers who came onto my property in response to my panic alarm which I inadvertently set off. He bailed them up halfway up my drive and I could hear all this shouting and my boy barking madly and I flew out my door and looked down the drive and here was my boy going nuts at these two coppers he had bailed up and they were screaming at me to get my dog under control, which I did very quickly and I got a real telling off from them Here they were coming to help me and my boy bailed them up, not good, but he perceived them as a threat as they came running thru the gate and started running up the drive, how was he to know they were coming to assist stupid me who stupidly inadvertently set the panic alarm off

Another time I had a landscaper come around to give me a quote and after a chat and him patting and playing with my boy he said he had to go out to his ute to get some paperwork, so I went back inside and my boy sat at the top of my driveway (his favourite position where he could see everything) and next minute he is going off and I hear the guy yelling out to me at the gate. My boy had bailed him up when he tried to come back inside the gate and couldn't believe it as during our chat a few minutes earlier I told him he was a very good guard dog and very protective of me and my property and he was joking around and saying yeah sure love, he will probably lick the burglars to death and he got such a shock at the change in my boy when he tried to come in the gate when I was inside. If I was outside with my boy and I was able to see who was coming in the gate it was never a problem as my boy "knew" they were allowed in the gate. If however, I was inside or outside but out of view of the gate, then my boy did his job very effectively :D

I went on a 6month travelling holiday up to the gold coast and sunshine coast with this same boy and he stopped an intruder breaking into a holiday rental property I was renting as I was sound asleep and next minute, he let out this almighty very deep, ferocious sounding bark which I hadn't heard before and he scared the daylights out of me and I jumped out of bed and I could hear footsteps just outside the french doors on the verandah of the bedroom we were in and he jumped in front of me and kept on barking then sat right in front of me almost on my feet in with hackles up and in a protective stance and next minute I hear footsteps running down the outside stairs He wanted to go outside so I let him out and he raced down the stairs and around the property and I heard the gate slam shut and I called him and he came and lay down across the top of the outside stairs which was the only access up to verandah all around the house and he remained there for hours.

My current top dog of my pack, Tournie who is my middle black lab boy who is 12.5yrs old and is very dominant. He like Fitzy, ALWAYS alerts me whenever someone is on my property and he also has a very deep scary bark and has scared many people that come to my front door :D He also doesn't seem to like adult males particularly, getting too close to me when we are on walks, so I either move off out of their way or make sure I have a strong hold of him if I have to walk past any adult male(s) as his hackles go up and he starts sneering and moving towards them in a bit of menacing way. At home, any noise he perceives as a threat he barks at and when I let him out he rushes around and patrols my property with my youngster in tow If he is the car and I am parked anywhere and someone comes close to my car, he goes off and one day I ducked down to Petbarn to pick something up and was only inside for a few mins and I had left him in the car and left the windows down about a quarter of the way, it was a fairly cold day but I always have the rear windows open if any of the dogs are in the car. Anyway I had just paid for what I bought and I heard my boy going off as my car was just out the front and I go out and here is this couple at the rear of my car looking pretty worried and I asked what they were doing and they said they saw my boy sitting up in the car and they thought they would put their hand thru the window and pat him because they also have a Labrador so imagine their surprise when my boy reacted the way he did :D They were actually lucky he didn't bite them, gave them a fright more than anything as he lunged towards the open window when the hand came in and he was growling and barking and carrying on. They actually apologised to me for upsetting him and couldn't believe how protective he was of the car. When Fitzy was alive, these two boys worked very well together in the protective stakes and would bark in unison and each would be out patrolling different sides of the property and sometimes Tournie would rush out and Fitzy would rush over to me and sit directly in front of me like he did on the night of scaring the intruder away.

When my black lab girl, Cassie was alive she was also extremely good in alerting us if anyone was on our property and she chased a guy off our property one night. On another occasion I had been out with some friends and came home at some ungodly hour in the morning and I was sound alseep and she started barking and was pacing up and down in front of the lounge window and sticking her head between the vertical drapes as I could hear her and I thought it may have been a cat as quite often the neighbours cat would come on to our property. Anyway because I got home late I was too buggered to get up and check what she was barking at, much to my regret :D because my car was stolen overnight as I had parked it out on the street. Obviously she heard it being broken into and alerted me and stupid me didn't check it out. Hard lesson learned that night and ever since I have always got up and checked whenever any of my labs have barked at night. Luckily I got my car back a couple of days later, had been used as a joyride.

My current oldest boy is no guard dog, never has been He has always been quite content to keep on sleeping or not even bother to lift his head to check what is happening when the guard boys have been barking Anyway he is now close to 15 yrs old (in March) and has also lost a lot of his hearing, but he is a pretty soft gentle boy, so not in his nature. My youngest boy (14 months), I am unsure of how he will go as he doesn't have a dominant bone in his body and whilst he has a very loud bark, he doesn't actually bark when people come onto the property, but he is always up and running with Tournie the moment Tournie starts barking and he rushes out and around with Tournie. Will be interesting to see what happens with Tana when I lose Tournie as living by myself I have always felt extremely safe and protected with Fitzy and now Tournie as I firmly believe that both of these boys would have taken/would take on any person trying to physically harm me.

[aussielover]

My black lab Mindy has just started barking when people enter our property. Also in the middle of the night if she hears noise outside.

I think it is more out of fear rather than true protective instincts though, but its still really scary!

We don't discourage her from barking when people enter the property as it is quite useful.

[Jaxx'sBuddy]

the mix of a pack depends on lots of things not the least the humans role and the temperaments of the other dog/s

[tdierikx]

The sookiest lala dog I've ever had was a huge intact male Rotti... totally useless as a guard dog - or even obedience training for that matter... the big sook!

The scariest thing I've seen with my own dogs is my female gold Lab tearing into the front legs of my Rotti/Pittie cross girl... I have no doubt that my Lab girl could inflict some serious damage on anyone that tried to come into my house uninvited. The Rotti/Pittie cross girl is the doorbell, and gives a very effective display when strangers come to the door, but as soon as I let anyone in, she's just a cuddle trollope...

My girls have also decided they don't want to play nice together any more, and keeping them separated can be a huge PITA... but they are both my babies, so I do it...

Next time I get a new dog, it will be a male...

T.

DA does not equal HA.

Just because she attacks your other dog, doesn't mean she will be likely to attack a person.

Any large dog can potentially do serious damage to an uninvited guest, they question is whether they actually would attack or not.

My Lab girl is definitely not HA... but I have no doubts as to her willingness to protect me if necessary...

The Rotti/Pittie girl, however, is the one that makes the most noise when strangers land on my doorstep - but she's less likely to actually bite an uninvited "guest" than the Lab...

Both are perfectly fine with other dogs and humans they are introduced to - and they behave well in public places. They just don't cohabit the same house very well any more. Their DA tendencies are only towards each other.

Both are desexed.

I've had 2 and more female dogs running perfectly well together in the past - it's just these two who have developed issues with each other... *sigh*

T.

[lab_staff]

Labsrule your pack are gorgeous im glad someone has given some proper input on labradors i know with my girl i might say she won`t hurt anyone but i don`t really know she is very protective of me and the house and have had 2 times when she has been in the car and a person walking passed has said what a nice looking lab and she has gone off she is really funny she picks people there has been a few times when ive been walking her with my girls to there school and there is a single dad who is really nice he put his hand out the other day to pat her and she went off and he has never done anything to her this has happend a few times but with different ppl it`s like she is a good judge of charactor she doesn`t launch to bite or anything just barks and warns them. she si my first lab i have owned and i love her to bits and as you can see am getting another one i have a choice of black or chocolate pups, ive just rehomed a really nice 2yr black lab male he was beautiful i rescued him from the pound and was going to keep him but a friend of mine who has a disable son asked me could she adopted him since he took to her son really well nice nature couldn`t find anything wrong with him all he wanted is some love and a permanent home and now he has it, i have at the moment a 9 week old black lab x another rescue from the pound so cute but am looking for a good home for him before i get my new lab pup who isn`t born yet but won`t be long.

aussielover - thats how my girl started and i don`t discourage her from barking either when people enter the property as i want her to let me know when someone is around

Jaxx`sbuddy - very true i agree with what you have said but even if you have both good temperaments things still can go wrong

Edited December 2, 2010 by lab_staff

[Jaxx'sBuddy]

......

Jaxx`sbuddy - very true i agree with what you have said but even if you have both good temperaments things still can go wrong

yes but you give yourself the best chance of it going right if you set clear boundaries and you understand the pack and choose a dog that will fit in well.

[Nekhbet]

I think the OP is meaning she wants an alert dog that barks when someone's around

get a more dominant male lab and leave it entire as long as you can.

[Niques]

I have an entire male labrador who will only bark at lizards. Unless your ears can somehow detect enthusiastic bum wiggling he'd be a piss poor guard dog. Actually, I lie. He will (very rarely) bark in frustration if the newcomer doesn't come close enough for him to jump on/lick/run into.

That said, he's only just coming up to one year old so he could develop a protective streak yet. I very much doubt it, but he could. Nonetheless, as a boofy, very confident black dog, he's probably a reasonable visual deterrant. You know, when he stops looking like a cuddly, over-enthusiastic puppy

[55chevy]

This is a "bugbear' of mine as I believe most pet dogs can only be asked to be watch dogs.

That is they alert you to something different.

Some might step up and actually do some protecting but unless you have a professionally trained guard dog you just can't expect too much.

Having said that male dogs can have a deeper bark than females so that can be a deterrent.

But if you already have a female dog I believe that dogs of opposites sexes "usually" get on better together so I would get a male.

Good reply Scarlet I agree.

Not too many offenders would be overly scared of a typical yellow Lab especially a smallish female, but a black male Lab bit bigger than a female, black being a little more intimidating with a good bark I think is a nice watch dog that provides a potential offender with some uncertainty.

[Paulp]

My two labs are retricted to the rear yard and have little line of sight on the front yard but are quite responsive to any activity around the front of the house if they don't recognise the noises they hear. My small yellow female lab is usually the first responder and she will get my big black male to come and lend his voice if he is not already there. I don't know how they would respond if an unknown person entered the yard without me but when I'm present the whole guard dog thing falls apart and they are liable to be licked to death. Interestingly they will often bark at a strange person seen in the house through the door even if we are there.