Would your untrained family dog protect you or your family from an intruder?

[Bear44]

Bear44 actually is a dog expert. Literally.

As far as the way my dog would act if someone aggressively came in the house, I only say that I'm confident in what he would do because I have seen it first hand and it caught me by surprise.

That is most likely territorial behavior. The real test would be to remove him from familiar ground and set up an "attack" against you while he is off leash. The reason for him to be off leash is to give him the option to retreat.

A dog that is territorial of the house, could very well be good home protection. I just think it's important to understand the behavior so you don't get unpleasantly surprised when you are counting on him.

I've seen it to many times. I even had a LEO retire his patrol dog when he saw that the dog was just mean and not actually interested in protecting the officer at all.

 

[Bear44]

My twin brother and I lived together for 5 or 6 years before we moved out with our fiancés, so my dog was very close with my brother. 2 years ago at my family thanksgiving my twin brother had a disagreement with my older brother that quickly turned into a fight. Before I could even get up to try and break the 2 up, my dog, Duke, was the first one there and he was all over my older brother. His loyalty was proven to me that night....

How much injury did your older brother take?

 

[Bear44]

My big boy has proven himself as well, knocking the neighbor off of his four wheeler and trying to tear his throat out when my wife was outside gardening by herself.

Trying to tear his throat out? What stopped him?

 

[BlackRifler42]

How much injury did your older brother take?

The dog was pulled back and taken in the other room.

 

[Flammenwerfer]

Trying to tear his throat out? What stopped him?

My wife literally throwing herself in the fray with a big stick and I suppose the enclosed track helmet the neighbor was wearing. The dog is very responsive to my wife's commands.....and the stick helped.

 

[th plumber]

Had my cousin over doing some wiring for two days. On the second day I wasn't there, but the wife was. after him being there two days he went into the house to ask my wife a question. Ankles attacked by the schnauzer and upper body tagged by the Dane!! He wont come over anymore unless I'm at home!

 

[GreenPanther]

What I have seen first hand as a difference between a trained dog that will "guard" your family and an untrained dog that will protect a family is... once the switch is flipped there is no off switch.

Where a well trained police dog or otherwise may quit on command. I have seen a dog act out of protection of their owner and would stop at nothing.

 

[MRH]

My French Mastiff (Turner and Hooch) is the sweetest thing in the world to us and a nightmare to strangers. She just doesn't like people she does not know. She is overly protective to the point where we must keep a good eye out for her to prevent someone from getting hurt. We have to lock her out when visitors come over. She is ready and willing to attack and she has not been trained to be that way. When she was a mere 4 months old she went after one of my friends and he will not come over anymore unless she is put up. She does not like men, women, or even children, with the exception of those of us she knows and loves.

 

[RdKill]

In my house? It's not the typical family pets one would have to be concerned over....

 

[Bear44]

Guys, the reality is that if a large dog is serious about causing damage to a human being, there is serious injury at the instant of contact. They don't mouth around a bit sounding vicious as they do when doing a correction to another pack member. That first contact is full force and is meant to cause maximum damage as quickly as possible.

BR42, pulling him off would have actually increased the damage being done, rather than preventing it. Your dog did a correction on your older brother because he did not like the fight or because he was backing up your other brother in what he thought was a correction by him. Either way, there was no serious intent to injure and his motivation was not protective.

Flammmenwerfer, it sounds like your dog's prey drive was triggered by the ATV. He probably was not very confident once he got the guy down or there would have been damage. Even with the helmet, as soon as he could not get a good bite there he would have changed the area under attack, IF his real intent was protective behavior.

Guys, you are actually UNDERESTIMATING your dogs. When a dog wants to screw someone up, it happens VERY fast. Your dogs were showing restraint because their motivation was not protective. When they are protective, the hit is no holds barred balls to the wall right away. I've taken thousands of bites like this and even wearing protective gear, it's IMPRESIVE and in most cases, painful.