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what breed qualifies as a good guard dog ?

41K views 222 replies 128 participants last post by  frankiestoys 
#1 ·
Everyone knows dogs are among the best criminal deterrents one can get. In hard/bad times, I'm curious what breed you guys believe would serve a guard dog role best?

I am thinking real hard about a fila brasileiro for this task. Yes they are big, and they will eat a little more, but from my experience really no more than a high energy dog like a shepherd. A good buddy has a great dane/mastif mix, over 200 lbs and he eats less than some labs I've seen. This is also true of another friends Fila. The Fila/mastifs are very hearty/strong dogs that I believe would far well in rough times, plus they will not out of boredom chew up everything under the sun. They are quite happy just laying around until the time comes to bite an arm off. They are great around & guarding other animals as well.

What say you guys?
 
#2 ·
You're gonna need more info! What is the dog guarding? You, home, livestock, buildings, etc? I am not familiar with that specific breed, so can't comment on it's ability, but would think the gene pool in this country is very minimal (not a good thing).
Do you have experience with guard dog breeds?
What type of climate will the dog be used?
Lot's of questions, but they all need to be answered in my opeinion. Good luck.
 
#3 ·
Any dog can be a good guard dog. Depends more on training than breed. The best dogs I've ever had have been mutts. They are smart, loyal, and plenty scary enough to make anyone think twice. If I were looking for a dog right now I'd get one with some German Shepherd mixed with maybe Black Lab or similar. It would be a damned good dog!!
 
#102 · (Edited)
I would have to agree with this. I've been training hunting dogs for awhile. Breed isn't nearly as important as training. One of the best dogs I've ever owned was a German Shepherd/Weimaraner. She was used as a guard dog. Mixes aren't expensive and can generally be trained to do just about anything you want. You want to buy the dog as a puppy (less than 3 months old) and start training as soon as you can. Things like taking the pup on walks around your perimeter to establish their territory and encouraging barking alerts when someone comes on your property.

My experience with Labs is they're excellent family dogs and mixed with something like a GS or Rot they would excel at protecting your family. My inclination would be a dog with German Shepard, Doberman or Rottweiler in the mix. They're easy to find in the shelters as puppies. I've never owned a Lab but I've hunted with plenty of them. As a breed they're pretty mellow and generally too friendly to make good guard dogs.

You have to be smarter than your dog to train them however and know when they start training you. I see it all the time with my Griff.
 
#5 ·
I am thinking real hard about a fila brasileiro for this task.

What say you guys?
I think it's not a common breed and chances of you finding one may be difficult, and most likely a pricey breed if you can find one. However, if you have access to a breeder, it would probably be just fine. A rare breed would probably be significantly more expensive than a more common breed that would be similarly effective at the task.

I think a defense/attack type dog really needs a skilled owner, or at least professional training. For the typical smash and grab criminal, any dog that makes a noise is probably adequate.
 
#8 ·
+1 on the Yorkies.

When all of the smaller kids in the neighborhood started to turn up missing. I knew that I needed to start keeping a better eye on mine though. Bloodthirsty little things.
 

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#14 ·
My heeler is a big softie until somebody puts their hands on me, then he leaps into action. It is a pain in the butt, because that person more likely than not is my wife being nice to me. Or my mother giving me a hug, and she is in her 80s.

I'd rather a dog that didn't guard, and if he did guard, I'd rather it just be barking. I don't need a lawsuit because one of my dogs got jealous.

The real issue is that most of the true guard dogs are livestock guardians, and they are really good at it, but they are kind of lame dogs to live with the other 99.99% of the time. The dogs people think of as good guard dogs are either herding breeds, like Shepherds and Mals, but they actually tend to work best in prey drive, and are more suited for chase and apprehension, along with short periods of guarding, but the guarding is very stressful for them as compared to the prey work. Think a dog chasing a ball versus a dog guarding its bone.

Most other "guard dogs" are just dogs with bad temperaments and little socialization who are scared of everything they see and bite stuff because of it. Think ghetto pit bulls and most molosser breeds.
 
#12 ·
Any yapper will be a good alert system when you are home. Neighbors house was broken into last year. I checked my security cameras and saw them go to house #1, knock and leave when their lab started barking. Thieves then went house #2 with no dog, knocked and then went around and kicked in the back door. Made a mess but didn't take much. Police were given video showing faces and tag # but because it was a low theft amount, the break in was never investigated or followed up. GRRRR
 
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#18 ·
I've had Rotts, an ACD, an English mastif, a Carolina Dog, and mutts...
One of the Rotts was specifically trained as a protective working dog- he was a living machine controlled by voice... but it took work to maintain him as such, and I wouldn't necessarily "trust" him to make his own decisions.

The ACD was incredibly intelligent and eager to please, shoe him something once and he had it. He was an intuitive learner, and viciously protective of "his" property and people... more of a "partnership" than an owner-master dynamic.

The mastif was also an intuitive protector, lazy until one crossed a line on the property, then intimidating protective- most people fear 200 pound dogs... being bred NOT to bite except as a last resort is good for a low energy, low maintenance dog. The downside: giant dogs are usually short-lived, their joints don't age well. Their "working" life is maybe 6 years... they are exponentially more expensive to feed and vet than an "average" size dog. They drool, excessively. They become very attatched to people, and must be near them, often in physical contact. They can't be soley outdoor dogs, so you have a 200+ pound animal, in the house, who can and will- regardless of training- put his basketball sized slobbery head on your table at dinner, and get up on your sofa... in a SHTF world, such a dog would need 4-6 pounds (2-3% of body weight) of meat, organ, and bone each and every day... thats enough to feed several people...

The CD is a stray that wandered out of the swamp a few years ago at about 4 weeks old... as a feral land-race dog, it took her several months to adjust to people. Once she did, she bonded very well. Very smart, on par with the ACD... easy to train, very diciplined, alert, agile, seems to know what I want or expect. 45ish pounds, easy to keep. Distrustful and hostile to strangers, until shes told its OK- then she ignores them. She will kill and eat anything smaller than herself that she can catch; she can fend for herself if need be.

Lots of options, lots of choices... the single big takeaway is that a "protective" dog is a 10+ year investment in time and money to produce and maintain... such working dogs need to WORK regularly, or they decay.
 
#21 ·
Sorry, but this is BS. I have worked with, trained and competed with dogs my entire life. Most good family dogs are way too scared to take on a threat, and most of the ones who would are not under any sort of responsible control.

The fact that they won't is a good thing, because dogs generally aren't all that good at assessing what is threatening and what isn't. They only understand what is scary to them and what isn't.
 
#31 ·
We always laugh that the one job a heeler is really cut out for is to guard tools in the back of a truck. You can teach them never to leave a truck bed, and nothing guards a car like a heeler.

All kidding aside, they are really good, smart, tough dogs, and they are just about the cutest puppies on the face of the earth. One of the great companion breeds for an active owner who really wants to engage with their animal. A disaster for a family with kids and no experience with stubborn, tough dogs.

I think I have a natural bias against them because I use dogs to move livestock and heelers aren't good herding dogs. Mine is the go to animal if I need to get semen from a bull, but other than that, he gets no livestock work. He gets a lot of tennis ball.
 
#32 · (Edited)
Guard dog vs Watch dog needs to be differentiated I think.
To me, a good guard dog is trained to attack on command vs letting you know someone or something is on your property.
My border collie does his job, keeps geese and other animals off the property, and let's me know if anyone comes up the driveway or is outside. I don't really consider him a guard dog but he does give strangers a more aggressive type of hello.
 
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