Hopeless Guard Dogs

[huski]

Friendly to people it knows but goes off at strangers? Hmmm. Sounds like text book fear aggression

I wouldn't call it that, the dogs territorial and guarding instincts are through the roof and I think the owners are merely living in controlled chaos ;) I'd call it lucky the owners got away with it this long without a council visit. It would be worth your husbands friend going and getting some proper training for this dog so it can learn to switch off and relax a little without feeling the need to guard all the time :) if you need a good trainer just PM me.

I didn't say it was FA, I just said it sounds like it could be. Unless you've met and assessed the dog you wouldn't have any way of saying for sure that it was territorial either.

[Guest donatella]

Mine is a useless guard dog in terms of protection but she'll bark the house down if anyone comes to the door.

[magic6]

Friendly to people it knows but goes off at strangers? Hmmm. Sounds like text book fear aggression

I wouldn't call it that, the dogs territorial and guarding instincts are through the roof and I think the owners are merely living in controlled chaos ;) I'd call it lucky the owners got away with it this long without a council visit. It would be worth your husbands friend going and getting some proper training for this dog so it can learn to switch off and relax a little without feeling the need to guard all the time :) if you need a good trainer just PM me.

I didn't say it was FA, I just said it sounds like it could be. Unless you've met and assessed the dog you wouldn't have any way of saying for sure that it was territorial either.

My husband said the dog is from "Security" bloodlines, Security being the name of the lines and cost him a lot of money for the pup, he is of working lines apparantly, he is not backyard bred and came from a breeder of protection type GSD's? he said the dog isn't pshyco aggressive at all, but he is territorial aggressive in the home, car and at the factory yard at night. The reason they don't let him mingle with guests and walk him muzzled is a precaution I think is the responsible thing to do with a dog that can display stranger aggression and bite?

[Nekhbet]

I didn't say it was FA, I just said it sounds like it could be. Unless you've met and assessed the dog you wouldn't have any way of saying for sure that it was territorial either.

Ever seen a fear aggressive animal tear down a yard, all alone, in the dark, and actively engage someone? Forward, confident and deliberate movement unrestrained goes against the core of what fear is about. Now if the dog was restrained we'd be in 50/50 territory :laugh:-

[german_shep_fan]

A work collegue of my husband's has a GSD who bit someone badly who came over the fence in their factory yard on nightshift one night, he wasn't trained but he was very stranger aggressive. My husband knew the dog well and he was ok with him, but he said sometimes the dog would stare at him and he felt a bit uncomfortable. When my husband and the dog's owner did nights at the rear factory, he would bring his dog to work and the dog had access to the whole yard, (the front gates were locked), but anyway the dog got this guy at 3am and the police arrived and arrested the offender.

This dog was the type the owner had to lock away if they had people over, I remember a party we went to at his place and the dog was locked in the garage and would be pounding at the door and barking furiously if anyone went near the garage. The owner always said the dog will protect and he did the night the guy jumped the fence at work and the owner had to pull the dog off the guy whilst my husband rang the police?

You do get some dogs with a natural ability for the job - but I would say taking an untrained dog with you on night shift is a little stupid too. Untrained doesnt necessarily mean wont work under pressure, but they're lucky that dog didnt turn around and bite them or severely maul the intruder. There is a massive element of risk in an untested dog and especially an aggressive one.

I meant dogs in general, unless you have had them professionally trained there will be no guarantee that the dog will actually do what many people have this romantic notion of them going. Most modern breeds and lines have little protection in them, they will bark but that is an alert dog. More 'OMG WAKE UP! Go deal with that for me will you' type animal :laugh:

This dog is fine with the owners and people the dog knew well, but what I meant was he is an aggressive dog towards strangers period, like you know the dog is aggressive, he's not a placid friendly dog that you may hope will protect if need be and is otherwise docile, he is full on aggressive all the time, I have seen him in the owners car going ape at the window at a stranger, I know they walk him wearing a muzzle just in case?.

He's black with tan legs and came from working lines, he's not the average GSD to look at, perhaps his pedigree is more protection orientated I was thinking over a family pet type?

He sounds like a bi-colour GSD :) And yep working lines are VERY different from from the show lines, but you do hear of working being good family pets :)

[LizT]

Bear in mind I'm half a centuary old. :laugh:

When I was a kid we had a Kelpie and if my dad was going off at me and I looked under threat of a belting (it happened)the Kelpie would stand between me and Dad and growl, so Dad would have to "Shut Down' his ranting and raving immediately so the dog would settle. Saved me from many a sore backside. ;)

[Mags]

Bear in mind I'm half a centuary old. :laugh:

When I was a kid we had a Kelpie and if my dad was going off at me and I looked under threat of a belting (it happened)the Kelpie would stand between me and Dad and growl, so Dad would have to "Shut Down' his ranting and raving immediately so the dog would settle. Saved me from many a sore backside. ;)

What a great dog. Your Dad was pretty cool too as way back when not many men would put up with being growled at by their own dog.

[german_shep_fan]

Bear in mind I'm half a centuary old. :laugh:

When I was a kid we had a Kelpie and if my dad was going off at me and I looked under threat of a belting (it happened)the Kelpie would stand between me and Dad and growl, so Dad would have to "Shut Down' his ranting and raving immediately so the dog would settle. Saved me from many a sore backside. ;)

What a great dog. Your Dad was pretty cool too as way back when not many men would put up with being growled at by their own dog.

I would never tolerate my dogs growling at me either and i'm 26 haha Mind you they never have and i would never give them reason to :)

But yes well done Kelpie :D

[Teebs]

Bear in mind I'm half a centuary old. :laugh:

When I was a kid we had a Kelpie and if my dad was going off at me and I looked under threat of a belting (it happened)the Kelpie would stand between me and Dad and growl, so Dad would have to "Shut Down' his ranting and raving immediately so the dog would settle. Saved me from many a sore backside. ;)

My cattle dog was the same, if i was naughty i would run out with him and tell dad to come get me. dad would just sit down inside and smile.. and tell me i have to come inside to eat sooner or later

My dad put up with it because the dog was a great dog and he knew it would protect us kids, we took him everywhere with us and the only time he ever tried to protect us was when we needed it. He was fine with mum and dad as well as long as they were not trying to smack us :laugh:

[dogbesotted]

We used to have a Dobe (Dylan) years ago that would let anyone in the yard...

But you try and get out - no way, no how... He would protect the gate and you could not get out of the yard.

Dylan reminds me of our first dog ,Brian Custard O'Doggle, he was delightful. but heaven help you if you approached the stairs. You could go up but never down. many a time we needed to 'rescue' the milk delivery man in the wee small hours of the morning as he would forget to leave the milk on the bottom stairs. BCO'D would lurk under the stairs..

mind you he would also collect bread delivered around the neighbourhood as well.. that was back in the day when dogs were dogs and owned the neighbourhood LOL

helen

[LizT]

Bear in mind I'm half a centuary old. :laugh:

When I was a kid we had a Kelpie and if my dad was going off at me and I looked under threat of a belting (it happened)the Kelpie would stand between me and Dad and growl, so Dad would have to "Shut Down' his ranting and raving immediately so the dog would settle. Saved me from many a sore backside. ;)

What a great dog. Your Dad was pretty cool too as way back when not many men would put up with being growled at by their own dog.

Nah, Dad knew it was my dog and not his. :laugh: We used to get bread delivered and the Baker Boy was a 'target' of this dog. Poor kid, always asked me "where my dog was" before he left the bread with me. Wasn't allowed too close to me.

[huski]

My husband said the dog is from "Security" bloodlines, Security being the name of the lines and cost him a lot of money for the pup, he is of working lines apparantly, he is not backyard bred and came from a breeder of protection type GSD's? he said the dog isn't pshyco aggressive at all, but he is territorial aggressive in the home, car and at the factory yard at night. The reason they don't let him mingle with guests and walk him muzzled is a precaution I think is the responsible thing to do with a dog that can display stranger aggression and bite?

You said earlier that all guests in their house have to do is walk past the dog and it goes off. It doesn't actually surprise me to hear that you think that kind of uncontrollable aggression is desirable.

I didn't say it was FA, I just said it sounds like it could be. Unless you've met and assessed the dog you wouldn't have any way of saying for sure that it was territorial either.

Ever seen a fear aggressive animal tear down a yard, all alone, in the dark, and actively engage someone? Forward, confident and deliberate movement unrestrained goes against the core of what fear is about. Now if the dog was restrained we'd be in 50/50 territory :laugh:-

You haven't seen the dog aggress so you don't know that's what it looked like or even what happened, we only have Magic6's word to go by and that is hardly reliable :laugh:

A dog that tries to maul every strange person it sees hardly strikes me as a confident dog, but that's JMO. Even my FA dog would run across a park unrestrained to attack another dog, the scariest dog FA dog I've seen would have mauled a person unrestrained if given the option too.

Edited January 21, 2012 by huski

[whiskedaway]

I know that Akira would wake us up if someone came into our house, but she'd have to be already awake because she's a massive sloth! LOL. Any stranger that comes to our house is barked at normally due to her fear of strangers, and if Akira starts barking and growling, Halo normally joins in. Halo would go and try to get cuddles though rather than look frightening.

[Nic.B]

What a terrible night, glad you are all ok. I can understand it would be very stressful though.

Mags, that is shocking I am sorry for your loss.

I know for sure that ours would let us know if someone was in the yard or inside and perhaps put them off. They are very friendly dogs though I suspect if someone was threatening us or the kids our kelpie Bella would have a crack. She is gorgeous, though can be protective and is an excellent judge of character.

Fern our Bull Arab would bark though would probably just run around playing and showing off like a big goon :)

Our Jug head, our cattle/staffy would bark though then probably just take her ball or toys to them.

Billy our foxie would be really upset, and bark.

I must say, I feel very safe with four dogs sleeping inside with us :) They are crated inside if i am out, I would hate for anyone to come in and hurt them as they can never be replaced.

Sad thing is, if they are crated inside, then I worry about a fire If I left them out I would worry about snakes and people coming in and leaving the gate open....

[GSD's 4EVER]

My dogs go "off" the instant anyone is at my front gate & are about to come on the property. I have video surveillance, so I can check who's on my property at any time. If people then open the front gate, proceed up the steps & come to my front door, this is what greets them quickly, silently & without warning at the side gate, which is right next to the front door. Scares the shit out of people. I reviewed the footage after I actually talked to someone who had left the property & they were already outside again on the pavement by the time I opened the front door to check who was there. Spirit made a Scientology lady (who was hawking for business on a Saturday morning) actually "fly" down the 8 steps from the paving to the front gate. The lady's feet never touched the ground from the paving to the front gate. Funniest thing I've seen in a while ....

[Nekhbet]

A dog that tries to maul every strange person it sees hardly strikes me as a confident dog, but that's JMO

There's a difference between a dog causing a god awful ruckus and 'looking' like it's going to then there's the ones who do. Not saying a FA dog wont give a few bites, it's still a dog. I've been training a few dogs in the past year that really pushed, despite how frightening their initial action is, wont follow through to the point of a take down.

[huski]

A dog that tries to maul every strange person it sees hardly strikes me as a confident dog, but that's JMO

There's a difference between a dog causing a god awful ruckus and 'looking' like it's going to then there's the ones who do. Not saying a FA dog wont give a few bites, it's still a dog. I've been training a few dogs in the past year that really pushed, despite how frightening their initial action is, wont follow through to the point of a take down.

I do think regardless of the reason the dog is exhibiting the aggression, a dog that will actually go that point of mauling someone is not very common at all.

[dee lee]

Bear in mind I'm half a centuary old. :laugh:

When I was a kid we had a Kelpie and if my dad was going off at me and I looked under threat of a belting (it happened)the Kelpie would stand between me and Dad and growl, so Dad would have to "Shut Down' his ranting and raving immediately so the dog would settle. Saved me from many a sore backside. ;)

Awwww. When I was little, my grandparents' GR would do the same thing. Sweet as pie, but my protector.

Old Caesar was one of the reasons I got a GR. He was awesome, saved me from many a spanking! :D

Honey is a great alert dog, she goes nuts if anyone approaches our house when we aren't home & often when we are home.

I have learnt not to ignore her barking during the night, she has woken me twice when our bogan neighbour's house was surrounded by police.

She's a good girl, but barking is all she would do, she's a chicken. :laugh:

She's one of those- "come help me" type of dogs, though she has a very convincing bark if you can't see her.

[Roguedog]

One dog of mine I know will (she is a fully trained dog) but the other would just lead you to all the good stuff in exchange for a pat! she doesnt even bark at people arriving at the front gate!!!

[Blackdogs]

Thank goodness you and the dogs slept through it all - last thing you want is to find an intruder in your yard or worse house bad enough to find police officers and a police dog there.

We have had someone try and break in and our dogs, both ACDs, stopped them but we ended up losing both of our dogs due to the injuries they received. I would rather lose stuff and still have our dogs. What would our current dogs do - don't really know. Bert (pap x) is vocal if he perceives a threat to his territory and Katie (grey) will back him up with a loud defensive bark if she thinks its serious. They only bark rarely and for good reason so we always check. Katie has swung herself around to put herself between me and a preceived threat, she also gave a huge defensive bark, when we were out walking which scared the heck out of me as it was the first time I had heard her bark like this.

Our ACDs weren't vocal and perhaps that was the problem they let someone into the yard because they just sat and watched whereas the dogs we have now would bark which would hopefully keep people out of the yard.

Oh that is terrible. Were the intruders armed?