I agree with you gsdmad, and as much as I would never, ever want my dogs harmed in any way by any would-be attacker, when push comes to shove, MY life is more important to me than theirs I'm afraid, so if it meant I'd end up dead rather than the dogs, I'm afraid I value my life a lot, and wouldn't want it to be ended but the dogs lived on, that's verging on the ridiculous imo! I think my husband would agree, that he'd rather have me here no matter who else got hurt in saving my life!

I would like to think mine would jump to my defence if I were attacked, but I cannot say with 100% certainty that they would. I think unless your dog is actually trained to protect then you don't know just how they would act.

It would be a worry tbh if anyone even tried to attack me with two GSDs and two large collies! They would be pretty crazy!

Lol. Not mine!

<remembering more than one barking at strangers from behind my legs>


I have lived with GSDs, Rotts and Dobes.

Only one, I feel, would have risen to the task and that was the one that was so crippled and infirm that any attacker had better bring a folding chair and a good book to read while she staggered over.

I'm quite happy with that. If I wanted a protection dog then I would train for it. I certainly wouldn't want my dog making its own decisions about when I needed protection.

I have trained protection dogs in the house and ones who are not, I feel the trained dogs are far less "risk" in as much as they wouldnt make the decision, where as the un trained ones we wouldnt really know unless they are in that sinario,.

I would love to think that my dogs would protect me if I was attacked or approached by an unsavoury character.

Esme was trained by my grandmother and we have a command that will make her bark ferociously, although not to bite, and in turn has proved useful, I have used the command whilst playing to make sure it still works, and she can go right off on one, and I'm sure that would scare off any kind of perpertrator. This playing in trn has given Lola the same idea, she has not been trained to use this coomnd by me, but has picked it up off Esme, so all in all, hopefully a good old ferocious barking session is a darn good deterrent!

There is always an element of unpredictability about an untested senario but I think an experienced, empathetic owner will intuitively have a fairly accurate idea of the level of guarding propensity their dog is likely to exhibit, even in a novel situation.

As I said, my own have not had strong drives and, since I do not encourage guarding behaviours anyway, inappropriate guarding has never been an issue. If I had a dog that I felt would instinctively guard then I'm with you 100%. I would train to afford me greater control.

Lol, you saying that reminds me of the new word I have for Zena to make her go off on one!! For the past two Saturday's I have called my husband in for lunch calling out "ready"!!! On both occassions Zena has gone nuts with her hackles up , and I forgot about it this week (after it happening last week-end), but she still did the very same thing, so if ever anybody attacks me I'm gonna just say "ready" in a loud call and she'll have 'em!!!!

When I did that I used the words "Watch the dog" as a cue.

there is the crux of it with rotties, kaos always had a high protection drive, so we trained him,

vinnie never has, hes the softest lump on the planet, he loves everyone, but when dougie came under attack he changed, dont get me wrong, he never bit anyone, dougie could hold him back, {I would think if vinnie truely wanted to hurt he would have} but he made all the moves as if to,
that said I didnt see It, so I only have dougies account to go on,

but like you say, we can never truely know what a dog will do, not even a well trained one,

when I train kaos, Im calm, confident and in control, but under attack I may not be any of those, this could change the outcome of training, he could sence my fear and run, or he could become aggressive when not asked,

Except Rottweilers who we know will eat a baby as soon as your back's turned.

In the paper.

Innit.