Can dogs be trained to protect or is it inherent? My lab was never trained to protect, but on the rare occasion she used her voice, it was to warn me of a bad person crossing our yard to the house next door or that a snake was approaching while we gardened. Once, while we were hiking toward a curve in the dirt road, she suddenly raised her nose straight up in the air, something she'd never done before. As we rounded the curve, there was a 100-ft water moccasin enjoying the sunset coiled up in the middle of the road. Fortunately for us, it was a good twenty feet away and made no move toward us for having been startled. Thanks to my dog's signal, we were able to safely turn around and make it home. While we were on hurricane evac in Dallas, I was lucky to find temporary work and ended up walking the dogs in the evenings in a gated community near the airport. One night, as we reached the halfway turn in our loop, my lab looked into the darkness and stood stock still, refusing to let the rest of us move forward. When I asked her if we could go back to the friend's trailer we were staying at, she turned and FLEW! Once we got back inside, she and my top dog sat guard inside the sliding glass door. When I told my friend about our adventure, she filled me in on the airport coyote issue. What has your dog done to protect you and your family?
When I had my pit bull and she was about 12 weeks old we were setting up the pool for summer. We had our youngest in a jumper out in the yard about 20 ft from us. I looked over and noticed Nakita in a crouched attack position. By the time I had turned around and made my way up to where they were I noticed she had some sort of brown cord in her mouth bapping it on the grass. It was the copper head she beheaded and was playing with its dead body. My guess is it was trying to slither up on the baby.
My dog is a pit bull mixed boxer, and his instinct was to protect. I had never have to teach him or train him to be aggressive because of the breed of dogs in him. He would warn people who come onto my front porch or walk around on my driveway.
His growl is very intimidating, so no one has tried to do anything out of line. If I was outside with him and someone walks up toward me, he would jump right in front of me as if he is protecting me.
I have a nephew who bought a rottweiler to be their protector. He said that it is cheaper than hiring a security guard. I believe him because he showed me a demo of how his dog would react to an intruder. However, I am not at ease with that because I treat dogs as part of the family and being a guard dog, much more a protector of our security, doesn't sit well with me. I'd rather hire a real security guard for that and let my rottweiler stay inside the house.
I believe this is an inherent thing that dogs do based out of loyalty to their pack. Yes, animals can be trained to attack when given a certain stimulus. Take a look at police K-9 units. But, if the dog loves you and senses danger, they will protect you no matter the cost.
On the other hand, some dogs are completely oblivious to trouble. Funny story. Back when my grandfather John was alive, he and his wife, Mae, had a dachshund named Rusty. Rusty rarely left my grandfather's side, even in the morning when John would take a shower. One day, John got dizzy and slipped in the shower. The way he landed, he couldn't pick himself up, but he retained enough consciousness to open the sliding door and tell Rusty, "Go get Mom, Rusty. Go get Mom." Hearing the plea from his master, Rusty ran out of the bathroom to go to Mae's separate bedroom.
Instead of waking her up, he jumped into the bed and curled up beside Mae. It was several hours later when my grandmother got up. She was always a later sleeper. Realizing that my grandfather's car was still in the driveway when he should've been at church, Mae went on a search for him. She heard the shower still running.
"I told Rusty to get you," muttered my grandfather as soon as she roused him.
Oh Rusty, what a devil.
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I think it is something that is genetic in them. They are very protective when it comes to their family and nothing is going to hurt them while they are on the watch. I think this is what makes dogs so useful and a big part of people's lives. I know I feel safer now that I have dogs than before.
My mom always tells a story involving a dog they had while growing up.
This dog was always very calm until one day, out of the blue, he started growling and kind of attacking my grandmother while she was holding my mom and putting her to bed, this was so out of character that nobody knew what to do.
They then discovered that there was a huge scorpion on my mom's crib. I maybe own my own existence to a dog I never met 🙂
Dogs have a natural instinct to protect the pack, their kin, etc. It is very natural, they are on the same "team." They contribute whatever their instinct tells them to contribute - bark, bite, chase off, run off and make them follow it, etc. Dogs have a wide range of protective behaviors but they also have enough individuality that it can manifest in different ways.
I think it depends a lot on the type of dog we have and on the environment we have them. For example, my in-laws live in the country and they have a dog almost exclusively for protection. I don't know how the dog realizes that, but as soon as a strange comes by the dog barks and does it's job.