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What kind of dog do you own? Are they a good watch/guard dog?

55K views 453 replies 297 participants last post by  soonershoote 
#1 ·
I have a 4 year old boxer. She's adorable, sweet, loves kids, but VERY alert.

This is how I think she would react to the following scenarios...

Someone breaks in during the day to rob house while I'm at work: She wags her tail, licks them. Before my house I rented a place downtown and my land lord had to go into my place for something and my dog never met him...she was apparently very sweet to her and i figured she would be--however, the way someone legitimately supposed to be somewhere gives off a different vibe than someone that's not supposed to be there.

Someone is outside trying to get in in the middle of the night: heavy growling and canvassing the house. loud barking when closer to suspect. she does this if there's anything at night she knows is there but can't see, or if she see silhouettes. she will even go into this mode if i say "who's there?!" or "what is that?!" at nighttime.

someone enters house at night with family home: while I can't be certain, I think she would absolutely latch onto whoever breaks in. she's good at picking up on if someone in our family is nervous or not and if something is happening that shouldn't be (unless i'm not there and it's daytime apparently).

One thing I'm worried about is someone breaking in and being downstairs with me upstairs. My dog sleeps in our bed room and I wouldn't want my dog to run ahead of me until I know what's inside our house. She knows the commands "come, stay, heel, ok" VERY well, but I'm not so sure how she would respond to them in a situation like this.
 
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#315 ·
Thanks Jeanlouise, she's adorable, unfortunately I don't have the time to devote to a dog right now. Between the 43+ hours a week working and everything else, I hardly have time for myself. Besides my cats would probably lock me out of the house if I brought a dog home!
 
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#316 ·
We have a 2-stage dog security system at my house. The early warning systems (aka the wife's 3 chihuahuas) warns you not to enter. Should you choose to ignore that, stage 2 (aka MY dobi-lab mix) will rip you a new rear so quick, you'll think your married to her! We haven't locked our doors in YEARS!
 
#319 ·
A boxer mix, a Boston terrier and a mystery mutt. I often wonder if they would be any good for anything but advance warning in a break in. Recently I let a friend of mine let herself in and hang out at my house while no one was home. The dogs know this person although she does not come over daily or anything. Mystery mutt barked at her the entire time and tried to keep her corralled in the foyer. I'm not sure what she would do with a stranger.
 
#324 ·
I own two but they look like cats........ :blink:
 
#329 ·
A female black lab. She is an excellent watchdog, but would not bite anyone. Just what I want, no lawsuits from people being bitten but she alerts us if anyone or anything is around. We live in the center of 8.5 acres, and have a state of the art security system. When she is outside she barks at people driving by, she thinks they are invading her domain. She is the third black lab I have owned in my life. Labs are very protective, and bark like they are going to tear someone apart. When a stranger is in the driveway, she goes nuts, when I let her out, all she does is smell them. I love black labs, would not consider any other breed.
 
#332 ·
I own Ole Yella and he is a good watch dog. He let's me know if anyone is on the sidewalk in front of the house, behind the house across the street, if the neighbors have any company, if there are different squirrels in the pecan tree, and any unusual cats around.

He has the bark that says "I'm a big ole dog, you'd better watch out" but the disposition of "I'm a big ole dog got any treats" At 80lbs he makes some people nervous when he barks and growls, but he is just a big ole biscuit lovin chicken
 
#334 ·
I have a Poodle (She's alert but a lap dog.)... This is a Tibetan Mastiff. They are considered to be the most expensive breed in the world. imagine a BG staring at 160 pounds of this. Dog Mammal Vertebrate Dog breed Canidae
 
#345 ·
I have a Poodle (She's alert but a lap dog.)... This is a Tibetan Mastiff. They are considered to be the most expensive breed in the world. imagine a BG staring at 160 pounds of this. View attachment 73606
That's a dog? It looks like a genetic splicing of a pony , a bear, a dog , and Chewbacca. Give me a saddle and I'll ride that bugger, Yeahaw!!!!:ridinghorse:
 
#336 ·
Dog Mammal Vertebrate Dog breed Canidae
I have two Yorkies. They own me, I do not own them. I think the person picking up the poop is the owned one. :) They are excellent guard dogs and are constantly looking out windows and will bark if a bird lands on my property. Also have good hearing and will bark if they hear anything at all; even things we cannot hear. They were breed to catch rats in Coal mines so they have acute hearing and vision and love to hunt. They normally spend their days hunting the many geckos we have around here and chasing away all the birds.

However they are not attack does. One has a mouth so small she can barely fit a finger in it and the other has a mental problem and will grab a squeaky toy whenever he gets aggressive and squeak it at whatever it is he is chasing. They fit right into the family though. :)
 
#337 ·
View attachment 73607 I have two Yorkies. They own me, I do not own them. I think the person picking up the poop is the owned one. :) They are excellent guard dogs and are constantly looking out windows and will bark if a bird lands on my property. Also have good hearing and will bark if they hear anything at all; even things we cannot hear. They were breed to catch rats in Coal mines so they have acute hearing and vision and love to hunt. They normally spend their days hunting the many geckos we have around here and chasing away all the birds.

However they are not attack does. One has a mouth so small she can barely fit a finger in it and the other has a mental problem and will grab a squeaky toy whenever he gets aggressive and squeak it at whatever it is he is chasing. They fit right into the family though. :)
That sir is a scary looking dog....:wink::smile:
 
#338 ·
It's been a while, so I'll do a comparison post.

Used to have two dogs, but recently lost our Irish Wolfhound.

Now we only have our Rhodesian Ridgeback...
Two pics: Gunner at 9 weeks and 14 lbs...Gunner at 8 months and 107 lbs...but just a few days ago he was 118 lbs at the Univ of FL Vet.

He is starting to let strangers know that he's watching.:yup:
 

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#340 ·
Chihuahua inside & blue heeler outside. Neither is a savage but they are good watch dogs. The heeler might getcha if no one was home. They work in tandem alerting us to "things". As long as they wake me up they did their job.
 
#344 ·
xXxplosive...

If you're asking me, the answer is pretty much, "No!". RR's do not really like water much, they will try real hard to even stay out of the rain.:smile:
 
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