VMD 513: Pet animal Breeding, Management, Nutrition and Health Care (1+1)

GUARD DOG

• Guard dog is a dog employed to guard against, and watch for, unwanted or unexpected people or animals.
• Both guard dogs and watch dogs bark to alert their owners of an intruder's presence and scare away the intruder.
• The watch dog's function ends here; a guard dog is capable of attacking or restraining the intruder.
• For example, livestock guardian dogs are often large enough and strong enough to attack and drive away predators such as wolves.
• In cases where intruders are more likely to be human, guard dogs are sometimes trained simply to restrain an intruder with his owner's guidance.
• Occasionally, guard dogs are trained to attack human intruders, though this practice might be locally illegal.
• Some breeds are excellent watchdogs but not excellent guard dogs because they bark loudly to alert their masters of intruders but are not given to assertive behavior.
• Similarly, even very small but attentive dogs (among a few other species) may function well as watchdogs.
• Breeds like this Doberman were specifically bred for guard duty.
• Many of the now prominent guardian breeds such as Rottweilers started as farm dog types but then developed over many years into guard breeds.
• Dobermans were specifically bred as guard dogs
• It is claimed that female dogs tend to make better personal guardians than males, due to maternal instincts, but males are considered better for guarding property because of their greater territorial instinct. Female protection dogs are much easier tend to train and learn at a faster rate.
• Less independent, they are adept at integrating into their new family and swiftly blend into any situation they are consigned to.