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 To the Left
Posts: 1865
   
Location: Florida | Get a pound puppy. Large breed and old enough to be grateful to have a home. They are the most loyal and protective dogs ever. Like someone said, it is always a crap shoot but I have never gpme wrong with a rescue puppy.
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Regular
Posts: 89
| Vickie - 2018-02-03 1:41 AM
Get a pound puppy. Large breed and old enough to be grateful to have a home. They are the most loyal and protective dogs ever. Like someone said, it is always a crap shoot but I have never gpme wrong with a rescue puppy.
That is what we have a pound puppy, and you can tell just how grateful she is to have a home. She is a pit mix and friend of mine works at the pound, called me and said you need this dog. She is really quiet so when she barks it's serious so you better pay attention. She loves kids, loves people that she deems okay. Now our other dog the heeler he's still young just over a year... but he can be a little sketchy about certain people. | |
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 I'm Cooler Offline
Posts: 6387
Location: Pacific Northwest | My parents have two GSDs and they're the goofiest dogs in the world but most people are scared of them - I think because they're loud whether they're excited or trying to warn people away. They're just loud regardless. These two have never bit anyone but I could see it happening if they felt threatened. I've had a few people tell me they act completely different if they stop by and no one is home versus they stop by and one of us is outside to let them know the visitor is okay lol
We had a different GSD when I was growing up and she was a bit more aggressive. She didn't really like anyone besides us.
That being said we had all sorts of dogs growing up, from mutts we adopted to various kinds of bird dogs. They were all friendly yet protective. | |
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 Chicken Chick
Posts: 3562
Location: Texas | KatieMac88 - 2018-01-31 7:02 PM Catahoula Leopard Dog! They are the best at being protective family dogs however they might possibly bother the horses and are hard to keep in a fenced in area. Doberman Pinscher is another great one. I have one who is extremely attentive and pretty protective. She’s excellent wifh the family and anyone who we are comfortable with but if the person or animal seems unwanted she fiercely protects. She’s actually a Catahoula/Doberman mix we adopted. Same with the purebred Catahoula we had - would do anything to protect you from any perceived threat. He did not warm up to strangers like my Doberman mix does though. He kept his eye on them at all times, but the most loving family dog.
We had a severely abused catahoula puppy given to us when I was a kid. He was missing a toe, had hot greese poured down his back, tail sawed off with a kitchen knife etc. As an adult he was kind of a loaner, did his own thing. He would jump fences into neighbor yards and eat their dog's food. The dog pound could never catch him, someone shot him at one point. So he had to be chained. My dad spent ALL summer putting up a 6ft picket fence around our back yard, and probably every dime he could save. The day he was finished he took the chain off the dog, walked in the house, looked through the kitchen window just in time to see his dog look back at the house... then jump the fence lol. Anyway we lived in the ghetto, I was outside playing in my sandbox when I see a man standing up on our fence peeking over at me from the alley. My dog was sitting beside me (I was like 4) and I said "Skit him blue dog"... and off the dog went over the fence. I'm sure my face was priceless, and I went back to playing thinking about how I was going to explain this one. The dog came back a little while later like nothing happened, and I didn't tell my mom until about 3 years ago lol. He also stopped a man from trying to get into our bedroom window, a neighbor called my dad and said he better look outside our dog had a man cornered.
He was good with me and my sister and our 5 million family members, he would just not stay in the fence.
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 Expert
Posts: 3815
Location: The best kept secret in TX | Last Catt - 2018-02-03 12:46 AM Love our Great Pyrenees. His dad was a wanderer, but we got him neutered around a year old and he stays in our yard. Gentle with children, wary of adults. He's gotten better as he's gotten older (he's about 9 years old now, looking to get another to help take over his duties), but when he was younger he wouldn't stop barking at someone even if we were there with them. I'm mainly out with him with the horses and when people are there, so long as I am welcoming to them, he backs off pretty quickly and goes to lay down away from everyone but where he can keep an eye. When he was younger he would actually lay in my lap to keep others away from me if the chair was big enough to hold him. Have had a few coyote issues recently, again, he's getting older, still does a pretty good job though for being an only dog. He is on the smaller side of males as well, about 90-100 pounds. I've seen some closer up to 150, and not overweight, just big dogs. He's gotten ahold of a few of our chickens when they basically run into his mouth, and a few doves as well when they just wouldn't fly away from him (we had some we raised), but he typically knows better. Just this evening feeding him he was sharing his food with one of our big laying hens. Doesn't bother the horses at all, and if they come towards him to check him out, he runs from their corrals (none of our horses are dog aggressive, but he's wary). He'll chase strange cats out of the yard, but runs from our evil cat that likes to run up to him and hiss (meanwhile same cat the small inside small dogs maul). He's gentle with any dogs we bring in, but will bark at strange dogs. He's kind of gotten a little more disobedient in his older years, when he was younger I could call him off barking with a whistle to come back to me, now he just stops, looks at me, and continues barking. Absolutely wouldn't trade him for the world though. In my experience unless you have a pack of them, they tend to use barking as their main defense, in a pack they will attack/bite predators. Typically not the kind to attack people though unless cornered with no other options. I've seen fairly unhandled pyrs in a group end up eating another dog's kill of goats or chickens, and end up turning into more of a predator themselves, but those pyrs wouldn't even let owners really come up to pet them, so I'm not sure if it just came from lack of discipline and understanding that "their animals" were off limits or what. I know our pyr if you just tell him to leave something new, he'll pretty much ignore it. Very smart dogs but also can be stubborn. I do know a friend who got one that was rescued, he lived in a cage most his life and wasn't very socialized, and even he does great with her horses, sheep and small children, including a baby that would crawl on him to "ride" him, even though he hadn't been exposed to much. He actually helped the baby learn to walk, as she'd grab his hair and he'd lead her where she wanted to go. Generally they are gentle giants, but pack situations can change that. I will say I won't ever own a heeler or a german shep if I had the choice. Too unpredictable for me. I've met a few good shepherds, but every heeler I've been around was a 1 person dog, and I've only met 1 that is stranger friendly and he was practically raised traveling. I also work for a small animal vet, and those two breeds just tend to be more sketchy. Side note however, being there is crossbreeds being talked about, we have no had good experiences with Pyr mixes when crossed on non-livestock guardian breeds. Know of a few litters from the pyr stud ours is out of, some Aussie crosses and some golden crosses, both resulted in aggressive dogs that in some instances snapped at people, were unpredictable around ranch animals, and would frequently fight with other dogs, despite all the parents being very friendly. The sire was a pretty frequent wanderer and would wander into town, and he would willingly hop into cars in hopes of getting a food. Sweetest dog you'd ever meet, and both mommas were super sweet, the pyr mom was actually more stand-offish and her pups were still all very sweet natured. I've heard a lot of good about mixing pyrs with other livestock guardians though, which would be Anatolians and such.
This. I will never own a GSD.
My brothers GSD attacked me during family photos. I was sitting beside him with my baby in my arms. I literally had to lay on her to get her away from him. Had my dad and brother not been there to pull him off of me I don't know what would have happend to us both. My dad had to lay on top of him until we were all inside. He was still trying to attack my dad when we got all the children inside the house. We had to put him down.
Plastic surgeon had to sew my face up but my little one was fine, just bruised from me laying on top of her.  | |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 682
Location: Northwest | IRunOnFaith - 2018-02-05 3:01 PM
Last Catt - 2018-02-03 12:46 AM Love our Great Pyrenees. His dad was a wanderer, but we got him neutered around a year old and he stays in our yard. Gentle with children, wary of adults. He's gotten better as he's gotten older (he's about 9 years old now, looking to get another to help take over his duties), but when he was younger he wouldn't stop barking at someone even if we were there with them. I'm mainly out with him with the horses and when people are there, so long as I am welcoming to them, he backs off pretty quickly and goes to lay down away from everyone but where he can keep an eye. When he was younger he would actually lay in my lap to keep others away from me if the chair was big enough to hold him. Have had a few coyote issues recently, again, he's getting older, still does a pretty good job though for being an only dog. He is on the smaller side of males as well, about 90-100 pounds. I've seen some closer up to 150, and not overweight, just big dogs. He's gotten ahold of a few of our chickens when they basically run into his mouth, and a few doves as well when they just wouldn't fly away from him (we had some we raised), but he typically knows better. Just this evening feeding him he was sharing his food with one of our big laying hens. Doesn't bother the horses at all, and if they come towards him to check him out, he runs from their corrals (none of our horses are dog aggressive, but he's wary). He'll chase strange cats out of the yard, but runs from our evil cat that likes to run up to him and hiss (meanwhile same cat the small inside small dogs maul). He's gentle with any dogs we bring in, but will bark at strange dogs. He's kind of gotten a little more disobedient in his older years, when he was younger I could call him off barking with a whistle to come back to me, now he just stops, looks at me, and continues barking. Absolutely wouldn't trade him for the world though. In my experience unless you have a pack of them, they tend to use barking as their main defense, in a pack they will attack/bite predators. Typically not the kind to attack people though unless cornered with no other options. I've seen fairly unhandled pyrs in a group end up eating another dog's kill of goats or chickens, and end up turning into more of a predator themselves, but those pyrs wouldn't even let owners really come up to pet them, so I'm not sure if it just came from lack of discipline and understanding that "their animals" were off limits or what. I know our pyr if you just tell him to leave something new, he'll pretty much ignore it. Very smart dogs but also can be stubborn. I do know a friend who got one that was rescued, he lived in a cage most his life and wasn't very socialized, and even he does great with her horses, sheep and small children, including a baby that would crawl on him to "ride" him, even though he hadn't been exposed to much. He actually helped the baby learn to walk, as she'd grab his hair and he'd lead her where she wanted to go. Generally they are gentle giants, but pack situations can change that. I will say I won't ever own a heeler or a german shep if I had the choice. Too unpredictable for me. I've met a few good shepherds, but every heeler I've been around was a 1 person dog, and I've only met 1 that is stranger friendly and he was practically raised traveling. I also work for a small animal vet, and those two breeds just tend to be more sketchy. Side note however, being there is crossbreeds being talked about, we have no had good experiences with Pyr mixes when crossed on non-livestock guardian breeds. Know of a few litters from the pyr stud ours is out of, some Aussie crosses and some golden crosses, both resulted in aggressive dogs that in some instances snapped at people, were unpredictable around ranch animals, and would frequently fight with other dogs, despite all the parents being very friendly. The sire was a pretty frequent wanderer and would wander into town, and he would willingly hop into cars in hopes of getting a food. Sweetest dog you'd ever meet, and both mommas were super sweet, the pyr mom was actually more stand-offish and her pups were still all very sweet natured. I've heard a lot of good about mixing pyrs with other livestock guardians though, which would be Anatolians and such.
This. I will never own a GSD.
My brothers GSD attacked me during family photos. I was sitting beside him with my baby in my arms. I literally had to lay on her to get her away from him. Had my dad and brother not been there to pull him off of me I don't know what would have happend to us both. My dad had to lay on top of him until we were all inside. He was still trying to attack my dad when we got all the children inside the house. We had to put him down.
Plastic surgeon had to sew my face up but my little one was fine, just bruised from me laying on top of her.
Wow! So glad you were both okay. That is crazy. | |
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Expert
Posts: 1432
| I have 3 rescues that are protective. One is a mixed breed german shepherd, a st bernard/bull mastiff. and a black lab. The st bernard is a bad dude, very mean and protective. Which is what we need, where we live..
My sister had a blue heeler that was very mean and protective.
Edited by 3TurnsonSpud 2018-02-06 10:20 AM
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