5 reasons why you need a natural guardian

5 reasons why you need a natural guardian

 

 

It's no secret i am a huge fan of large powerful guard dogs such as the mastiffs and the livestock guardian breeds and of course the love for these beautiful imposing dogs in itself is often reason enough to get one but these breeds have even more to offer than simply what meets the eye because contrary to more common protection breeds like the german shepherd or the belgian malinois they do not require formal training to excel at their jobs mastiffs and livestock guardians are true naturals and in today's blog we're going to go into five powerful reasons why you need a natural guardian breed

 

Let's dive into today's blog

 

And we're going to jump straight into the first reason why you need a natural guardian breed and that reason in the number five spot is that you live very remotely maybe your house is located literally in the middle of nowhere in such a case you probably have no neighbors nearby in the next city may be miles away apart from the occasional delivery person there may hardly be anyone visiting you and if you do happen to see people near your property you might have to assume that they may very well be up to no good if this is you then getting a breed such as a Doberman, a boxer or a german shepherd may not be the best move i will explain why i say that there is no doubt about it every single one of those breeds makes outstanding guardians and personal protection dogs if trained to do so these breeds are naturally protective to a point but without solid training and socialization they might lack the confidence to protect you and your house when it absolutely matters most but if the nearest dog training facility is many miles away from your home you might not have access to professional guardian trainers who can prepare your puppy for a serious real life situation and the same applies to socialization opportunities you might not be able to expose your dog to lots of different people and scenarios and if you do not a shepherd breed a boxer or a Doberman might just shy away from a threat rather than actively pursue it if need be so which breed should you get instead well ideally you would go for more of a independent and rustic breed your situation requires a dog who is not prone to shrinking back from danger but who will actively engage it should the need occur even if they have never been exposed to such a scenario in other words you need a natural guardian breeds these dogs have been selectively bred for protection purposes for centuries and in many cases even millennia and when i say selectively bred i do not necessarily mean by humans but by the harsh mechanism of survival of the fittest many of these breeds are large agile livestock guardians other are heavy bone mastiffs and all of them are quite suspicious of strangers and genetically programmed to defend their territory against humans and other animals so if you are living alone or together with your partner then you might not necessarily require a livestock guardian breed or a dog who is amazing with children instead you could consider one of those heavier mastiff breeds such as an imposing neapolitan mastiff or a bull mastiff or even better a boreboel perhaps you're an active person who wants their guard dog to join them on outdoor activities such as walking hiking mountain biking and so forth in this case your perfect canine companion might be a more agile type of mastiff for example the dogo argentino or the cane corso but the versatile rottweiler or the fearless giant schnauzer are also good options particularly the corso the roti and the schnauzer are more trainable than most other mastiffs or livestock guardians so that's also something that you need to be considering.

 

 

 

Reason number four is if your farm animals need protection perhaps you are a farmer or rancher and you need to keep your cattle sheep, goats ,chickens or even horses safe from predators in such a case you would choose the type of guard dog breed best suited for the size of your property because not all natural farm and livestock guardian breeds operate in quite the same way again let me explain by what i mean by that if you have lots of land and livestock who is grazing freely on that land you need a dog who will proactively patrol the perimeter the great pyrenees the Portuguese estrella mountain dog or the Tibetan mastiff and the turkish kangal are great examples for such natural perimeter guardians whilst you might see them sleeping a lot during the day they will immediately rise to the occasion should their sharp ears detect any suspicious noises or should their nose pick up on the scent of an intruder but it is in the night that these perimeter guardians unfold their true potential most wild animals that pose a threat to livestock operate in the dark coyotes wolves foxes large wild cats large owls even the livestock guardians instincts compel them to patrol their territory during the night and proactively chase off those predators one important aspect to consider is chasing off predators is not always sufficient sometimes unfortunately fights ensue and if you have one solitary dog that dog could be seriously injured or even killed by those predators which is precisely why farmers in many parts of the world run groups of up to even 15 dogs to protect their large herds how many dogs you should run depends on the number of farm animals you have to protect but in general it is better to er on the side of caution and have a team of maybe three to five dogs on duty to ensure that your livestock's kept safe if you own a smaller animal population or one that is contained in a relatively small area then you probably would not go for a perimeter guardian especially not if you have neighbors not too far off the breeds we mentioned are highly effective but also they're very vocal they bark a lot especially during the night warning predators to stay away instead your ideal choice would be a natural close-quarter guardian breed such as the Spanish mastiff the neapolitan the bull mastiff or even the english mastiff my advice again would be to have a team of at least two or three dogs in this situation so that they're more effective and can help look after each other as well

 

 

 

My reason in the number three spot is if you want a reliable family guardian breed myself i take protecting my family extremely seriously which is one of the reasons i have several large dogs in my home at all times but especially if you have young children selecting the right natural guardian breed requires a lot of thought you need to find a dog who is suitable for family settings getting an overbearing rottweiler or a high strong doberman may put small children at risk because those breeds we just mentioned come with a considerable prey drive accidents can and do happen partly because especially small children can trigger that dog's extremely high prey drive simply because of their size and their energy therefore i would recommend you look into the breed such as the English mastiff like i have maybe the bull mastiff like i used to have or the cane corso as well as the spanish mastiff or again the estrella mountain dog all these breeds have an inborn love for children of all ages especially for their impressive size they are amazingly sweet gentle and patient with children at the same time they are naturally protective in their guarding behavior the estrella mountain dog for example is the only one on that shortlist that will run off towards a perceived threat if given the opportunity being close quarter guardians by nature the other breeds we talked about tend to place themselves between the family and the other people rather than leaving their own aside they remain close in general this behavior is preferable for the purpose of family protection you do not want an overly aggressive dog who will run off into the distance instead you want a dog who stays close and puts its massive body between the threat and its family that it's protecting however the estrella is on this list as they are portugal's preferred family guardian breed and are well known for their immense loyalty and love for children so again if it's something you're considering you have to weigh those pros and cons and work out what's best for you.

 

 

And reason number two is that protection dog training is very time intense one very good reason for wanting a more natural guardian breed is that protection training takes a lot of time lots and lots of time it often takes about two years to build up a puppy and train them to be a reliable personal protection dog if money is not an object for you you might think that buying a fully trained one is the solution and indeed many people acquire trained and certified protection dogs the most popular breed in the police military and in other personal professional protection dog circles is the belgian malinois closely followed by the dutch shepherd and the german shepherd other breeds used for this line of work do include the doberman the Rottweiler the giant schnauzer and more recently the cane corso and as we saw some of these breeds rotty schnauzers and corsos are quite decent natural guardians therefore if you do choose to buy a fully trained protection dog I personally would recommend you go for either one of them if you do also want some of that natural guarding skill

 

 

 

 

And my reason in the number one spot and this one might sound a bit funny but bear with me is that fully trained protection dogs might not work or they might work too well the other breeds can work out wonderfully but many do not sometimes people do pay huge sums of money for a trained malinois or dutch shepherd only to be disappointed later when a real life situation occurs the reasons for this are twofold unlike police and military working canines dogs used for civilian purposes are trained differently most importantly they are trained to bite either into a sleeve or into a bite suit police and military decoys however complement this training with wearing civilian clothes when letting the dog bite them whilst wearing protection sleeves underneath the clothes because no decoy wants their arm torn to pieces but this simple but effective measure prevents the dogs from hesitating when attacking civilian targets on command but a dog that has only ever learned to bite people in bite suits will most likely even not attack or at all or potentially hesitate such a hesitation can get the dog's owner robbed beaten or stabbed another reason fully trained civilian protection dogs might not work out is their handlers do not continue training them instead they assume the dog will bite whenever given the command however regular follow-up training is absolutely required for a protection dog to stay efficient stay sharp and stay ready to go and such training must include both the dog and its owner which takes time and commitment on the side of the owner who sometimes very commonly if they're buying a fully trained protection dog that often cost tens of thousands of dollars might be because they haven't got the time to do the training and you can see how quickly that might devolve now another thing to consider is that a trained personal protection dog will have learned how to bite with a full and firm grip such a dog has not only learned to hold on but also to shake this shaking is a natural movement dogs use to kill their prey  if a large dog applies these skills to a part of the human body such as an arm or a leg they will cause massive trauma to that body part we're talking about tearing and ripping of tissue and especially in the case of a rottweiler even crushing bones if indeed the dog attack to save your life such consequences may be absolutely tolerable they would be for me but what if not accidents do happen and many trained protection dogs are extremely high strung intense working dogs in other words if such a dog bites someone by accident the consequences are dire and you can easily find yourself on the wrong end of a lawsuit if you have a natural guardian breed on the other hand the risk of your dog mauling or even killing a perceived threat is in my opinion and it's just my opinion far lower dogs that have not done any bite work will not usually cause massive damage if they do bite they will be far more likely to issue a warning bite or a nip to make the intruder back off and most of them will try to dissuade anyone from attacking their owners by barking first rather than by launching a full-on attack.

 

So i hope you enjoyed that list of five reasons why you might want to go for more of a natural guardian breed now i'm completely open to saying i'm not a personal protection dog trainer i train companion dogs and I specialize in the large powerful guardian breeds in particular with mastiffs and i do that because i'm a huge personal advocate for the use of natural guard dog breeds that does not mean that i don't like personal protection training I absolutely admire it and some of the dog trainers who i hold as the best dog trainers in the world are personal protection trainers however like everything with life there's balance and i think there's always pros and cons and it's always worthwhile you're doing the research to ins to understand what those pros and cons are so like i say i really really love and admire the work personal protection dogs do but i do think there's another side to the argument around more natural protection dogs which one you choose is completely up to you i hope my little two cents on the opinion and on the discussion will help you make that choice so if you did enjoy it please give the blog a subscribe.

 

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