Both
guard dogs and watch dogs bark to
alert their owners of an intruder's
presence. The barking is also an attempt
at scaring away the intruder. The
watch dogs's function ends here, while
a guard dog might be trained to restrain
or attack 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, as in Schutzhund training.
Occasionally, guard dogs are trained
to attack human intruder(s), though
this practice might be locally illegal.
Some breeds (such as Keeshonden) are
excellent watchdogs but not so excellent
guard dogs, as they bark loudly to
alert their masters of intruders but
are not given to attack behavior.
Guard Dog Training Breeds
Every so often one of the guard breeds
is targeted for breed-specific legislation,
usually by an unfortunate event by a
member of that breed. Some believe that
this is the equivalent of animal racism
("a dog of X breed bit someone,
so all dogs of breed X are uncontrollable
and must be banned.") The most
common targets are typically the most
common guard breeds.
Also
many of the now prominent guardian
breeds such as rottweiler started
as multipurpose dogs but then developed
over many years into guardian breeds.
Others like Dobermans were specifically
designed as guards. Many of the below
breeds have a greater amount of mollisoid
or mastiff DNA. This is confirmed
by a DNA study done on 414 pure breed
dogs. The study suggests that in the
distant past after the 14 ancient
breeds broke off early on after which
a group of mastiff style dogs were
developed. Also interesting is that
the German Shepherd has a significant
relation to and is grouped with the
mastiffs yet the Great Dane and Irish
wolfhound are not. The Irish wolfhound
(a traditional hunting guardian breed)
has evidence that its population was
nearly wiped out 200 years ago and
its existing members descend from
a very small group of dogs and thus
it is a rebuilt breed, but evidently
out of somewhat different building
blocks. Some people think that the
Irish wolfhound contributed to the
great Dane.
The
St. Bernard is also somewhat different
from the mastiffs and is not in the
molisoid group; however, the Swiss
mountain dogs are. The Moscow watch
dog thus likely inherits its guarding
ability not from the St. Bernard but
from its other major contributor,
the Caucasian Ovcharka (no evidence
other than speculation and the known
breed characteristics). Great Danes
are odd because they are not in the
mollisoid group and traditionally
behaved as though they should be.
Both
guard dogs and watch dogs bark to
alert their owners of an intruder's
presence. The barking is also an attempt
at scaring away the intruder. The
watch dogs's function ends here, while
a guard dog might be trained to restrain
or attack 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, as in Schutzhund training.
Occasionally, guard dogs are trained
to attack human intruder(s), though
this practice might be locally illegal.
Some breeds (such as Keeshonden) are
excellent watchdogs but not so excellent
guard dogs, as they bark loudly to
alert their masters of intruders but
are not given to attack behavior.