I am currently interested in buy a rottie pup to use as a guard dog. Does anyone have any advice on what to look for in a pup and where I should go to find a auitable breeder?

Please dont get a rottie as a guard dog
try a burglar alarm or even geese but no more rotties they arent guard dogs
the police wont have them any more as they are too soft .

I have to second this - if you want a particularly noisy alarm goose choose Chinese. Others sound off but I found these were particularly sensitive.

Christine

Hello Guest,

Are you referring to personal and home protection? If so, the mere sight and sound of a dog is generally enough to secure protection.

Equally, if someone goes out of their way to 'create' a protection dog, that technically can be quite dangerous, how much are you going to be able to enjoy living with that dog? i.e. you could unleash a very dominant side who is willing to question even the Owner's authority! Letting off lead in public places, being cautious of anyone (children and other dogs too) from coming into contact. Always being sure your home is secure and the dog cannot leave unattended.

Remember if he bites, people can sue. Even Dog Signs have changed from 'Beware of the Dog' - which technically is stating you own a dangerous dog and that is now unacceptable. Signs now tend to say "I Live Here" or even "Be Aware I am on Duty" etc.

In comparison to not having much of an interactive life with the dog, the occasions when your dog might 'save your life' or 'arrest a burglar' are few and far between!

Quite a number of dogs will 'respond' if their 'Pack' is threatened. Also there are simple obedience techniques that can fool a potential mugger. i.e. instead of teaching the dog to bark with the command "Speak", I use the command "Guard", now obviously the word itself has little meaning to the dog except for the required response, however, if you are faced with someone unpleasant, and you command your dog to "Guard" and he starts barking, it will have better effect than if you said "Speak"!

Another good command is "Close", this tells my dogs to come in and walk very close to me, (this gives the impression that they are protecting me), particularly if said urgently "KEEP CLOSE" and they rush in and circle round you.

I know, because I have needed to use both these responses while out walking across a Common.

On a second occasion two of my shepherds kept a very unpleasant individual stationary in one place, while I mobiled the Police. The dogs kept barking and I warned him not to move!! (Feeling pretty scared at the same time)!

My friend's Jack Russell and Cocker Spaniel were sleeping quietly, and did not even bother to bark when someone knocked on the front door, thinking the house was empty, this man came round the back and attempted to climb over the wall, both these dogs suddenly sprang into action and gave the impression of being a lethal duo! The chap beat a hasty retreat!

So my advice, if you have a dog, have one for the right reasons, the pleasures of living with a well behaved and well adjusted dog that you can take anywhere. Build a good relationship with that dog, train it well. Hopefully you will never be faced with a dodgy situation, but if you ever should be, you may well be surprised that your dog will automatically respond to the threat.

Regards,
Denise.

Hi there, please dont take offence at my message , its not meant rudely, just trying to be helpful.
If you have to ask how to go about finding a suitable breeder, then obviously you are not very experienced with dogs. As this is the case, how are you proposing to turn your puppy into a "guard" dog. A badly trained guarding breed is a potential deadly weapon, and a very bad advert for your chosen breed. Nearly all breeds will let you know if someone is about, even someone as innocent as the postman or milkman, and this is all the average dog owner requires, an alert that someone is around. Why do you particularly want a guard dog? Have you very valuable property in your home? If you have perhaphs a burgular alarm would be a better option. Geese are a great idea and do make excellent guards without being too dangerous.
If however you just want a big butch dog, that puts the fear of god into all your visitors, I think you have come to the wrong place to find support!!

This is a quote from the breeder of my German Shepherd Dog who's been breeding for longer than I've been alive!

Someone once asked me 'How do I train him to Bark'! So I say 'Why would you want to', there reply was 'Incase we have intruders'. I told them to go away, they weren't having one of my puppies! There's no need to teach a dog to bite, bark or anything because sure as hell if somethings wrong- they'll deal with it anyway!

Sorry but certain breeds have a bad reputation anyway and this is something all reputable breeders are trying to get rid of. I can't see any reputable breeders selling to you and if they do I would question their 'reputability':)

The other week we went out and were locked out of the house- to cut a long story short- my other half had to climb in through the bathroom window (the bathroom is next to the utility room where we keep the dog)- my dog is only a puppy at 12 weeks old but somehow she knew something wasn't right and was barking her head off at 3am in the morning:O! I've got three points to make from this- 1)Good job she's our dog, 2)Good job she's not big yet and 3)She is a pet but obviously still a good guard, please reconsider your decision to get a 'Guard Dog':)

Stacey x x x

I must agree with you Kash
I really do think this is whats going wrong with bigger dogs
People fell they "have" to train them to guard
I think a dog will know when its needed and when to relax
nothing worse than trying to sharpen up a dog.
I have rotties and my 1 bitch is so switched on as a pup I took her out (she was 4 months old) anyhow in front was a man that was "just odd" there was just something about him that made me feel weary,Jazz must have felt the same about him as she bark her hackles came up and was there for me,poor thing she was only a little baby :-)
Im glad she was on my side.

Exactly my point Carolyn even as babies they recognise a potential situation;) Could you imagine how nasty things could get if you TRAINED this into them:o

Stacey x x x

Sorry Stacey but that breeders comment is a load of rubbish! Not all dogs will automatically protect when the need arises and to sit back and confidently expect it to happen one day when you're faced with a situation could find yourself in a very sticky position with your roughy toughy doggy right .......behind you peeping round your legs if it hasn't already fled the scene!!!!!!
Plenty of police and other service dogs which are trained to protect their handlers are rejected whilst already being operational because when push comes to shove their bottle goes!

Lara, Is that comment just a bit strong....."That breeders comments are a load of rubbish" The breeder in question has a lifetimes knowledge of her breed and her lines, she obviously knows the characters of her dogs, how come you know them better?

I'm not even getting into this but at the end of the day Sue's been breeding since 1971 and although her dogs have wonderful temperaments I'm sure none of them would hold back if push came to shove.

Well I hope you never find yourself in a position of having to find out

Most dogs all have a natural ability to protect there pack, it just depends on the individual dog how far it will go to make sure that nothing happens to the place it lives or weather it is outside with its owners, the worrying thing is when you have people that know very little about training a dog for protection work that completely make a real mess of a dog that could have been a good family member, you have to take into consideration the temperament of the dog and how it will adjust to this kind of training, you have to ask yourself is it going to be able to cope with protecting one minute, and then going back to live as part of the family, some dogs cannot play both roles and maybe pushed over the edge to where you have a dog that was a happy family pet to a snarling mess, once this happens you will never get your beloved pet back, take my advice and leave it to the people that do it for a living eg police, army, prisons etc.

There's no need to teach a dog to bite, bark or anything because sure as hell if somethings wrong- they'll deal with it anyway!

That strikes me Philipa as a generalised comment!!!!!.
That aside - and assuming that she did in fact just mean her own dogs. Lets have a little think.....is every puppy bred from a showing champion to another showing champion suitable for showing? No
Well, not every puppy bred from a good working line is suitable for protection/guarding either and it is folly to expect it without training for it.
I don't know her or her dogs Philipa.........but no - I don't have to and I stand wholeheartedly behind my comments.

Good example is callum my gsd, bred by the metropolitan police but not suitable for police work as he was to much of a whimp, but if anybody was a bit strange/ or tried to break into the house i know that i could trust that dog with my life, he has already done it once when a guy was standing behind me in the dark and i did not know he was there, callum went mental barking and growling at him, and he hasnt been trained to do this, it is a natural reaction.

And would you say EVERY German Shepherd would do that?

Hard to say..... Callum when i first got him was scared of his own shadow, if you hid behind a tree and went boo to him he would scream ( im not joking ) but when this incident happened i have to say im glad i had him with me and also shocked that he reacted the way he did.
I have known operational police dogs to be taken off the streets because they were not backing the handler 100%, it hasnt been that many as most if they were backing off through training would have been canned anyway and returned to where they came from.

Diane I think that was the point Sue my breeder was trying to make, coupled with the fact that since HER dogs are sold as pets the thought of someone trying to make them out to be 'big hard' stereotypical dogs is terrible:o. As for finding out Lara- I sincerely hope I never do and I like to think that anyone who reduced my little 'lady' to nothing more than a snarling slavering beast would need protecting against me rather than my dog My original point was intended to the 'guest' and I was trying to point out that my dog is purely a pet but still, and at just 12 wk, recognises a situation where something isn't as it should be- climbing through a window' rather than entering via the door and reacted to the situation in hand.

Hi Lara, Are you suggesting then that anyone who would like there dog to look after them in a nasty situation gets it trained for protection work
:( I really dont see the connection between " a showing champion bred to another showing champion" That would be judged on a dogs comformation and movement, and likeness to the breed standard.Not so with a dog thats from" a good working line" Almost any dog can be trained to guard and protect whatever breed it is, with a good kind and knowledgable trainer. I think you must know that Wolfhounds are one of the kindest gentlest breeds in the dog kingdom, and it is incredible rare for one of them to be sharp. However when a drunken woman tried to get into my house one summers afternoon, one of my Wolfhounds, Baya, stood quietly between me and the intruder. Every time the woman tried to push past her, Baya just raised her lip, and growled very quietly, no great menace, just a gentle warning, as the woman wasnt touching me. I KNOW however that had the woman struck me, Baya would have had her. Before the incident and afterwards, until her death, Baya never raised her lip or snarled at anyone, and the majority of dogs would sense their owners fear and try to shield and protect them. I certainly would never ever sell one of my dogs to be trained to "guard and protect" The police need trained guard dogs, the forces need them too, some large premises need a patrol dog, but the average household dosnt, neither is the average dog owner capable of controlling a trained guard dog. Any breeder who sells a pup, to a normal household, after being told it is going to be trained as a guard, particularly with the known guarding breeds, is in my opinion asking for problems to arise.

Philipa you miss my point entirely.
What I'm saying is not all dogs bred from show quality are show quality and not all dogs bred from working lines will naturally protect.
I do not consider teaching a dog to bark training it for protection work. Almost any dog Philipa? Are you sure?!!!!!

I have an Alaskan Malamute, not an ounce of protection instincts in them, and i have talked to many mal owners and they have said that when the mal feels that itself or its owner is being thretened it will step in and hold its ground, they wont 'attack' but will protect, even beta dogs have been known to defend their alpha. I used to have a GSD that was the bigest softie and wouldnt hurt a fly, but once there was a stranger lurking around outside our property, she surveyd the situation, decided that the person was up to no good and took action (totally out of character for her) Also my boss has a beagle x spaniel that submisses to everyone and is the biggest sook, but the property where i work was being vandalized by some rouge kids and she barked and howled the place down till my boss woke up and rung the police. In my personal exp and opinion i believe most (maybe not all) but 99% of dogs will naturaly protect or alert (even if it isnt an instinct or been bred to do, as with the mal) I agree with you on the show dogs not producing show quality pups, my girl is out of Aust. Ch. Paharey BBlackmax and Aust. Ch. Paharey Snowballs yet Kodi isnt of show quality (her coat is too long) however her brother and sister went on to win Junior dog and Junior Bitch at the Sydney Royal.