labrador watch dog ? - Page 1

i want to my black lab to bark on strangers he is 4 months old what should i do to make him
bark on strangers
ps : i have seen aggresive labradors so please dont bring it up labs wont do this :

He's just a baby, you shouldn't expect that behavior at this stage of his development. When he's older and more discerning, then you can expect him to figure out who the bad guys are. Best thing you can do is create and support a strong bond between you both. You really don't want a dog that just barks at every stranger. You want a dog that barks at suspicious or threatening people who can be strangers.

Is this your first puppy?

no just my first labrador
i have been keeping pointer , dobermans and they knew whom to bark and be aggressive at
now i am keeping a small terrier and this labrador
just wanted him to be a bit more coutious at strangers becouse he plays with every one he sees
i am trying to create  a bond with him
i feed him and talk him out on walks i wash him and do every thing with him ......

like with my shepherd(who is now 7months) i didnt let No one but the ppl wholive in my house and my grandfather who comes over alot pet. i never let anybody pet him and his recalss are way beeter then my akc obedience lab mix. and when my shepherd got that alert look i would sofly put tension on the lead kind of like pulling back and that mad him want to go after and bark at the strangers. now  what i do is and he learned it the very first time when the doorbell ranged i went and got him out of the crate and walked him to the door opened the screen door and let him see whoes there let him bark pull back(which makes him want to go crazier lol)  and said good boy and put him back in the crate now he barks every single time.


Now i also go a blk lab mix who is now 3 he didnt bark until he was about two and basicly try when the door bell rang or ppl walk by i would always say get em and pump him up and he starts to bak and be ready lol but maybe try what i said see what others say and make what works best for you. 

I just don't know why you'd want a dog to go crazy when the doorbell rings. Unless everyone who rings your bell is some kind of undesireable? Makes no sense to me. Now if someone was battering it down with a fire extinguisher, I would hope my dog, no matter what breed, would be as alarmed as I was.

@ Pakdogs, you actually want a dog that is very sociable, you want a dog that is calm because you don't want him to be to agressive. I like the fact that my dog will generally let anyone pet him, but when we train and there is a bad guy he knows when to get "UNGLUED"!!!!!So to answer your question you want your lab to have "Civil Training". You want him to know how to act in public but you want him to destroy the enemy, the best thing you can do now is play with the rag with your dog.  It may not even be in him to bight anybody or anything and after you do that go to a trainer who knows how to properly work dogs and that way you can do some good civil protection training.

heres the deal i want him to be friendly out side like when i go on walks with him and hell he is too friendly even when a person is calling his dog jack my dog will get all hyper and just go to him for a good petting . that is not bad
what i want is that he should bark on strangers when they come in the house which he dose not he happily plays with them he is soo friednly he will lead a theif into my vault lol

Are labs supposed to be wary of strangers and protective of the house?  I've never had one so I'm not real familiar with the breed's temperament.  They always struck me as dogs that were way more social and outgoing than GSDs.  If so then what you get is what you get.  I probably can't make my GSD want to run up to strangers for petting any more than you can train a dog to be suspicious of strangers when they are not.  You can train a dog to bark on command, sure, but usually how the dog views strangers and perceives a threat is a genetic part of their temperament.

i see thanks for helping me out i guess he is a just 5 months old and will become more vigilent when he is 1 year or more

Why would you get a Labrador Retriever if you want a watch dog?

Please don't do what the poster (kt484)  above mentioned (not letting people outside your family interact with your dog, pulling away from other people, etc) unless you want a dog that is fearful of strangers and will enevitably end up a fear biter.  Let him grow up, introduce him to anyone and everyone and  teach him a bark command or something along those lines.  There are a few labs with high prey drive that do bite work but they are still very friendly off the field.  Being aggressive is NOT in the temperment of a Labrador and any lab that shows aggressive tendencies is not ideal.