some watchdog - Page 2

Triodegirl, this is your Grando son correct.  With my Grando son he has only shown protectiveness once, he saw a woodchuck, placed himself between the woodcheck and me and gave the biggest deepest bark I every heard out of him.  He was always a very very confident dog even as a young pup.  I haven't done any SchH work with him so I don't know how he would react to a threatening person since we have never had a threating person at the house.

I am looking into having a SchH seminar at my place.  I think it is a reasonable driving distance for you.  Email me at wisctiger@msn.com and we can discuss the time frame and who will be doing the seminar.  Have you gone to the Fox Valley club yet I would be interested in your feedback.

Yes, Trigger is a Grando son. I have heard the "freight train" bark only twice. Scary as hell. Both times it was with the same dog that kept bothering him. A lot. I was warned by the trainer that worked with him that Trigger will take a lot, but only so much. Happened so fast I'm not sure I even saw what happened but that dog was laying flat on his back in a split second. He didn't bite or injure the other dog in any way but scared the you know what out of me. Never saw a dog do that before. Hope if I ever needed protecting from a real threat the freight train would come back.

Haven't been out to Fox Valley yet as I think I caught that foot virus from Zambi :-)  I will send you an email wisctiger. I'm not sure about Trigger and Schutzhund training. He's a tough dog to figure out.

Triodegirl,

Not every dog is hard-wired to be protective of his home, as such that you interpret barking at the doorbell as protective.  I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few top sport dogs make lousy watchdogs because they are prey-driven, and have stable nerves.  A stranger coming to the door means nothing to them.  Some dogs just not willing to "pick a fight" over that.  In fact, I would expect most everyone has heard stories about So-and-so's SchH3 dog that failed to protect them on a real attack. 

If you want your dog to bark at the door, you can teach him this an obedience exercise.  But consider whether you want to encourage that behavior, it could get annoying in the long run.

My dog alerts differently depending on the circumstances.  If my husband and I have friends over and someone else comes knocks at the door he will not respond defensively.  However, if it's late at night and I'm home alone (hubby works shift work) then Chaco will alert with his "big boy" bark with very little stimulation.  I suspect he's cueing off of my own attitude, as I am admittedly not as relaxed in the evenings when Benjamin isn't home. 

Yvette