Livestock guardian breeds such as Great Pyrenees, Anatolian Shepherd and Kangal suit independent perimeter patrol and need little training for it, while herding and working breeds such as German Shepherd, Belgian Malinois and Dutch Shepherd suit handler-led work and need much more training and exercise. Which you choose decides whether the dog is hard to recall and hard to control, or demanding to occupy and quick to act.
Part of Guard Dog Training
Working breeds for security are the dog types historically bred to guard livestock and territory or to work closely with a handler, and the traits each brings to a household alarm.
The Two Types Ask For Different Households
The parent article describes both groups. Livestock guardian dogs have been bred for thousands of years to guard territory independently, are naturally suspicious of strangers and alert at night, have a deep carrying bark, and need less training for guard work because the behaviour is instinctive. They are best for perimeter patrol, livestock protection and large territory coverage. Herding and working breeds (German Shepherd, Belgian Malinois, Dutch Shepherd, Australian Cattle Dog) are highly trainable, intelligent and handler-focused, and are better for directed patrol, handler-accompanied security and complex command work; they require more training but offer more control.
The two types fail in opposite ways. A guardian dog’s independence means it decides for itself what is a threat, patrols on its own judgement and is poor at coming when called. A working-breed dog depends on the handler: without work, exercise and attention it invents its own jobs, which can mean chewing, digging, nipping at moving people and barking at nothing.
Predator Protection describes raising a guardian puppy with the livestock and minimising human socialisation, so that the dog’s loyalty is to the animals it guards. That suits a pasture and does not suit a family house. A dog meant to live beside children must be socialised to people from the beginning. Decide which job the dog has before you decide how to raise it.
What You Need
- A fenced area large enough for the dog’s patrol, particularly for a guardian dog
- A handler with time for a working breed — daily exercise and training
- A way to confine the dog when visitors come and when children play
- Food — a guardian dog is large and eats accordingly; see Feeding Without Commercial Dog Food
- A bite plan known to every adult; see Dogs
Method: Fit The Dog To The Job
Step 1: For perimeter patrol, choose a guardian type and plan for its independence: a secure fence, a gate that closes itself, and a recall that will never be perfect. See Off-Leash Reliability.
Step 2: For handler-led work, choose a working type and plan the day around the dog: exercise before it is left alone, work that uses its mind, a firm and kind routine.
Step 3: Socialise from the first weeks to all the people who will live around it, and to the animals of the household. The dog does not learn on its own who belongs.
Step 4: Keep it a warning dog. Train it to alert and to stop on command; see Alert Training. Do not teach it to bite. A dog taught to attack people is a danger to its household, and cannot safely be rehomed or handled by a vet.
Step 5: Give it duty and rest. Rotate dogs if you have more than one; a tired dog is a poor alarm.
Common Mistakes
- Taking a guardian puppy raised for pasture into a busy house. Its suspicion of strangers includes your visitors.
- Underworking a working breed. Boredom becomes noise and damage.
- Expecting a guardian to heel and recall like a working dog. It was bred to decide for itself.
- Leaving the dog to guard the gate. Visitors and neighbours get bitten; restrain the dog before the gate opens.
- Using the chain. A chained dog covers little ground and tends to become more aggressive, as animal behaviourists commonly report.
Safety
A large protective dog can seriously hurt family and neighbours
A large dog bites hard. Bites to children come mostly from dogs the child knows, from familiar family or neighbourhood dogs, which I am recalling from injury studies and cannot give a figure for. Never leave a child alone with a guard dog; teach children to leave eating, sleeping and guarding dogs alone; restrain the dog before visitors arrive; and keep a fenced run or stout lead and post for it. If someone is bitten, irrigate for at least 5 minutes and leave the wound open; see Wound Management.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Temperament Assessment — judging the individual dog
- Combine with: Geese and Guinea Fowl — a second alarm layer that needs no handler