I have a female shetland sheep dog. As far as I know this isn’t what anyone would consider a violent breed. She likes to chase a ball and play fetch (all the time). I humor her and throw the ball, I feed her, I give her attention … and I just want to make sure that when it comes down to crunch time, my efforts will not be forgotten. I’m doing my part, and if I should ever be threatened (by a person or another dog), I hope that my dog will do hers.
She isn’t a very big dog, but her teeth are sharp and can, at the very least, break the skin. It doesn’t matter whether or not she would be able to defend me by killing whatever it is that would be attacking me; it’s the principle of the matter. It would be nice to know that my little dog isn’t just using me.
Here’s an idea…
1)Find a trusting friend
2)Walk into the room and tell your friend to start attacking you(pretend)
3)Then see if your dog attacks his friend
4)Laugh at your friend
It depends on any individual dog. Most dogs I’ve ever had did have an innate sense to protect the pack (me and the rest of the family) and its territory (the yard, house, etc.). Some dogs are just big sweeties, though, or just plain cowardly.
That’s a tough question to answer, in a way that’s safe for all involved. Obviously you could have a friend who is a stranger to the dog pretend to attack you and see what your dog does, but THAT WOULD BE DANGEROUS and pretty stupid. The best answer I can give is to tell you to look at your dog’s everyday behavior. Does she exhibit protective behavior or at least appear alert and attentive when something “strange” is happening? (somebody screaming when tickled, for example)
Finally, even though I suspect you may be being a little facetious with comments like “I’m doing my part. . .hope [she] will do hers” and “would be nice to know that my little dog isn’t just using me,” I have to say that if you take care of a dog expecting it to live up to some purpose that you’ve never specifically trained it for (or that it’s not particularly innately good at), you’ve got the wrong idea. I just looked up the Sheltie on the AKC site, and you’ve probably got your answer right there.
IMHO, you can never tell until it happens. My sister’s dog will growl and bark and make a scene, retreating the whole way. Once you sit down, he’s in your lap wanting to be petted. Another dog I had once was the quietest, most gentle dog around people he knew. Kids could climb on him, pull hair, not a peep. Let a stranger walk in alone, though, and he was a hellbeast.
I believe, from what I’ve seen while walking him near other dogs, that our dog expects my husband or me to protect him from danger. I think this is the natural order, since we’re the alpha male and female of the pack. He does seem more protective of the children, and he’ll get in between them and anyone who’s making him nervous.
This is not to say that I think my dog wouldn’t help out in a fight or that he wouldn’t object to someone menacing me. He barks like mad when he thinks there’s something wrong, and he has seemed at times like he’d be willing to jump in if necessary. But when push comes to shove (with other dogs, so far, not people), he typically hides behind my legs.
Our dog (a pure bred American Sofa setter AKA a real mixed breed from the pound) has never been taught to attack or whatever.
Once when my daughter was home alone an intruder walked into the house. The dog went balistic. My daughter held him back and ordered the asshole out of the house. He looked at 80Lbs. of very pissed off puppy and left.
Yes he did get a steak all to himself that night, why do you ask?
Dogs are intensly attuned to body language. A fake “attack” might be worthless because of it. Even if you’re an Oscar-winning actor, your dog will be able to pick up subtle cues that it’s a fake in your posture, facial expression, and even your heart rate. (I’ve heard that dogs with good ears can hear a human heart beating from across a room.) So, such an experiment would be worthless.
I think it highly likely that your dog would fight to protect you if he knew you were truly frightened. They have an instictual urge to protect their territory and their “pack.”
In a dangerous situation, the dog would take his cue from both you, and the attacker. The attacker’s posture would be tense and threatening, breathing fast, and moving with purpose. (The dog would instantly be able to decipher these cues as agression.) Your reaction of cringing back, and displaying fear would tell the dog that you’re afraid. His first response would likely be to assume a threatening posture of his own, and if that didn’t work, to attack.
The first attack might be a bit tentative, because the dog has not been trained to go straight for causing serious damage. The attacker’s reaction to this would tell the dog what to do next: if he continues in his advance, or fights back, the dog will redouble his efforts to stop him. If the attacker retreats, the dog may resume the threatening posture, trying to force him back without further violence.
My brother’s untrained dog once attacked one of his friends. The friend had spotted him in the street, run up and slapped him on the back. The dog, even though it had met the friend before, instantly attacked him and knocked him over. My brother although surprised was able to get the dog off with no harm done.
Depends on the dog. My innocuous little lab mix is quite protective, and always has been. I’d had her about six weeks when a loose dog rushed us during our morning walk. She was between us before I could draw back my leg to kick the other dog away from us, and she got fanged on the snout for her trouble.
Our German Shepherd, OTOH, is a big weenie and looks to us for protection. I think as she gets more confident, though, she’ll become more territorial.
Agreed with everyone that it depends on the dog and often the situation. My German Shepherd loved people(yes, passed tense, she is now deceased:( ) and I always wondered if she would defend me in a bad situation. One night while out jogging someone came up to me and she went nuts. The guy started mumbling something like “nice doggie” and made tracks. After that I wasn’t too worried about it.
From my experience I would say it would also depend on who the attacker is. For example I had friend and he had a Great Dane and a German Shepherd. Both dogs looked pretty scary and I believe would have attacked me. BUT once I got to know them I would play with them, wrestle with them, take them out for walks etc.
We tried this, I attacked my friend (acting) and the dogs took it as a signal to join in and play. Neither showed any sign of agressiveness to me. Had I been a total stranger this probably would have changed.
When I was a child, our dog (a poodle) attacked the guy reading the gas meter when my brother and I were playing in the backyard. She had never attacked him before, when we weren’t back there.
Depends on the dog, and there is no way to tell in advance.
We had to make a “no dogs” rule for our martial arts group. Students would sometimes bring their dogs to class and we had a couple of dogs freak out when they all of a sudden see their owner getting attacked.
Interestingly, as a child I had my dog jump in and defend me when I was getting beat up by a schoolyard bully. I loved that dog
My dog? Eh… no. She’s a big slut puppy and loves people.
My cat, who is a great furry ball of fat with feet, would defend me to the death. It’s rather funny watching a 26-pound cat chase the UPS guy back into his truck, growling all the while. Hey, he was big and evil and touching our stuff! Now he honks from the curb and makes sure the front door is shut.
This is probably true most of the time, although it can depend…if the dog has an especially protective relationship with a person already, it may get pissed off even if the “attacker” is someone responsible for feeding and walking it most of the time. Case in point, back when my doggie was alive, she would get all snarly every time anyone touched my brother in a less than gentle manner (he was born after we got her and I think she came to regard him as her puppy). I can remember several times when my mom started tickling him and she (the dog) interpreted it as an attack and tried to get between them while barking up a stsorm. Even when he started roughhousing with someone else, she would jump in on his side (snarling and barking only, she was a big sweetie and never in her life actually did anything violent).
To paraphrase a dog trainer I know, who works with Schutzhund/Personal Protection dogs on a regular basis:
“I would never depend on a dog not trained for personal protection to defend my family in a serious situation. I have seen too many “tough” dogs fold under pressure to believe that anything other than a dog bred and proven for protection work should have my confidence to protect my loved ones. A real family protector… is a serious animal with huge responsibilities.”
In short, without training, you can never be sure WHAT your dog’s reaction to a serious threat might be. The dog might take a chomp out of an intruder such as the mailman (perceived threat, no real challenge), or go after a neighborhood kid who is wrestling with your kid (perceived threat, no real challenge), but the same dog might go into full-on avoidance if someone took a swing at him with a baseball bat (serious threat, physical pain involved). If you’re expecting a dog to hold its ground and protect you under pressure, there is no way to guarantee that without serious training, and a dog like that is a serious responsibility, and a liability in the wrong hands.
If you were threatened, your dog might bark a warning, might stand there and watch, might run away. There’s no real way to know without proofing. Even dogs that bark loudly, growl, and offer impressive threat displays very often fold under pressure from an attacker. Naturally protective dogs do exist of course, but there’s no way to know what a dog’s reaction to a threat will be until you test him for such situations–something that should only be done by a highly reputable and experienced dog trainer, well versed in protection training.
As far as your dog “using you”–that’s a silly statement. Dog ownership offers a wide range of benefits, but it’s all dependant on what a particular breed’s traits are. For example, a lab bred and trained to retrieve may not defend its owner from an assailant, but does its job beautifully in retrieving game and devoted companionship. Your sheltie might not do much to defend you if it’s not in her nature, but she’s probably still a wonderful pet and companion. If you wanted a dog for personal protection, and your opinion of the dog is dependant upon their protective capabilities, you should have gone with a breed more suited to those needs.
Two situations in my life of dogs protecting or not protecting the family.
First, when I was a child, my parents were friends with a couple who had a big german shepherd and three boys. We used to go camping every weekend in the summer with them, so we were all friends with the dog, and he was gentle with us all. One day when we were camping (I was 9 or 10) I asked if I could take the dog for a walk. The parents agreed and we wandered off. Beyond the camp site was a truck parking area, and as we walked through, with Jim off his lead and ahead of me, a man came up to me, said something in a foreign language and put both his hands on my shoulders. In an instant Jim was there, snarling and snapping in the man’s face. I was terrified, grabbed his collar and ran away. I went back to the camp and never said a word because I thought I was in the wrong. I’d been told not to let him off the lead and I had. It wasn’t for another ten years or so that I realised that Jim had probably saved me from something pretty nasty.
Second story. My uncle had a very cute little dog who was probably a bull terrier/jack russell mix. He was intensely loyal and very emotionally involved with the family as he had been abused as a puppy and they had rescued him. Their house was burgled while they were out, and the burglars had cornered the dog with a table, and backed him into a corner where they trapped him in with furniture while they literally ransacked the house.
On my uncle and aunts return, they found their deeply traumatised dog, shaking all over and deeply ashamed that he had not been able to defend his family. I don’t think I am projecting human emotions onto a dog. He could not look my uncle in the eyes, wouldn’t eat for days, and sat in the corner facing the wall for the better part of three days. He recovered, and was always antsy after that, no-one could even hug my uncle or bang him on the back without a big snarling session from the dog. Poor thing, he did his best but he was too small against such aggressive nasty people.
OK, it looks like this is kind of getting off track. Let’s steer this discussion back to the subject of me and my dog.
Seriously though, thanks for the personal accounts. I have a feeling that she thinks of me as part of the pack (along with the rest of my family). I was just wondering how my dog might react in a situation.
It does sound accurate that my dog would “escort” an intruder through the house, thought she’d probably be biting at his ankles to make sure he moved fast enough.
MixieArmadillo, I was being faceitous. I love my dog and I realize she wouldn’t put up much of a fight against anything (other than her tennis ball).
Another question: does it matter whether or not the dog is male or female? I wouldn’t think that dogs would play into human gender roles, but I wonder.
