Guard/Watch Dog?

ringeat20

Well I posted a thread a couple of months ago about types of dog breeds for my requirements.Well we've been through all dog breeds from small to large lol. Well after more research and talking with the family we came with these requierments:
Guard or Watch dog but also a good family dog,good with children,energetic but not too much,smart and trainable.
Thanks for any responds!

pawzaddict

That is a lot of dogs LOL. Honestly the guard/watch dog thing I do not believe are traits. I have a pit bull and he would never hurt a fly..he sits at the window and watches kids play wagging his tail. The other thing is...if you want a guard dog you need to be prepared to deal with what comes with it. I think if you have a dog that is guard enough. People are less likely to mess with homes with a dog for numerous reasons.

What are more specifics?

Are you planning on daily walks? weekly? few walks?

What about training? Are you planning to train regularly? Or just the basics?

Do you want a large/medium/small dog?

Do you plan on grooming the dog regularly or would you prefer one with less grooming requirements.

ringeat20

Are you planning on daily walks? weekly? few walks?
Daily walks

What about training? Are you planning to train regularly? Or just the basics?
At least just the basics.

Do you want a large/medium/small dog?
Doesn't really matter.
Do you plan on grooming the dog regularly or would you prefer one with less grooming requirements.
Less grooming requirements.
Thanks for your respond btw.=]

pawzaddict

No problem!

There are many breeds that could work LOL. Do you have any preferences? That may be best place to start. Are you looking for an older dog or a puppy? Personally I do not recommend puppies when people have young children just because of the chewing stage so that depends on the age of your kids.

Easily trainable dogs...labs and goldens. Labs tend to shed a lot and IMO are quite hyper if not trained young. Goldens have longer hair tho sometimes, some goldens do not have the typical coat.

ringeat20

Ok haha
First we did want a puppy to socialize it because the breeds we were considering to be "guard/watch dogs " were
American Bulldog,Doberman Pinscher,and Boxer.
But pretty much we're looking for a good family dog that could warn us of intruders or keep intruders of our property.

pawzaddict

Dobermans are very very powerful breeds and I personally myself would not own one.

I have never owned an American bulldog.

I have grown up with a pure bred boxer, a boxer/lab mix and a boxer/mastiff mix. These are my favs personally.

Everybody has an opinion about what dogs make good first dogs, some do not think boxers do, I think if you stick to the plan of exercise daily and training that a boxer would be a pretty good choice. They have been known to bite strangers, I have never heard of them biting owners or children in the family. In fact I see many that are extremely tolerant of children.

These dogs can be very powerful as well but I have always had luck with them as far as training and they were always amazing with my cousins and now my niece and nephew can go to my parents house without worry of any issues. However they can be very muscular and some get huge so an adult should ALWAYS be present with children and dogs together (this should happen with any dog).

I would do some research on the boxer, out of your preferences this is my thumbs up choice. You could even find adult boxers in shelters that have gone through the hyper puppy stage.

ringeat20

I actually do like the boxer(my parents had one when I was younger)but I know they are prone to a lot of health issues.

pawzaddict

We never had serious issues with ours. Mixes tend to have less problems that are breed specific because they are not pure bred :P

ringeat20

Also yeah haha if we cant find the 'perfect' breed we'll probably go with a mix but more likely a purebred.

fawkese1

i wouldn't recommend an american bulldog, or really any of those breeds to you unless you plan on doing something like agility so that the dog will have a job. all of the boxers i have met have been pretty high energy too. as pawz said, any dog will be a deterrent. if you like labs but want something more "guardie" chesapeke bay retrievers tend to be a bit more likely then most labs to guard, but you are looking at a very high energy dog...
really tho, with children, you want a "watch dog" and not a "guard dog" someone that will alert you... and maybe sound scary/have a big bark...and that can be just about any breed of dog... i would think more along the lines of what type of dog will fit in with your daily life with your family... perhaps a beagle? they have a "bigger" sounding bark then their size....