How can I make my Labrador more protective?
Where I live, I need a protective dog. I recently got assaulted by an unknown man. I got strangled, and my 11-month-old Labrador did nothing as this when on. How can I make him more protective?
Answers and Views:
Answer by dartass224
First of all, a Labrador isn't going to protect you. Labradors were never bred to be protective or aggressive, and even breeds that were don't usually because they aren't bred for it anymore. If he does make a move, its usually going to be because he is scared wants to drive the threat back. He is only protecting himself and will never protect you. True protection trained dogs need two things: the genetics and the help of a specialized PP trainer to bring out the dog's fight drive.
VERY VERY VERY few dogs even bred for PP have fight drive today, most dogs just act on defense, which will get you nowhere, if your lab even has a forward defense drive in him. For the record, you can go and get 50 german shepherd dogs, but if none of them have the correct genetics for the temperament, you won't get anything more then a few fear biters, who will probably run in the other direction.
Furthermore, if you need protection, get a gun, don't count on a dog to do it for you.
Answer by lab owner
I strongly disagree, labs can be very protective if brought up right. I had a yellow lab female who would not let anyone near my house or my children without them knowing she was there. Any knock at the door or a noise that didn't sound right she was there but was always gentle and nice to everyone she had met before. She was protective of me then when my children came along I saw a big change and she became more protective. The kids could do absolutely anything to her pull her ears lay on her my oldest son would get on her back and try to ride her and she would just look at me like are they done yet but when there was a problem or one of them yelled in the backyard and we were in the front she was there first. So for all you to say labs aren't protective your wrong. My lab sleeps in my bed or one of my children's bed every night.
One thing I do agree with and its the easiest thing is to get them to bark at the sound of someone knocking on the door and all I did was when someone knocks, make sure your dog is with you and ask the dog " who is it or who's at the door" and when they bark give them a treat and applaud them and sooner than later they will just do it naturally.
Hope this little bit helps but they do need to have all trust in you before they will do for you.
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Answer by SpazadorMama
I have an 11-month-old black lab and she is the working type, anyway I sleep with my window open and at ANY noise she has her head out the window growling and barking. She is also my truck dog, she goes EVERYWHERE with me, literally EVERYWHERE. No privacy at all of any kind. She is always here with me. She does not allow ANYONE to approach my truck. My husband put on a clown mask once and as soon as she saw him she got into a fighting stance and he quickly pulled the mask off because we both knew an attack was about to happen. Yet she is gentle with the baby and ALL the children she encounters. An amazing breed for sure!
Answer by sarah m
I have a lab, and she is protective plus she got one hell a deep bark the thing is if you get them to be protective of you they get anxiety when your not with them believe me it not good but if you wanna go ahead with it you have to spend all your time with him
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SpazadorMama says
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Dani says
Definitely, a Shepherd German or the Belgian one, pitbull anything like that. It’s also difficult to expect a dog that’s barely a year old to do very much with taking down a person. I had an incident where I got lucky with my Labrador. She’s also a guide dog and they are expected to be gentle in public since she’s guiding a blind person. Even when I first met her, she was not the friendly outgoing Labrador. She was very attached to her trainer when she first met me just sniffed me and walked away. You expect that more from a shepherd. When the Labrador does that to you, it kind of hurt my feelings.
Anyway, I was at a music school in Germany, they shared an entrance to a parking lot with an Italian restaurant. There’s a gate which belongs to the school. Restaurant keeps closing it, school gets pissed off. No Internet in my apartment. Finishing up homework assignments. I leave the school to go home. Italian restaurant has loud music and some birthday party. I thought my dog was distracted by some of that, kept turning her head every few seconds.
We get to the gate. It’s closed. Two seconds later, an aggressive man shows up claiming he is security. My dog was trying to tell me apparently that there was somebody following us. Found out security was false, he’s just a waiter they needed extra people to monitor who was leaving that party and who is coming. He wouldn’t open the gate, we were arguing. He finally does open, I do say thank you. Then he mumbles and two words in German when you mumble sound similar forget your thank you and the other one is the F word you were thank you. So then I said F you is that better?
We walk, he put his hands on my shoulders, harness, and leash fall out of my hand, she turns around and growls and lunges at him. I heard him step back. Some vision during the day, No usable vision at night for me. Put his hand in a wrist lock. So you do that again it’s going to be jujitsu or the dog. Also had a pocket knife with me.
I left, a couple of people heard what happened. They were also students. They said they were going to report that. I said whatever you saw please do. I reported it. That’s how I found out fake security, he got a big warning. But another week later, he gets into a physical fight with a male student and then gets fired. If I was just using the cane or what people call the blind stick, it probably would have been worse.
When she growled at him, it was smart for that idiot to back off.
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Adarsh says
Hey Nicky James,I would like to say about Indian Method of keeping dogs.In India Most families use labrador as a guard dog.Usually Indian labradors are more aggressive than labradors in other countries.We do not introduce strangers to our dogs or allow them to socialize with everyone except the family.Thus they become more aggressive to stangers..After a certain age we keep them in Kennels and only make them free in nights(We also take them to excercise everyday ) .They just hangaround our house and make noise for doubtful sounds.If anyone enters into our house compound without our presence they attack the strangers by biting,making noise (to wake us)etc..They know that it’s their duty to protect our house and family in both the presence and absence of us.
I would recommend you to try our method.
We feed them,we take them to exercise,we play with them but we don’t allow a single stranger to touch them.
Mount.Keye.Animal.Ho says
You shouldn't make your dog protective over you…you need to protect yourself…don't be dependent on others…especially a gentle breed such as a lab.