On Guard: Understanding Protection Dogs - a podcast by Ty Brown

Today’s article is going to break a few hearts. Every time I talk about the topic I’m about the delve into I feel awful, because I’m destroying someone’s idea about their dog. But I think that it’s crucial for people to understand.

The myth I’m going to bust today is the idea that your dogs will protect you. In a real scenario, your dog probably won’t protect you. We do a lot of protection training, teaching dogs to protect a home or car or from muggings, and owners often call us to say things like: “I have a German Shepherd, and I know if push comes to shove he’s going to take care of me. I just want to make sure that he has the training to do it well.” That’s the phrase I hear a lot: that if my dog had to, he would certainly protect me.

The overwhelming majority of German Shepherds, Dobermans, and Rottweilers won’t actually protect their owners. Plenty of these dogs will bark at a window or vehicle. They’ll put on a show, but very few will actually engage another human when their own safety is on the line. That flies in the face of what most people think about their dogs, because so many owners are convinced that their dog would protect them.

We test many dogs, and the overwhelming majority of them won’t perform that way in real-life scenarios. Out of a hundred German Shepherds, one or two—if you’re lucky—will show a degree of protectiveness. There’s a lot of reasons for this tendency.

To actually engage a human being is a very scary thing for a dog. Most dog bites are born from fear. Dogs bite people all the time, most dog bites are born from fear. It’s a terrifying thing to engage a person. When confronted, the dog is normally at the end of his rope and feels like he has no other choice—so he bites. But that bite doesn't come from a confident urge to protect its family.

Now, I’m not saying that protective dogs don't exist. You can still see news stories about dogs that protected their families or homes. But there’s a reason why it’s on the news: because it doesn't happen very much! When push comes to shove, most dogs won’t protect. They’ll either run away or sit and bark, even if someone comes into your home or starts attacking you. That’s just the reality.

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