The Inconvenient Truth About Protection - a podcast by Ty Brown

In this post, I’m going to tell you something that will possibly make you angry. It tends to have that effect on people, whether I say it like a jerk or as sweetly as I can. I think that people react in this way because they have an emotional response to things that go against what they like to hear.

Well, here’s that statement: your dog probably doesn't want to protect you.

A lot of people swear up and down that their dog loves them and definitely wants to protect them. In most cases, the first element isn’t under question: dogs tend to love their owner. But you have to see things from the dog’s point of view. Just like you and I, dogs are interested in self-preservation. Humans do a lot of things based on certain moral codes, but might still ignore someone getting mugged in order to avoid danger. Dogs are the same. They’re interested in self-preservation, and because of that they don’t automatically have a desire to protect the people they live with.

Many people say things like: “All right, then explain to me why my dog barks when someone approaches me,” or “Why does my dog bark out the front window at the mailman?” or “Explain why my dog attacked someone on a walk the other day.”

In many cases, these events come about because dogs are territorial. The dog is simply saying “This is my house, and I need to protect it!” That’s a good thing. We want to be able to have control, but I do like a dog that has some territorial urges. My old Rottweiler was incredibly territorial. After being somewhere for ten minutes, he would decide that was his place to protect. When your dog sleeps at the front door or barks at visitors, then, he isn’t trying to protect your family. He’s trying to defends what he views as his territory: the place that he sleeps, lives, and eats. He wants other people to get away from it.

So what’s happening when you’re outside the dog’s “territory” and he still growls at people? In most cases, this is self-preservation. Your dog isn’t telling others to get away from you because he really likes you. It’s probably because he’s insecure about someone approaching, doesn’t see his owner as a leader, and thinks that the situation isn’t being taken care of. He says, “This is now my responsibility,” and growls, barks, or bites. That’s simple self-preservation. The dog doesn't see the person on the other side of the leash as a leader and doesn’t feel safe, so he feels the need to protect himself.

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