I have had 3 on the list and agree they are great. Have had Belgian Sheepdog, Belgian Tervuren and German Shepherd.
No list? Not going to do the 29 clicks.
I will add this: if you want a dog that will let you know when something is happening on your property, buy a Chihuahua. I worked on a particular farm, and she put the big dogs to shame.
No Rottweiler?
Boycott Animal Planet, the loony, liberal, butt sniffing, booger picking communists! =P
BS. My Boxer will die for me, and do some major damage.
The ovcharka or caucasian mountain dog is not on the list but the poodle is.
Well, it didn’t actually take long to click through. As I hoped, the German Shepherd was number 1.
We have a German Shepherd bloodhound mix. She has the instincts and intelligence of a German Shepherd, and the nose of a bloodhound. Great dog, and very loving.
All seem reasonable except the staffordshire terrier, which has a nasty documented history of killing its owners or others unrelated to any guarding of the family. Some of them are great, some are deadly and there’s no way to tell the difference until one day, doggie snaps and/or kills. As guard dogs, they aren’t that easily trained. They are less likely to bark to protect the property and are more likely to attack without warning. I think a yappy dog would be better than a staffordshire terrier.
I look at it this way.
It’s not that the dog needs to be physically dangerous. If the dog is big, a potential intruder is going to be intimidated because he doesn’t know how dangerous the dog may be.
A guard dog should be large enough for size to provide some intimidation. It needs to be well behaved except when it sees its territory encroached upon. Dogs that bark indiscriminately (or all the time) are worthless.
The dog should let you know when the bad guy is near & you should have the proper firearm to do the job, not rely on the dog to disable an intruder.
But in case they're too snuggly to annoy an intruder to death, here's our backup guard dog.
My lab has a fantastic guard dog bark. He also has a whiny, spoiled brat, shrill bark when he is not getting his way. He is very vocally versatile.
A Belgian Malinois who’s little buddy is a Chihuahua. Best defense combo yet around.
Dachshund. Supremely loyal to you and yours, ever-vigilant about the house, AND packs a whole lot of loud barking in that long little package.
#4 - Australian Shepherd
HUH?
They are great, smart dogs, but they are only medium sized and they are build more for stamina as opposed to strength and they are not ferocious at all. They don’t belong on this list.
The Australian Cattle Dog on the other hand, yes. I think the author got confused.
The problem is that they limited it to AKC breeds.
A good guard dog keeps the bad guys away. So this seems misplaced: “to bark minimally”.
Our Maltese sleeps on the foot of our bed facing out. She misses nothing. She is fearless and has no idea she weighs only 8 pounds.
She won’t stop anyone using brute force, but they’ll know they are under attack and have their hands full while I chamber a round.
Our Chihuahua who just dispatched the cat next door, a no tailed squirrel and two deer out of the yard today is outraged at being left off the list. LOL!
You know what they say: “If it ain’t a Pit, it ain’t sh-t.”