I have recently moved to a house (from a flat) and my husband and I decided to finally get a dog. He is crazy for labs and we are getting black lab puppy in 5 days. My concern is can u train a labrador retreiver to be a watch dog? I've heard and read that you can't but I would like to hear your personal experience with this breed. My husband works in shifts so sometimes I stay alone in house at night. I'm not in a flat anymore so I would like to have a dog that will alarm the neighborhood if someone tries to break in.
Answers:
You can train any dog to be a watch dog, it will take a little more time with a Lab though. You don't really need a mean dog - you just need a loud dog. As long as he barks at anyone who comes to call you should be fine. A bugler will not want to go to a house where there is a dog making his presence known. Buglers need quite to get away with their theft.
Almost any dog will alarm you that someone is on there turf. Labs will do that. They will bark if it is a stranger. If it is someone they know they may only bark once or twice, then they will go get a toy to show the person.
Labs are great.
Make sure you take your puppy to puppy kindergarten for bonding, and check out this great puppy resource. It was a life saver with our puppy!
He wont be a good guard dog, but he will serve as a watch dog most likely.
Keep him trained, be loving, etc. Just treat him properly.
Most dogs will naturally bark a greeting when someone enters the home or knocks on the door, or just gets close enough. Encorage this, but teach him to stop it once he's acknowledged--reward him for it and he'll keep doing it.
Almost any dog will bark when someone comes over knocking on the door, labs too. If that is all you are looking for, you have made a good choice. If you need more, however, then you need to look at other breeds.
I have had two labs and now am getting a third next wk, an eight wk old puppy, My black lab I have now, by the way all have been females, they love people, when strangers come in she brings them the little cat toys in her mouth, I know that when push comes to shove, they will protect you, I have seen her when i feel uncomfortable in situations, react and sit right by me, I also had a disabled husband with M.S. and my yellow lab that has since passed on was very protective with him, she would sit by his wheelchair. I hear labs dont start fights, but they dont walk away, I always had female labs, i dont know about the males, but I think they are great companions, and loyal,
Def, yes! I have a choc Lab and he is def a great watchdog. He is also well obed trained and very social, a shy dog is not a good watchdog. There have been many Police dogs that were Labs and several Schutzhund titled ones. A Schutzhund titled dog has to do obed., protection and tracking so is a well rounded well trained dog. Never encourage a young pup to bark tho, it creates problems. In an interview with muggers and thieves they told the people that they avoid anyone walking a well trained large dog since they do not know if the dog is trained to bite. So take him to obed. school when young and when he is 10 mos or so train him to bark on command. The command doesn't have to be oral either you can use one you could use while walking the dog on leash such as an ear pinch, or tap on the head. Actually very few dogs will not bark at night esp if someone tries to break in. I've never owned one.
Personal Exp. yes you can train labs as watch dogs, mine doesn't bite or any thing but when some one she doesn't know even tries to go up our stairs( our house is on a second floor) she barks enough to wake the neighbors.
Yes actually you can. I have a black lab, shadow and when my grandfather was renovating his home, and had no real lock protection, he "borrowed" Shadow to watch him, and alert him, because he's deaf in one ear and if someone was to break in, he would be unable to hear it from the upstairs.
Shadow is a very sweet dog but he was great protection. Every noise he heard from outside he would get up, walk through the doggie door, and if he saw anything unusual, the whole neighborhood was awoken. Once their actually was an intruder. and Shadow was VERY helpful... need i say more?
Haha
Good luck...
yes, i owned a black lab(though she was half german sheperd) and she would always stop unknown people dead in their tracks until we showed up to assess the situation. Sometimes even after we told her they could step onto the property, she would refuse to grant them clearance! Although she was definately more "prejudiced" against men than women, we were never robbed while we had her!
She had no actual guard training given her at all!
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