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Ok I have a question to all the dog owners on the site. Not just Dobermans. Which stems from the frequent threads or topics that lend people to say they trust their life, family, home, ect to there dogs. By which I mean they feel there dog would intervene in some manner to a threat, either actual or perceived.
If you could please give an answer and your reasoning behind that answer.
(this is intended to be a non bashing question, just would like to know peoples thoughts since this type of thing always seems to pop up within most all working breed discussions, " Yea he a working breed of course he will defend me")
I'll start:
Rocko will move forward when pressure is put on him by an opposing force(helper or threat). I do think he would defend my wife and kids to a point. I think he is more protective with them than he will ever be with me. This would depend on the situation, and the amount of stress/confusion/pressure involved.
Now my reasoning behind this is I have seen him grow in Schutzhund and learn that pressure is only withdrawn when he reacts offensively. As in you push forward he pushes forward. Simple training. Now it is possible to push him too far and he will retreat. I have never seen him become defensive or offensive to a threat in my presence. He looks at me and follows my reaction.(as he should) I have one story from Halloween where I was in a costume and sneaked in the back yard and came in the house. He was with the wife and kids and as soon as I opened the door He darted forward to me. I yelled a scuffled and he continued to hold his own barking. Then I Yelled and pressed forward and he retreated to the couch in front of the wife and kids. Then I ran outside and ended it. On one hand I feel that was the amount of pressure needed for him to draw back. On the other I was in his face and he may have smelled it was me at that point. Either way He showed enough presence to send just about anyone the other way.
Now this scenario I am talking about was not a staged thing to test my dog. It was all by accident, but once I saw his response I kept going just to see how he would react.
If you could please give an answer and your reasoning behind that answer.
(this is intended to be a non bashing question, just would like to know peoples thoughts since this type of thing always seems to pop up within most all working breed discussions, " Yea he a working breed of course he will defend me")
I'll start:
Rocko will move forward when pressure is put on him by an opposing force(helper or threat). I do think he would defend my wife and kids to a point. I think he is more protective with them than he will ever be with me. This would depend on the situation, and the amount of stress/confusion/pressure involved.
Now my reasoning behind this is I have seen him grow in Schutzhund and learn that pressure is only withdrawn when he reacts offensively. As in you push forward he pushes forward. Simple training. Now it is possible to push him too far and he will retreat. I have never seen him become defensive or offensive to a threat in my presence. He looks at me and follows my reaction.(as he should) I have one story from Halloween where I was in a costume and sneaked in the back yard and came in the house. He was with the wife and kids and as soon as I opened the door He darted forward to me. I yelled a scuffled and he continued to hold his own barking. Then I Yelled and pressed forward and he retreated to the couch in front of the wife and kids. Then I ran outside and ended it. On one hand I feel that was the amount of pressure needed for him to draw back. On the other I was in his face and he may have smelled it was me at that point. Either way He showed enough presence to send just about anyone the other way.
Now this scenario I am talking about was not a staged thing to test my dog. It was all by accident, but once I saw his response I kept going just to see how he would react.