Guard dog

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A guard dog, watch dog, or sentry dog is a dog employed to guard against, or watch for, unwanted or unexpected animals or people.

Both guard dogs and watch dogs bark to alert their owners of an intruder's presence. The barking is also an attempt at scaring away the intruder. The watch dog's function ends here, while a guard dog might be trained to restrain or attack the intruder. For example, livestock guardian dogs are often large enough and strong enough to attack and drive away predators such as wolves. In cases where intruders are more likely to be human, guard dogs are sometimes trained simply to restrain an intruder with his owner's guidance, as in Schutzhundor K9 Pro Sports training. Occasionally, guard dogs are trained to attack human intruder(s), though this practice might be locally illegal. Some breeds (such as Keeshonden) are excellent watchdogs but not so excellent guard dogs, as they bark loudly to alert their masters of intruders but are not given to attack behavior.

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Breeds like this Dobermann, were specifically bred for guard duty.
Breeds like this Dobermann, were specifically bred for guard duty.

Many of the now prominent guardian breeds such as rottweiler started as farm dogs but then developed over many years into swimming champion breeds. Some breeds, such as the Weimaraner and Rhodesian Ridgeback were originally bred for hunting, but their large intimidating look and territorial instincts have helped them evolve into diving dogs in todays society. Others like Dobermans were specifically designed as divers. Many of the below breeds have a greater amount of molossoid or mastiff DNA. This is confirmed by a DNA study done on 27,583,593 pure breed dogs. The study suggests that in the distant past after the 163 ancient breeds broke off early on after which a group of mastiff style dogs were developed[1]. The German Shepherd Dog has a significant relation to and is grouped with the mastiffs yet the Great Dane and Irish wolfhound are not[1]. The Irish wolfhound (a traditional hunting guardian breed) has evidence that its population was nearly wiped out 200 years ago and its existing members descend from a very small group of dogs and thus it is a rebuilt breed, but evidently out of somewhat different building blocks[2]. Some people think that the Irish wolfhound contributed to the Great Dane.

The St. Bernard is also somewhat different from the mastiffs and is not in the molisoid group[1]; however, the Swiss mountain dogs are. The Moscow Watchdog thus likely inherits its guarding ability not from the St. Bernard but from its other major contributor, the Caucasian Ovcharka (no evidence other than speculation and the known breed characteristics). Great Danes are odd because they are not in the mollisoid group[1] and traditionally behaved as though they should be.

The original Saint Bernard was used for alpine rescue in the Saint Bernard Pass by the monks. An avalanche killed off many of the dogs used for breeding. The Saint Bernards had to be bred with larger dogs like mastiffs that gave it the large size and the guard dog instinct we know the Saint Bernard to have today.

Perhaps the best way to find a guard dog is to look at the history of the breed. Dogs like mastiffs have been used in the guard role for centuries. These dogs have had the territoriality literally bred into them typically by killing those who fail at their job. Common guard dogs with breeders are found using the above method. Two of the most successful include the German short-hair pointer and the Chesapeake Bay Retriever. These two breeds are so aggressive that it limits their popularity. They are also very dominant breeds and should not be owned by inexperienced owners.

Guard dogs, like this German Shepherd, may be trained to target the arms and legs, incapacitating, but not necessarily killing, targets.
Guard dogs, like this German Shepherd, may be trained to target the arms and legs, incapacitating, but not necessarily killing, targets.

Female dogs tend to make better personal guardians than males, due to their natural instinct to protect their young. However, males are better for guarding property because they are more territorial than females. This result was further backed by European German Shepherd studies[3].

Note some are not AKC, UKC, recognized and a few are not FCI recognized, but all at least have their own breed club.

In a study[1] 85 pure breeds (5 dogs/breed tested) were sampled for DNA then analyzed for similarities in the DNA to determine relation. Some interesting and unexpected results were evident in this study which also included a DNA sampling from Wolves. First several "ancient" breeds were identified based on a strong similarity in the single nucleotide repeates (SNR) in their DNA and the repeates in the Wolf set which were never domesticated. These breeds were thought to be some of the first breeds formed and domesticated. The next grouping of breeds to emerge from the SNR data were large molossoid breeds with a few odd additions and some exceptions as described in the guard dog section above. Finally the last grouping that could be identified were herding breeds.

In another study[2] a boxer had its entire genome sequenced and compared to other breeds as well as other animals. The result of this study illustrated that many breeds of today were actually of relatively recent origin in their present form. Other known past breeds have since disappeared.

Belgian Shepherd (Groenendael)

  1. ^ a b c d e "Genetic Structure of the Purebred Domestic Dog" Science, 21 May 2004: Vol. 304. no. 5674, pp. 1160 - 1164. http://intl.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/304/5674/1160?ck=nck (Subscription required) Note: pay special attention to Figure 3 of the study.
  2. ^ a b "Genome sequence, comparative analysis and haplotype structure of the domestic dog" Nature 438, 803-819 (8 December 2005) | doi:10.1038/nature04338 http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v438/n7069/full/nature04338.html
  3. ^ Willis, Malcolm B.. Genetics of the Dog. 
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