just a reminder that most of the breeds of dogs mentioned are on many ins. cos list of banned breeds. So ask your ins co first about liability for dog breeds. it’s an eye opening experience.
Sure, this is important to remember, but you’re making it sound like all Ridgebacks are untrainable cat killers, which simply isn’t true.
My Ridgebacks have NEVER had cat issues. Period. They live with cats. They see cats at the barn. They’ve never given chase to a cat. I’m sure some of it is due to being raised with cats, and getting a swipe across the nose as puppies. Some of it is training. Some of it is just who they are.
[QUOTE=Megaladon;6115729]
Ugh, here in lies the challenge! The first breeder that comes to mind is Kimbertal. They are in PA. I have never purchased a dog from there, but knew some people that had their line of dogs. They’ve been in business for a long time. Good luck, I know for me searching for a Dobe to my liking is taking forever! :)[/QUOTE]
Hmm if you are serious about a dobe do a lot a lot of research about breeders first! There are lots of dobe specific websites and forums out there with experienced owners who can give you ideas of good breeders as well as some tips on owning a dobe. If look into it though, I think you’ll find kimbertal is not a very reputable breeder, especially in the doberman community.
good luck with your search!
Ridgeback owners?
I have heard that ridgebacks have no personality? Is that true?
ridgebacks have no personality? Is that true?
uh no, of course not.
These can be very difficult dogs- they are, IMHO, best thought of as hunting-type hounds rather than as working-type dogs. If the sensitivity of the sight hound and the independence of the scent hound don’t appeal to you you won’t enjoy a ridgeback. Yes, they can be guardy and territorial.
They don’t look “scary” to most people though, and don’t seem to be into barking all that much, so they may not be the obvious deterrant most people want in a “guard” dog.
[QUOTE=Megaladon;6115729]
Ugh, here in lies the challenge! The first breeder that comes to mind is Kimbertal. They are in PA. I have never purchased a dog from there, but knew some people that had their line of dogs. They’ve been in business for a long time. Good luck, I know for me searching for a Dobe to my liking is taking forever! :)[/QUOTE]
DO NOT GET A DOG FROM KIMBERTAL!!! They are basically one big puppy mill with OFF STANDARD, OVER PRICED dogs. 
[QUOTE=Megaladon;6115729]
Ugh, here in lies the challenge! The first breeder that comes to mind is Kimbertal. They are in PA. I have never purchased a dog from there, but knew some people that had their line of dogs. They’ve been in business for a long time. Good luck, I know for me searching for a Dobe to my liking is taking forever! :)[/QUOTE]
DO NOT GET A DOG FROM KIMBERTAL!!! They are basically one big puppy mill with OFF STANDARD, OVER PRICED dogs.
[QUOTE=bluedapple;6114842]
anyone recomend any good dobe, dane, boxer breeders in pa/nj/ny/de area[/QUOTE]
I sent you a PM on a Dobe breeder.
I worked for Kimbertal Kennels - for a brief time - in the early 1990s. Not coincidentally, I volunteered with a Doberman rescue immediately thereafter. You can draw your own conclusion from that.
:lol: No!
[quote=wendy;6116133]uh no, of course not.
These can be very difficult dogs- they are, IMHO, best thought of as hunting-type hounds rather than as working-type dogs. If the sensitivity of the sight hound and the independence of the scent hound don’t appeal to you you won’t enjoy a ridgeback. Yes, they can be guardy and territorial.
[/quote]
Yes! 
And, since I was remiss in mentioning before: they really, really want to be a ONE person dog. IME, they get confused and tend to act out if they’re a “family” dog and expected to “belong” to multiple people. They will, in general, not listen to anyone other than their one person. It’s nearly impossible to train a Ridgeback puppy in a multi-person household if EVERY person in the house is not committed to maintaining the same rules and restrictions with the puppy, and is going to enforce in the same way–100% of the time.
These are tough dogs. They turn into really wonderful adult dogs, if you put in the work. It is, however, a LOT of work.
I tell horse people this: if you can take a rank stud colt and turn him into a nice horse, you can probably take a Ridgeback puppy and turn it into a nice adult dog. If you don’t have the skills to work with a rank colt, then a Ridgeback puppy is probably not for you.
If you find an adult Ridgeback that has the temperament that you’re looking for, I certainly think it would be worth a look. You will need to maintain a set of consistent expectations, even with a well brought up adult dog. Ridgebacks do not do well if the rules change, or if the rules are not consistent across people who handle them.
LOL! Of course all ridgebacks don’t have prey drive, but consider what they were bred to do -hunt big cats -and I’d say it’s reasonable to expect ridgebacks to have prey drive. Mine live with cats (although of late, as old age and cancer claim them I need to amend my grammar to mine lives with a cat), but outside cats are fair game as far as they were concerned.
No personality? Couldn’t be further from the truth. I think sighthound, being bred to work independently, don’t give you devoted-eyes like other breeds. They should all be called Honey Badger because they don’t give a $hit what you want LOL. These are very independent dogs. Trainable of course, but not the most easily trained.
Paula
[QUOTE=diffuse01;6112506]
Ack, hate seeing people suggest Pit Bulls or Amstaffs for guard dogs. That is NOT what these dogs were bred to do! They should be exceptionally human friendly. My dogs will bark if someone rings the door bell, but if they walked in the house, I have a feeling the worst that would happen is that they’d get licked to death.
Go for a guardian breed, many of them are short haired. Dobe’s have been mentioned, they’re awesome. American Bulldogs are another breed that should work, although my friend has one that would probably pee herself if someone yelled at her LOL. Really depends on the dog.[/QUOTE]
My PB is not un-friendly - on the contrary as I pointed out he is great with all children and anyone he knows and most people he doesn’t know. Some people he needs to warm up to, mostly men. However, I do know he is protective of me. He does bark at the door when people knock. There are plenty of stories of PB’s defending their owners, while not being totally “guardy” dogs - as you say more friendly, happy go lucky. I thought it might be a nice solution for the OP, getting the feeling of safety while not having a real guardy dog.
We had Rotties for many years, but for our next dog we decided to get a Boxer. My female is medium sized, about 65 lbs., she’s now about 4 years old.
Some “guard dog”…she will lick you to death while her stumpy tail falls off from wagging…
OR SO I THOUGHT…We had a snowstorm a few weeks ago, and DH was out plowing. I heard some banging noises downstairs by our garage bays, thought DH was home…Nope, no tracks in the snow. Wellll, long story short, some as*hole kid had driven through our property (in the early AM), up to the hay fields, came back down by our sawmill, and run out of gas, and was “trying to see who was home”…by banging around.
Well, my cute little Boxer gal turned into a raging guardian!! I have NEVER seen such a transformation-she was at full bristle, and I have never heard such loud barks and low throaty growls from her before. Needless to say, the young, somewhat oafish young man was sent on his way by my husband (who I had called) with a few gallons of gas, and a warning to stay the h*ll off the property.
So DON’T write Boxers off as guardians!!! If he had tried something when I was outside, I think he would have been challenged by my girl, and NOT in a good way!
[QUOTE=lesson junkie;6111774]
Airedales were on my short list before I got my Dobe-Akitas, Malinois, German
Shepards, too.
I’m not sure I am assertive enough for an Airedale. The Jack Russells give me all I can handle-add 65 lbs and I would be in way over my head! The Malinois too, I thought would be too tough for me.
I got discouraged about finding a healthy German Shepard-hip and elbow problems, skin problems…and I decided the Akita would just be too big to go everwhere with me-I wanted my dog to fit in the cab of the pickup and still leave room for me and the JRTs. My dog has finished out at 85 lbs-bigger than I expected, but we manage.
The Doberman turned out to be a good choice for me. My biggest problem was finding a breeder who would sell me a pup without the ears cropped.[/QUOTE]
I have Malinois’s and while they are the quintessial guard dog they need lots of stimulus and lots of socialization - they will bite someone who just walks in your house - so they need the right situation and someone who has lots of time.
But there is not a better more loyal dog in the world…they are great with my kids, cats etc…
Just need to be very very vigorous about socializing them and giving them things to do. They excel at obedience, guarding and agility.
So I think a lot of people use the term “guard dog” when perhaps they just mean “watch dog.” If you want a dog who will guard AND protect, you need to commit to a dog that has been bred for it and then commit to years of training (or buy a super spendy ready made dog who will likely need a lot of consistent follow-up training).
If you want a “watch dog,” you can do well with any menacing looking dog with a big bark. Shoot, if my greyhound barked more, I think she’d work just super for a watch dog, as she is tall enough to seem threatening (compared to the neighbors with no dog at all) and also has a HUGE bark due to her deep chest.
In my opinion, as others have said, it is unfair to expect a dog to be a true guard or personal protection dog if they are not BOTH bred for it and trained for it. I know a lot of people with dobes that assume their dog will fight for them to the death, but that often ends up not being the case. Breeding of most breeds that were originally personal protection has been diluted immensely in an effort to create a safer family dog.
A true guard and personal protection dog is BIG commitment. They are like carrying a loaded handgun with you that also has a mind of its own. You can suddenly be at fault during a robbery if the circumstances are right and your dog bit someone (even the robber, look up some cases). You will almost absolutely be at fault if a friend opened your gate and got bit (however minimally) by your “personal protection” dog, no matter its level of training. You can avoid a lot of those legal issues even with “scary” breeds by not putting up “beware of dog” signs and the like and NOT training your dog in PP sports.
My feelings: DO get a security system and then DO get a big scary LOOKING dog who is really just a barking sap. If you are experienced and trained, also get a shotgun and feel free to pump it loudly if you feel threatened.
I’m of the group who would be devastated if my dog got killed during a personal invasion. I’m the person who while out walking my dog gets in front of my 75 pound dog if I feel she might be in harm’s way (whether from human, dog, or car). I don’t consciously do it (it’s always just my first action without thinking), but I’ve certainly stepped in front of my girl on more than one occasion when I felt she might be in danger (from other dogs, humans, and more than one car.) Shoot, I do it with my 1,000 pound horse too on occasion even when he can CLEARLY take the impending kick or bite better than I can. I guess I just know that MOST horses will think twice about an aggressive looking human they don’t know who makes loud growling noises, haha.
My personal favorite “deterrent” dogs: dobes and danes. I think dobes are the smarter and more capable personal protection dog if you want to train them that way. But I think danes are the easier to handle dog that still packs an immense visual punch (and BARK). If you have one or two danes out in a yard, NO ONE is coming in unless you have serious serious valuables they know about. Pretty similar with dobes too despite being half the size.
If you think you’d like to work into a WORKING personal protection dog, I’d still recommend a dobe out of calm show lines in the U.S. It is a big change getting a highly driven working dobe that has been bred to work and protect. Most well bred dobes in the U.S. can handle that job fine until you have the experience to move to the next level. Then you can start looking into seriously bred working dogs. Even a well bred US show type dobe will still be a challenge due to smarts and energy.
Whatever breed you do decide, go check out a few breed forums and scope them out for a couple of months (or more, really). Here you will usually find people very involved in the breed who can recommend wonderful responsible breeders (SUPER important in many of the best watch/guard/working breeds, definitely dobes, danes, and others that are well known and popular).
Dobes are one of my faves, but they DO shed despite a short coat, they DO have health problems that are only slightly mitigated by very responsible breeding, and they are some of the WORST for having a large number of backyard breeders who don’t care about quality at all. A poorly bred dobe can become a nightmare. If you don’t need a protection pro though, I would encourage a rescue: these purebred rescues are usually great about determining temperament beforehand and work their butts off to make sure a compatible home is found. Plus, if the look and bark is all you really need for deterrence, a rescue dog fits the bill beautifully.
In addition, the dobes I’ve known have been WONDERFUL family dogs and have been very trainable as far as living with other pets goes (cats, small dogs, horses, etc.)
[QUOTE=threedogpack;6111113]
ADT makes an alarm that doesn’t shed, is unafraid of strangers and won’t cause you to lose your homeowners insurance.[/QUOTE]
Alarms are pretty useless on a remote farm. How quickly will the police arrive??
It has already been mentioned on this thread a couple of times but it’s worth emphasizing again. Check your HOME INSURANCE for their list of banned dogs. Doberman may well be on it.
He’s a little far away (Northern Ontario) but here is a lovely Dobe that needs a home:
http://www.gsshelter.ca/meetdogs.html
He looks awfully worried…if I thought two males would be no problem I would be on my way to get him.
And he and the thousands of others are the reason I get so pissed off with people not even bothering to try and rescue. Particularly with Dobes since MOST breeders are not supplying you “bang for your buck”. I also don’t believe most people should seek out working lines/dogs unless they are actually going to work! A rescue Dobe will do all that the average owner needs with minimal work (provided the owner has a bit of a clue). So save a life and stop encouraging all the half-assed breeding operations out there.
Sorry to highjack…I shouldn’t even read these types of threads…I just look at that Dobes face and my blood boils…
I wonder why they say he’s a mix…he obviously isn’t!
[QUOTE=vtdobes;6127124]
I wonder why they say he’s a mix…he obviously isn’t![/QUOTE]
I know! He looks quite correct! I have seen many $$ breeder dogs with fancy bloodlines look far worse.
