When thinking of getting a dog for protection, be careful . 77% of dog bites are done to the family or friends of the owner. The majority of those bitten are younger than 15 y/o. As was mentioned, if you are just looking for a dog that barks when strangers come around, then most breeds will work and can be encouraged to do so
I however, have always gone to great lengths not to have dogs that are constant barkers. I live in the city and don't appreciate all the neighbor's dogs barking every time they see someone. I also use to train retrievers professionaly and compete with them . No one wants to hear 20 dogs on a truck barking every time so one goes near it. Teaching "quiet" is something I have always done.
If I'm not home the dogs will bark if someone comes to the door and sounds intimidating but they do not bark when I'm home or they are out in the yard.
While the golden used to be the number one biter in the U.S. , this is no longer true. When this statistic was true it was when the golden was the number one owned breed in the U.S. It makes some sense that the breed with the highest population numbers would also have the most bites. Both these distinctions now appear to belong to labs and lab mixes.
There is a distinction between bites though. Since there is no national data base for NON-fatal dog bites, data varies from study to study depending on where they got their statistics. Most use ER data. This also leads to some discrepincies since you would expect more bites by big dogs ( retrievers, etc, ) to need ER treatment then say bites by yorkies or other small dogs.
There is a national data base for fatal dog bites though and here are the top 10 offenders by breed.
The 10 breeds involved in the most lethal attacks over the past ten years are :
1.pit bulls
2.rottweilers
3.German shepherds
4.huskies
5.malamutes
6.Dobermans
7.chow chows
8.St. Bernards
9.Great Danes
10. Akitas
Again if you look at the breeds, all are larger dogs and at one time or another most were bred either for protecting people or in large animal hunting where agressiveness and big bite power were needed for survival.
Dave B
I however, have always gone to great lengths not to have dogs that are constant barkers. I live in the city and don't appreciate all the neighbor's dogs barking every time they see someone. I also use to train retrievers professionaly and compete with them . No one wants to hear 20 dogs on a truck barking every time so one goes near it. Teaching "quiet" is something I have always done.
If I'm not home the dogs will bark if someone comes to the door and sounds intimidating but they do not bark when I'm home or they are out in the yard.
While the golden used to be the number one biter in the U.S. , this is no longer true. When this statistic was true it was when the golden was the number one owned breed in the U.S. It makes some sense that the breed with the highest population numbers would also have the most bites. Both these distinctions now appear to belong to labs and lab mixes.
There is a distinction between bites though. Since there is no national data base for NON-fatal dog bites, data varies from study to study depending on where they got their statistics. Most use ER data. This also leads to some discrepincies since you would expect more bites by big dogs ( retrievers, etc, ) to need ER treatment then say bites by yorkies or other small dogs.
There is a national data base for fatal dog bites though and here are the top 10 offenders by breed.
The 10 breeds involved in the most lethal attacks over the past ten years are :
1.pit bulls
2.rottweilers
3.German shepherds
4.huskies
5.malamutes
6.Dobermans
7.chow chows
8.St. Bernards
9.Great Danes
10. Akitas
Again if you look at the breeds, all are larger dogs and at one time or another most were bred either for protecting people or in large animal hunting where agressiveness and big bite power were needed for survival.
Dave B
