Top Breeds of Dog for Survival and Home Defense
Last week's survival article focused on the benefits and drawbacks of dogs in a survival situation. Dogs are of course man's best friend. Today's survival article focuses on a few different breeds of dogs that are ideal for defense and survival.
Best Guard Dogs:
The German Shepherd won't come as a surprise to anyone reading this. They are highly intelligent, friendly, and loyal. This is why German Shepherd dogs are the most common choice for law enforcement agencies. When someone made up the phrase “Man's best friend” they were probably talking about this dog.
German Shepherd dogs can be trained to defend, warn, and alert but training is the key word here. You may want to invest in a dog that is already trained or buy a book or program that will guide you in quality training. This is a breed that is true to the phrase “you can't teach an old dog new tricks” so get a puppy.
The Rottweiler is another great home defense dog. They are also very loyal dogs with great intelligence. More so than many large dog breeds they need activity and socialization. Also very adaptive to training, this is a dog that you want to get young so you can train them.
The Siberian Huskie is a very popular working dog. More than capable at intimidating an intruder or attacking this dog is known for literally pulling it's own weight. This breed tends to perform best in rural environments similar to where they were bred. Huskie's are not automatically loyal like many other breeds, requiring that a trainer or owner earn the dog's respect.
Best Hunting Dogs:
Pointers are great dogs for hunting. Commonly used for bird hunting pointers are very observant and work well with commands. Easy to train and great at working in groups. Pointers are generally not as good at retrieving small game and can even be scared off by a predator but few things slip past them.
Retrievers come in a lot of different breeds from the Golden Retriever to the various breeds of Labradors. Retrievers are really good at… you guessed it… retrieving. This can be super helpful when hunting small game and birds. They can also be trained to perform a lot of tasks like collecting eggs. Though not as intimidating as the “guard” breeds above both Pointers and Retrievers can scare off an intruder and alert you to threats.
I can’t believe you left out Dobermans. They are sweet, loving, highly intelligent and fiercely loyal to their families. Just a picture of a Doberman is enough to turn a burglar away.
My Doberman is a sweet tempered, loving girl, and is constantly in touch with her situational awareness of where everyone is in the house. Her hearing is exceptional and is only surpassed by her unwavering loyalty to our family. On the flip side, she would deter any intruder. Leaving out the Doberman is a mistake
Very true, Dobermans have a bad reputation from years ago when certain stupid individuals trained Dobermans as attack dogs. This is not their personality but, it does show how well they can be trained. Dobermans were also used in some popular movies as the bad guys so their evil reputation grew. It’s a lot like pit bulls.