Molly, now 17 months has started to bark when anyone comes into the garden (clangy gate) and again if/when they knock at the door. She only started doing this from around a year old, very quiet before then. It is not something we encouraged or taught, she just started doing it. As I said on another thread, we wouldn't try to stop her, as we are in a rural area, we are quite glad that she makes a noise if anyone is around.
This is true, and is one reason why anyone who owns a gun (for whatever reason, but especially this one in particular) should attend some initial training and subsequent refresher courses in safe and effective use (please don't get me started on the number of hunters I see with unsafe gun handling ) As a general comment, I think opinions about guns are very much linked to the environments we've been brought up in and the areas we live in (as well as being shaped by the media one watches or reads). For example me, living in a sleepy corner of the Finnish countryside, could never envisage a situation (outside of a war) where I would need a gun for any other reason than hunting or sport. Likewise someone living in a leafy suburb of a nice town in England, or a smart area of a metropolitan city, wouldn't ever have considered it either But we should remember that not everyone enjoys the luxury of living in such safe enviroments.
I don't live in a nice leafy suburb, in fact I live in a area which can be a bit tough. I can't think of any situations that I've been in where having a gun would have been of use it, probably would have got me into more trouble. Also if I'm armed the muggers would be armed and there's the friendly fire problem. I would never call my environment safe but I have not considered weapons. I have however done judo boxing and self protection courses. We have a long family tradition of boxing .
Okay, well, I wasn't really asking about guns, but I suppose it is my fault for bringing up home security/protection! Mind you, I live in the US where guns are very normalized. I never thought I would be the kind of person who would want one in my home but after the other night, my boyfriend is considering it. I was mostly just wanting to share about other people telling me to use my lab for protection which was just silly to me. I just wanted to know if other people's labs were protective of them or if they bark often at strangers or someone at the door. Thank you to everyone who shared their personal experiences with their own dogs! I'm sure once Aspen gets older he will begin to find his voice. But like I said, for now, he is too much of a little pup.
You are indeed lucky enough to live in an area where the threats are at such a low level that you have never ever needed to even consider a weapon more potent than your hands Where I live, I don't even need my hands! But I'm sure there are some places in the world, where even a tank wouldn't keep one safe. Or maybe not. Or maybe they are armed and you're not. Either way, it's a terrible dilemna for someone
Nope, not your fault, it's mine. Sorry for bringing it up. Our boy is protective but not a protector. He barks to make us aware of anything "strange", but the worst a burglar would get would be a good licking and maybe some wee on his shoes.
@Snowy Don't apologize, it's okay! Thank you for your input And haha! I think Aspen would do the same. Any attention from anyone is good in Aspen's eyes
My dog Obi barks very loudly when people come to the door and will continue to bark and look serious about it until he is allowed to go and greet the person (then he turns into a big wiggly waggly wagger). He is held by his collar by me until I decide to let him go. I definitely use him to make strangers think twice about coming to my door. When we first moved in we had several people casing our house (coming to the door "just looking for Lisa" or "just seeing if Sue still lives here") and I made sure they knew I had a big, loud dog. Since then we have had break-ins to our cars but never the house itself (touch wood). If we're expecting a delivery we put Obi in a room with a treat - he knows that routine too because we have practised it a lot (using high value treats) and he will follow me into the room for his treat even if he knows someone has come to the door.
We got axel knowing that his breeder bred ‘guard dogs’ as they live out in the country. They have bears, cougars, wolves etc threatening their live stock often and their labs do really well at scaring them off. I had hoped that this would come out in Axel a bit because we do get the same wildlife in our yard and it makes me a bit nervous. I don’t worry about intruders coming to our door but I am pretty confidenet that Axels deep bark would scare anyone off anyways. He scared a delivery man off once, throwing the parcel at my feet and running, which was a bit much for the man to react like that. But basically ever since we brought him home at 8 weeks, if someone came to the door or walked by our yard he would bark a few times until I would say thank you and call him to me and he would stop, and I would reward him. We had company over not too long ago, they rang the door bell and Axel went running letting out his big barks, I said thank you and he stopped and I opened the door and the one guest said ‘well, I now know to never break in to your house’ So I do feel protected for sure having ‘trained’ this cue. I almost didn’t because I hate dogs barking at the door but then I thought you just never know! We had bears in our yard a week or so ago and I let Axel bark to his heart content but I made sure he stayed with me. Didn’t want to risk him chasing them.
Interestingly when we visited Homer's breeder, a family breeder Homer's father and grandmother came to greet us in the front garden with no barking, just friendly tails wagging. We commented on this they said they never barked much, I remember thinking that I'd rather have a dog that did bark. Homer does bark, possibly because we've allowed, even encouraged him to bark at the door. Fortunately our neighbour is a single mum and quite happy for Homer to bark at our door when people knock on her door. He makes her feel safer too.
My male Lab Max will go for any intruder and they had better run. He is a warrior of note. If your dog is not fully grown you can expect him to be intimidated. It's like asking a baby to take on a fully grown man. On the subject of food and other, at 8 months he had such bad hip displacia he could not touch the ground with his paw for the pain. I was advised to take him to a homeopathic vet. She injected tiny, gold plated balls into the acupuncture point in his rear legs, knees and hips. Five years later still no pain. She saved his life so I follow her advice. She told me that the commercial dog food makers lie about how good they are for dogs. Several vets told me that 40 years ago they never had the incidence of disease they see now. The farmers throw their dogs raw meat and bones. Their dogs are super healthy. She put me on to fresh vegetables lightly steamed and raw pet's mince. A dog is an evolved wolf. Wolves each vegetables. They eat herbivores. The first thing a wolf does is go into the stomach for the delicacy, the herbaceous plants the prey has been eating. My dogs never get sick. I also have rescue female lab. They are incredibly healthy. I feed them brown, unpolished rice, carrots, pumpkin (very important for bowel movement) butternut (too much makes them constipated) beetroot, sweet potato including the skin (white potato is very bad for them especially the skin), etc. I pick up their stools on our daily walk so I can monitor their condition. The raw dog meat, beef or chicken, is not the supermarket variety but from the local butcher (you must deworm every three months). They get fed twice a day and get desert after each meal. Desert is usually an apple each (I slice it thinly as Max swallows but does not chew so it doesn't digest but comes out whole in his pooh), pears, tomatoes (not too many as they are acidic), melon. They get the pumpkin seeds too, good for getting rid of worms. It take out the apple and pear seeds as they are poisonous.
Hi Meg, will bark when someone turns up. Only as an alerter...she settles very quickly. She did this from an early age without training. I live out in the middle of nowhere so I find it very reassuring. She would run away though if someone was harsh to her. My 63kg Alaskan Malamute who looks like a wolf never warns me about a thing, but he is very handy when strangers appear as he just stands silently behind a barking Meg. They make a good pair
Whilst it may be true that they share a high percentage of their DNA with the grey wolf, this does not mean we should treat them the same, or that they are identical. Many problems we have seen in the treatment of dogs over the years can be attributed to people assuming they are the same as wolves. In fact, the percentage of DNA dogs share with grey wolves isn't dissimilar to the percentage that humans share with a bonobo. It doesn't mean we should eat the same or behave the same. Not to say that what you are feeding is wrong, but just be wary when comparing dogs to wolves. They are not the same and haven't been for a very long time indeed.
I heard once that both domestic dogs and wolves evolved from a species that is now extinct. No idea if this is true, but being an internet forum, this view carries as much weight as any
Bonobos society is more matrical I could live with that. Plus they have a very interesting way of solving problems
Hehe! I have heard the same, but I believe that's been disproven more recently. I wrote an article a while back about the evolution of dogs from wolves. The dog is classified as a subspecies of the wolf: Canis lupus familiaris.
