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Guard Dogs
A guard dog or watch 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 dogs's function ends here, while a guard dog might be trained to
restrain or attack the intruder.
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 Schutzhund training. Occasionally, guard dogs are trained to attack
human intruder(s), though this practice is generally illegal.
Livestock Guardian Dogs
Livestock Guardian Dogs are dogs of breeds which were bred to
independently live with and guard livestock such as sheep. Livestock guardian
dogs are often large enough and strong enough to attack and drive away
predators such as wolves.
Unlike a herding dog, a Livestock Guardian
Dog does not control the movement of the flock with predatory actions towards
it. Instead, they blend into the flock and generally ignore the individual
animals in favour of keeping an eye out for potential threats.
Livestock Guardian Dogs are generally large, protective and independent,
which can make them less than ideal for suburban or urban living and
housepets. None the less, they are often chosen for their guardian qualities
towards children, and will be as protective of their family as they would be
of their flock.
Livestock Guardian Dogs are also used as guard dogs for people and
property. Generally, most Livestock Guardian Dogs around the world
are still kept as working dogs.
There has been an increased interest in the traditional uses of a Livestock
Guardian Dog in North America, where Livestock Guardian Dogs allow for
predator control that is effective and less environmentally damaging than
trapping and poisoning.
Fighting Dogs
Most breeds used as guard dogs were also used as fighting dogs, in sports
such as dog fighting, bull baiting, and bear baiting. These sports are
illegal today in most parts of the world.
Guard dogs include:
Bulldog
Great Dane
Mastiff
Schipperke
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from
Wikipedia and from
Wag-Dog.com
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