Are Golden Retrievers Protective?

The Golden Retriever breed is one of the most beloved and well-known dog breeds around. Many people love these pretty dogs with their long and silky hair and happy, smiling faces. This is a great dog choice for a family for many reasons, but people sometimes want to know if their Golden Retriever will be protective as well as sweet and happy.

Golden Retrievers can actually be protective on behalf of their family, and they will make noise and show intruders or people they don’t trust that they don’t like certain actions. While this is a breed that is mostly known for being kind and easygoing, they do love their families, and they will stand up for them if there is a threat. A Golden Retriever can offer the right balance of a sweet and loving family dog and a noisy protector if you are looking for both things.

If you want to know some more about how protective Golden Retrievers are, you need to keep reading.

Why Golden Retrievers Make Good Protection Dogs

While there are many breeds that are more closely associated with protection dog work, like the Doberman or the Rottweiler, there are many features of the Golden Retriever breed that make them good protectors as well. The Golden Retriever has the following features that make them an excellent protection dog for you and your family:

• Big
• Obedient
• Loyal
• Smart
• Big bark
• Capable of showing aggression

The nice thing about picking a Golden Retriever instead of another breed that was bred specifically for protection work is that these are much more laid-back dogs overall. You will not have to worry about your Golden Retriever hurting anyone or being hyper-aggressive when protection actions are not needed.

This is often the main argument against getting a protection dog for you and your family. It can be a big responsibility to have a dog that is willing to defend you if something happens. You do not want to have to deal with someone being bitten by your dog or someone complaining about your dog if you live in an apartment. A Golden Retriever will be friendly with everyone unless there is some reason not to be.

If you have kids in the house as well, having a dog who is kid-safe but also willing to protect the house is important. The Golden Retriever can do both of these tasks with ease and also be fun to spend time with. Being able to take your dog that you got to guard your house out to the dog park without concerns can be a big relief for most pet owners.

A Golden Retriever’s Bark Can be Protective

One of the best reasons to choose a Golden Retriever if you want to make sure that your house is safe is their big bark. The Golden Retriever has a very large bark, and this can keep bad actors away from your home or property with ease. Most criminals or people who are up to no good will not visit a house with a big dog barking inside of it.

This is one of the best reasons to get a dog with a loud voice, as this can deter all kinds of criminal activity that could impact you and your family. When you are not at home, your dog can do a lot of work to make sure that your home is safe just by being noisy. No one on the outside of the house will know that a Golden Retriever is the dog that is barking. They will just hear a big barking dog and leave the house alone.

This is one of the most important services that a dog can do to guard your home, and you will be able to get access to this kind of protection with a Golden Retriever as part of your family. Due to the size of the Golden Retriever’s bark, you can also count on them to protect you when you are out walking or when they are outside as well. Never underrate a loud and powerful bark when thinking about protection for you and your family.

Golden Retrievers Are Willing to Step In to Protect You

This is one of the other key elements that you need to be looking for when selecting a dog that will protect you. You do not want to have a dog in your family that runs away from danger or who leaves you when the going gets tough. This is not a helpful action for your dog to take if you are expecting them to protect you from people or things in your environment that could harm you.

A Golden Retriever is extremely loyal, and they will hurry to help you out if they think that you need to be saved from something. There are few dogs who are as loyal as a Golden Retriever, and you can find stories all over the place online about dogs who have saved their owners from other animal attacks, intruders, and more. This is one of the best reasons that you will enjoy having a Golden Retriever in your home. Being able to count on your dog to protect you and care for you offers a lot of peace of mind.

The other factor related to the loyalty of a Golden Retriever is that they are easy to train and love spending time with you as well. It can be great to have a dog in your home who loves to spend time with you and who never gets tired of doing what you want to do with them. Loyalty can be good for so many things, protection being just one of them.

Golden Retrievers Are Easy to Train

If you are looking for a protective dog, you will need to find a dog who is easy to train. You cannot count on a dog to protect you who does not listen to you and who does not learn the necessary skills readily. This is one of the reasons that a Golden Retriever can be such a great choice for a protection dog and many people love that they can trust that the training they have done on their Golden Retriever will work no matter what.

When something scary happens, you need to be able to count on your dog to act, but you also need to be sure that you can call your dog back to you when necessary. It can be really hard to call off some more aggressive dog breeds, which can be a concern for a whole host of reasons. You can trust that your Golden Retriever will listen to you even when they are worried or are protecting you. This is a very valuable trait and one that makes the Golden Retriever a great protection dog.

You can teach your Golden Retriever to act in certain situations in a protective manner, but you will not have to worry about them becoming aggressive to other dogs or anyone who you want to welcome into your home. This is a really important balance to be able to strike with any dog that you choose to have as a protected animal in your home. Being able to trust that you can train your dog to be as protective as you want can have a big impact on the effectiveness of their ability to protect your home.

What Are Some Other Reasons a Golden Retriever Can be a Good Guard Dog?

There are a few other factors that make a Golden Retriever a good guard dog:

Size

Their size is one of the most important reasons that they are a great choice for a guard dog. They are not a really large breed like a Great Dane, but they are not small dogs. The size of a dog can be a big deterrent, and many criminals or bad actors are scared of all big dogs, even if the dog looks friendly.

A large dog is always better protection for your home than a small dog because people are worried about engaging with a large dog when it is upset. This is a nice factor to have with the Golden Retriever since they are also usually so gentle. Really big dogs also tend to have a shorter lifespan which can be really hard for owners. You will avoid many of the pitfalls and stresses of owning a very large dog when you get a Golden Retriever and get all of the associated benefits.

Having a medium to a large-sized dog can make all the difference when you are looking for protection for yourself and your family. While your small dog might make a lot of noise and could be willing to try and bite someone who was hurting you, the person will be much less frightened of a small dog than a big dog.

Intellect

Another reason that your Golden Retriever can be a great guard dog is that they are very smart. It requires some judgment for your guard dog to know when to step up to the plate and when they are not needed. You can count on your Golden Retriever to make sure that you are safe and to know when there is no need to act aggressively.

Sometimes this is the downfall of other, more famous protection breeds. They are not ever able to relax, and they might mistake someone friendly for someone threatening. Your Golden Retriever is smart enough and sensible enough to know the difference and to make very few mistakes about this part of their job. A Golden Retriever is easy to teach new skills due to their intellect as well, so being around your pet is never stressful when you pick this breed for you and your family.

The intelligence of the Golden Retriever breed also means that they are highly obedient. This was talked about earlier, but the intelligence of this breed cannot be overstated enough. Being smart is one of the key reasons that the Golden Retriever breed is so ideal when it comes to protecting you and your family.

Prey Drive

Another reason that a Golden Retriever is a good guard dog is that they have strong prey drives. This can be more helpful when it comes to keeping other animals out of your backyard, but it can also be a big help if your dog guards the fence line of your property. Your Golden Retriever will be motivated to seek out anything that they think does not smell right or look right due to their hunting dog breeding.

This means that Golden Retrievers will often go exploring to look for the source of a sound or a smell or a sight to see if things are safe or not. When a Golden Retriever is on the case, they are not likely to let up until they find the thing that interests them and decides if it is an issue or not. Being sure that your dog will look around for threats and verify if they are a problem or not once they find them can be a big benefit to having this dog breed in your family.

You do need to be sure that your dog has good recall so that you can call them back if they are hunting down something that you want them to leave alone. Skunks and snakes can be a big problem for dogs with a strong prey drive, and you will want to be able to call your dog back if they are tracking down an animal that might hurt them in some way. You might also need to have a good recall in place to make sure that your dog does not bother a specific person for too long. Once someone has been discouraged from bothering you and your family, you need to be sure that your dog will leave them alone.

Kid-Focused

Golden Retrievers love children, and they will often go above and beyond to keep the kids in their families safe. This is a natural skill that Golden Retrievers do not need to be taught, and most of them show this affection and care for younger family members and other smaller animals in the home as well. You will be able to count on your Golden Retriever to take care of the kids and the small pets in your family above other things without having to be shown that this matters to you.

Golden Retrievers are great family dogs because they love to play with kids, but also because they are willing to protect them when the need arises. You can be sure that your Golden Retriever will have an eye out for possible danger when they are with the kids in the backyard, and they will alert everyone if someone happens that should not. The peace of mind that comes from having a Golden Retriever in your family cannot really be overstated.

You will be able to trust that your kids are safe and protected due to the presence of the dog in the backyard or at the park, or on a walk. This is really important for peace of mind, especially if your kids come home from school before you get home from work. This is also one of the instincts that make the Golden Retriever a great farm dog since they view smaller animals with the same loving, protective attention.

How to Train Your Golden Retriever to be a Guard Dog

If you have a Golden Retriever already, you might be wondering how you can teach your dog to be more protective of you and your loved ones. This is something that is usually best to be accomplished with the guidance of a professional. There are many dog trainers who teach dogs protection skills, and you will get a lot of useful information from this kind of trainer if you want to be sure that your dog is actually trained correctly.

There are actually dog training schools that are made just to teach protection skills, but Golden Retrievers are not the usual focus for this kind of training. You might not want your dog to know this much about protection work, which is why a dog trainer who can come to your home might be an ideal fit for this need. Make sure that you think about just how much protection training you want your dog to have before you dive into any intensive training program. You can’t turn back some of this really intense training, so you need to be sure that you want your dog to have these skills before you agree to start with this kind of training program.

If you want to work on some skills at home that can be used to make sure that you and your family are safe and secure, these tips will help you out. One of the first steps that you need to take is to make sure that your dog will come to you when you call them, no matter what. A recall is important for so many reasons, but it is key if you are trying to make sure that your dog will come back to you when a tense situation occurs. This is usually the very first step in any kind of dog training and you need to work on this for a while before it will be really reliable as a cue.

The next thing that you can train is for your dog to bark on command. As mentioned before, the bark of a big dog can deter criminals, and sometimes having your dog bark is enough to make someone leave you alone or leave your house alone. Being sure that your dog will bark on command can be very helpful in lots of situations and you can work on this skill at home without the help of a trainer with ease.

You can also encourage any kind of noisy or protective behavior that you want to have your dog display with a treat. This needs to be done carefully so that you are not giving your dog permission to be aggressive all the time. You might only want to reward barking at the fence when people pass by or barking at the door when someone shows up, for example. Be careful about this part of the training process and make sure that you are not allowing behavior that you do not want your dog to show in the future.

Training your dog to be obedient and polite can be just as important as teaching them to be protective. You will need to do both kinds of work with your dog if you want them to be a good protector who is also a good friend for your family. Being responsible about training your dog to take care of you and your loved ones is key and you might want to get the help of a trainer for this part of your dog’s education process.

Golden Retrievers Are Naturally Protective

The Golden Retriever breed is one of the kindest and most lovely dogs breeds out there. This is a big, sweet, pretty dog who is willing to go on adventures with you, who will love you and your kids, and who can be kept in a house or an apartment or even a farm with ease. This is also a breed that is naturally protective and which has a big bark that will keep people away from your home when you are away.

While this is not the first breed that people think of when they are looking at getting a protection dog, this is a breed that is of the right size, has a big and loud bark, and can be trained to take care of this need. The Golden Retriever is a lovely dog breed that will protect your family when this kind of action is needed.

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