Buying a trained guard dog

[Phteven]

From a professional perspective......
I would never advise a client to get a guard dog to protect their family unless they wanted to pay for a handler as well.
For the really paranoid we generally suggest a well set up electronic system including CCTV, motion detectors, zoned alarms, external lighting, panic buttons and back to base monitoring.
Overcoming these things is much harder than shooting a dog.

There are also numerous tweaks that one can make to the built environment to make your home less intruder friendly.


ETA - having read the thread I believe that several people with experience with guard dogs and German Shepherds have indeed replied and the overwhelming consensus is that they don't believe that your children will be safe.

[Jaycee]

Really, is any job worth putting your family at risk?

[Miss.September]

If it's an ex dog, I'd be wary, especially with young kids. We went through this with our family, getting mature shepherds that were already trained but had been rejected for some reason (like a shepherd who was trained for police but wouldn't stop chasing cats). Each reject dog had serious issues. One would bite. One had separation anxiety. One was rough. My stepmum has extensive knowledge on dog breeding and dog training and every dog she brought home was returned. In the end, she bought a shep puppy - he was raised with four kids around (aged 4-12), he was trained to be an effective guard dog and he was part of the family.

This was my original post. We have done it and it didn't work. It often doesn't work because the dog recognises one master and when you don't train it personally then it doesn't recognise you as that authority. The pup that my stepmum got was trained by her which is why she was able to have him work both at guarding the property and being the family pet.

[Bloom]

Perhaps you could talk to your DH's potential employer about what safety measures they would suggest, if his work will have safety implications for you? I hope you find something that works for you and your family.