# Guard Dog



## kristen (Oct 18, 2011)

Odin surprised the heck out of us two nights ago. He barked at something in the yard (he doesn't usually bark, and this was his BIG bark). I went out to investigate, and he continued to bark at the fence. Sure enough, I look over my fence to my neighbours yard, and find two people doing illegal activity in the alleyway behind my neighbours place. I then said "hello, who's there, what are you doing etc." while the dog continued to bark, and hubby went up on our second story deck and turned all the outside lights on, sure enough all this scared them off.
What surprises me most is that my neighbours are doing construction and there have been tons of strangers in and out of their backyard and house and Odin has never paid any attention. But these two people he knew were out of place, and reacted.

Good guard dog.


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## gunnr (Aug 14, 2009)

They have a very developed sense of what is out of place.
All of my V's have had pretty distinctive barks fo0r different things, but each had a unique bark that meant " Pay Attention, something isn't right here".


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## redbirddog (Apr 23, 2010)

http://redbirddog.blogspot.com/2011/04/vizsla-as-guard-dog.html

They really are good watch / guard dogs. 

Odin got a steak?

RBD


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## kristen (Oct 18, 2011)

Odin got lots of praise and an antler!


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## Crazy Kian (Aug 10, 2009)

Kian is a good guard dog as well...surprisingly enough.
Last summer we had a homeless guy wander on to our deck. Well, Kian decided to stand at the door, hackles raised and start with his low growl and then full on "i'm going to eat your face bark"
At the time I had no clue somebody was back there and then I looked out the door and you could see the gentleman get up off our deck chair and wander off..... this was in the morning while we were getting ready for work.
He's good like that


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## ivyvizsla (Jul 24, 2011)

*What a coincidence!*

I was just going to write a post about our 11mo V and his bark this morning. It really took my breath away. 

We live in a condo building, but have an amazing dog park nearby,and he is well socialized. He plays with all shapes, sizes, and ages, never is aggressive, and is a generally good pup. Lately, when we are in the dog park at night, he's been barking at small children walking with parents. We have tried correcting him, since we are in no danger, but is there something else we should do? 

I left the condo this morning and one of the toddlers in the building was being carried out, and was crying to his parents. The crying sparked our V and he let out his most ferocious warning bark, scaring the poor kiddo even more. I made him lay down, roll on his back, and told him it was okay in a calm assertive tone. Was that not what I should have done? I do not want to reinforce this behavior. He never barks at kids when they are at the condo visiting or other small dogs when we are on walks, only when we are in the dog park and they are walking past the fence. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. He did whine the other day at a rather large spider, and we killed that. Not quite the hunting dog, but as an urban V, I'll take it as a success.


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## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Most Vs are more watch dogs than guard dogs.
I have my problem child Cash that has to be inside his crate if we have any kind of repairman in the backyard without a family member. If we accompany them he's fine. Without us he will leap and snarl at the fence and refuse to let them back there. I don't know if he would bite and no one wants to be the guinea pig to find out.


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## kristen (Oct 18, 2011)

Crazy said:


> Kian is a good guard dog as well...surprisingly enough.
> Last summer we had a homeless guy wander on to our deck. Well, Kian decided to stand at the door, hackles raised and start with his low growl and then full on "i'm going to eat your face bark"
> At the time I had no clue somebody was back there and then I looked out the door and you could see the gentleman get up off our deck chair and wander off..... this was in the morning while we were getting ready for work.
> He's good like that


*Go Kian!!*

We had a homeless guy ring our doorbell a few weeks ago. Odin associates the doorbell with visitors who want to pet him, so grant opens the door holding Odin by the collar, and Odin does his best attempt to jump up to greet who's ever come to visit him. Well that homeless dude got one look of Odin tongue hanging out, trying to jump up at him, and scurried off hella fast. He also keeps a wide berth if we see him on the street while we're walking Odin. haha


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## Crazy Kian (Aug 10, 2009)

*Re: What a coincidence!*



ivyvizsla said:


> I was just going to write a post about our 11mo V and his bark this morning. It really took my breath away.
> 
> We live in a condo building, but have an amazing dog park nearby,and he is well socialized. He plays with all shapes, sizes, and ages, never is aggressive, and is a generally good pup. Lately, when we are in the dog park at night, he's been barking at small children walking with parents. We have tried correcting him, since we are in no danger, but is there something else we should do?
> 
> ...


Kian was like this with small children when he was younger. We just chalked it up to him being unsure of them. We never let him near any if he was barking like mad, but we did correct him when he barked at kids.
Now he'll let kids walk up to him and pet him, which usually ends in a lick to the face....the dog licking the kid, not the other way around


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## Adelle25 (Sep 4, 2011)

IvyVizsla - I have the same problem with my 11 month old, he barks at everything.

He seems nerves around strangers, dogs and children if he doesnt know them, even though he goes to doggy day care and i have children in the family. 

I find him growling at people if they are over formiallar with him or look like they are approaching me. 

Im staring to worry i have an aggressive vizsla!! 

He has been done and this all seem to start after he was done! 

How do you stop them being like that or is it just that they are still young and getting use to new things and how to deal with them,


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## Adelle25 (Sep 4, 2011)

That sent before i finished!! (sorry about the spell didn't even get a chance to check that)

Copper is very protective of me, and i also find that if he is sleeping he doesn't like people getting into his space. 

Hopefully he is just testing things and at that age, as he is also starting to not listen to me all the time!.


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