I've read they make horrible watch dogs, but I mean more in the sense of protecting their "pack" members. Like hypothetically, say you were walking your dog and a mugger accosted you and attempted to steal your purse, laptop bag, whatever the case may be. If you felt threatened, or the person started physically harming you, would your dog attempt to intervene or just watch? I like to think all dogs would have that protective sense, I once had a little chihuahua who would go off on anybody even just horsing around with me, and my old pit bull was the same way. Both were excellent dogs, nice and friendly to everyone, but you had better not mess with their daddy lol.

Ps. Sorry if this has already been covered, but I'm on my phone and can't seem to find a search bar function.

I'm of the belief that if a dog isn't at least somewhat trained to protect you, chances are they won't. My two do seem protective inside the house, but walking around outside is a different story. They are super friendly to everyone (which I'm thankful for), so I don't see them going on the offensive if someone started attacking me. Not without some form of training...

Let's say someone came up and shoved me. I personally wouldn't want them to get aggressive over that, as I'd be too worried that their aggressiveness could fester in other situations. I want be the one to protect my dogs rather than the other way around.

Here's a great video where a girl did a study between trained vs untrained dogs regarding this question:

Shaqua hasn't met a stranger. I think if someone broke into the house that she would just wag her tail and try to get the to pet her. Siberians really aren't guard dogs...

I'm not sure what Evie would do. She loves on anybody that walks through the door or that we encounter outside, but she gets really weird/concerned when people touch me. My poor hubby gets the evil eye and she tries to squeeze in between us when he hugs me. She's a goof, but no telling what she'd do if I were actually in distress.

If someone manages to sneak up on Pippa, she'll actually bark at them, but that has very little to do with protectiveness.

That video was very interesting. I would be interested to see it done with untrained dogs that belonged to someone. I feel like that might yield very different results, especially with a GSD. Also, I doubt the little girl was giving off any feelings of actually being afraid. Dogs feed off of our energy in most circumstances, so I feel like that might play a part as well. Very interesting stuff.

CavingSiberian wrote:

Shaqua hasn't met a stranger. I think if someone broke into the house that she would just wag her tail and try to get the to pet her.

I'm pretty sure mine would do the same thing. Everyone we come across outside on the road they just can't wait to meet. Even if in the house messing around wrestling with my boyfriend and I call for the dogs to help, Darwin just comes up and wants to lick my face. When people come over, expected or unexpected, the tail starts wagging and he's right there to great them.

I personally think that my dogs wouldn't do anything.

Agreed Katie, exactly. And, the intruder in the untrained sequences wasn't masked or wielding a weapon as wildly.

But the energy is the key. You can't simulate human emotions in a "lab" setting like that.

I have nothing empirical, but I'm convinced that no dog is gonna sit back smiling or being passive if the actual owner is actually being attacked or threatened in a legitimate, non-playful or experimental way. Just my inclination.

This is a very interesting question. Has anybody found any good studies or articles about this other than the one Matt posted?

This isn't about human protection but it is still relevant. Zoe was playing with a puppy for a long time at the dog park the other day and a little later a blue pit started being really aggressive with the puppy over a toy in the park. It actually snapped at the puppy and put its hackles up and was obviously not playing. Zoe came sprinting from halfway across the 2.5 acre park and tackled the pit! She had her guard hairs up and showed her teeth. I started sprinting over to her but I think she scared/knocked the wind out of the other dog because it ran to its owner.

I didn't know Zoe had that in her but I guess her mommy instincts came out. She had met this puppy many times before as we both frequent the dog park. I think that she felt the puppy was part of her pack. She never is dominant or aggressive. In fact she is the most submissive dog I have ever seen and usually a little scaredy cat princess.

So where this ties in is that I think if their "pack" is in danger they can go outside their norm to help. Probably just instinct...

That's really interesting about Zoe. Very cute!

Shaqua does that with my parents dog, Sasha (a shiba inu). My sister got a new beagle, Jake, and he was overpowering poor, skittish Sasha and Shaqua interrupted him and chased him around. It was quite amusing to watch. She would paw at him and then chase him around. Later they became good friends and would play (with Jake). Sasha and Shaqua never play, but they know they are part of the same family. Shaqua doesn't play with too many dogs, but puppies she can play with for hours. It's strange....

I second your inquiry, Chris! I wonder if there is any other research looking into this?

I'm not sure how mine would react, Milla would probably be very friendly - however I have come up behind them in the yard and went boo and had them turn around and bark at me, so if someone entered our yard and surprised them they may bark and then try to lick them.

Hunter our Mal is very protective over Milla, which can be a problem with other dogs, particularly males and other northern breeds and is something we're working on. Out on walks if a dog starts barking in a yard he will try and position himself between me and Milla and the dog, he kind of tries to heard you. But other than that they are a-typical of the breeds and love all people.

I don't have any research but I used to think that Saphire wouldn't as she is like most of the other husky's already mentioned and thinks everyone is a friend.

However, the other day we were walking and this guy was walking behind me. I have to admit I felt a little bit uncomfortable and decided to step to the side and let him pass me. I'm kind of funny about people being behind me. She must have sensed that I was uncomfortable because when I stepped to the side and slowed way down, she placed herself between me and the guy and while she didn't growl she did have hair on end and was standing at attention if that makes sense. She made sure she stayed between me and him as he passed and stayed in this alerted stance until he was out of sight. I think she would have attacked if he had tried anything.

It was the first time ever that she wasn't immediately in her normal "ooohhh pet me" mode.

Nunya would not protect me but Snoopy would at least bark and body block.

I believe that to a degree certain dogs can have a natural protective drive, however this is different than a aggression. When we had our doberman she was the sweetest dog ever, but if some came over while us kids were home alone and we felt threatened, she would stand at the top of the stairs that lead to outside and give a low growl. She would NOT let anyone in the house if we didn't recognize them, but as soon as we recognized them or if we called our parents to confirm that that person could be there and we felt safe again, she was a completely different dog. She wasn't trained to be protective at all, this was just her nature.

I've heard other stories from other people about dogs that were never protective unless there was a direct threat. One lady was swimming alone and a bunch of drunk guys showed up. One of the guys was playing with her dog who was super friendly and then all of a sudden he just started running toward the lady and the dog jumped up, grabbed the guys belt and sat down. This dog also had no protection training.

My girls would not protect me against anyone, they might protect me if a dog was attacking me. If i was being attacked by someone they'd probably run scared. I don't really want a protective dog because i'd be worried it would get hurt trying to protect me.

I don't know for sure, but I'm all most positive my girls would protect me, especially Sheba. Kennedy would probably let a stranger walk in the house if I wasn't home, but if I get startles by someone knocking on the door, Sheba will let out a deep growl and Kennedy's hair stands on in and she braces herself at the door.

Sometimes Sheba is more bark then bite, but I just have this feeling if someone was really going to threaten me, she'd have no problem kicking some booty..especially against another dog. I'm not really sure how far it would have to go for Kennedy to step in, but with the Shepard in her, she's always on some kind of alert. She will love on people like a lab, but she is very in tune to my emotions which just makes me smile. If push came to shove, I have a lot of faith in my girls to try to protect me.

Which like you Abby, worries me they will get hurt.

Wow a lot of interesting and varied responses, not bad for a second topic. :-)

Just to be clear though, I didn't mean aggression in any way, I can see why it would be perceived as such though. I just meant what most people said, being protective of their pack in a hypothetical dangerousthreatening circumstance.

I would want to be the one protecting my animals too, and hope such a situation would never arise to begin with. I was simply curious about others experience, because like someone already mentioned, I always have thought dogs were all kind of hardwired if you will, and had a basic instinct to protect other pack members in a life or death situation. Since they have shown to be able to sense our emotions, I just considered the possibility they would be able to tell we were really scared or in trouble.

The dogs I mentioned previously, knew I wasn't in real danger, and would usually just bark at whomever was wrestling/messing with me, or try to get between us or lick someone to death. One instance the little chihuahua bit a friends girlfriend on the ankle, but I think she knew I wasn't really fond of the friends gf. She was nonetheless scolded for biting and of course was never trained for any sort of protecting (haha could you imagine a 10lb chihuahua being very useful in that aspect anyway! Although little dogs always seem to have that big dog complex, they show no fear, at least in most of my experiences.)
But all that aside, I always felt like she was protective with me in a sense, I rescued her off the street and I just think she was really grateful, and I always felt like she would do her best to help me if I was in real trouble. :-)

Thanks to everyone who answered, I very much enjoyed reading your replies. I love this forum and I don't even have a sibe yet... Soon though hopefully. :-)

Kerian is my little guard dog any noises she hears out side she will bark a warning bark. She has gotten protective of Blaze when is didn't want his nail cut she got upset. Now she barks when someone comes to the house but once they are inside she just want to be loved on and petted. If we see people or dogs when walking she just want to play with them.

https://www.itsahuskything.com/t6909-would-your-husky-protect-you?highlight=protect
We had this discussion a while back and there were some interesting responses before.

Karli would not only ask for pets, she would tell the stranger where I keep my jewelry. She doesn't protect me if my hubby and I are wrestling, she just thinks she's being left out and tries to get kisses too. Even if we are just hugging, she's right there wanting to join in. She might protect me from another dog but I doubt she would from another person.

I think there are some huskies who could be trained to have some protection behaviors...but as the general rule, if someone attacked you they would likely A) think it was a game and jump into the pile to wrestle or B) Go YAY! They dropped the leash! I'm free! ...and take off running.

As I said, there are exceptions to every rule. But I sure wouldn't count on a husky looking out for your well being. Better just to focus on their impossible cuteness and perpetually happy disposition....

Well cool thanks for the link, will get to reading that. I figured this had to have been covered before, but I can't find a search bar on my phone. :-( once again thanks everyone who contributed, the stories/theories were fun to read. This forum is awesome, and friendly. Must like breed it's named for. :-)

Much* not must! Us there an edit post function btw? Sorry for jumping topics.

Much* not must! Is* there an edit post function btw? Sorry for jumping topics.

Apparently my phone hates me today.

So I just experienced my first "protective" encounter with Micole. I had the lawn man come out today to do the entire yard... Micole sat there watched his every move! (my living room is full of windows ceiling to floor)Then when he came by the windows to trim the bushes she freaked and ran up to the couch with me and stood there. She made sure she was in front of me and was at attention. She did not bark or growl. but just watched him very carefully. It was pretty cute lol Here are some of her pictures lol







after this picture she started licking me and went back to serious mode lol more like "mom!! stop it!!! I am trying here!!" lol