Dogs a danger in emergencies.

[Specsy]

So on the 25th of July, our fence line and trees caught on fire because our idiotic neighbours set a fire to burn their grass without making sure they had a proper fire breaker. The fire moved incredibly fast however my dad and I managed to JUST keep it away from the house by about a metre.

The fire department DOES NOT come out to this area unless the fire is really already in destructive stages of your house. So we called the police to help us put the fire out. Which they did.

HOWEVER, the huge problem we occurred on this day, was our dogs. Now, our dogs are always free to roam in and around our yard/house as they please. They are not crate trained etc. as it was never necessary.

On this day, we were able to leash all the dogs and have them in an area inside the house furthest from the fire. We had to put them all away because they are incredibly aggressive toward people they see as a threat. The police officers were thrashing at the fire with branches etc and to my dogs, it looked as if they were attacking our property and us and it was a reason for them to protect.

This had me thinking of something else. My dogs are ALSO guard dogs, as in the area I live in there is crime. A lot of it. Therefore they are really awesome with not letting strangers into the yard unless we let them in. So...what happens when there is a serious emergency and people need to jump over the fence or something to save us? My dogs will attack.

I don't want to train them not to attack strangers because we actually NEED that, but in an emergency it could be incredibly dangerous to their and my family's well being.

I am so confused as to how to approach this situation. I am really wondering what happens one day if our home catches on fire and someone isn't here to put all the dogs away? What happens if I get injured in the house and need emergency services and can't let people in? On a day to day basis it is more important for me to have guard dogs than it is not to. There have been people shot and brutally attacked in this area and I feel completely safe because I know my dogs will protect me from these things. But I have started feeling insecure now since the fire as to what would happen to them in an emergency AND the people trying to help us.

 

[Kat09Tails]

There is a trade off to all things in this world. Sometimes the best thing you can do is pick your poison based on what the most likely scenario is.

The best thing to do imo to save your life if an emergency arises and save your dog's life is to train your dogs, proof them to distraction, and have a quick location to lock them up if the need arises like a kennel and train them to go there by voice command or gesture.

 

[Specsy]

There is a trade off to all things in this world. Sometimes the best thing you can do is pick your poison based on what the most likely scenario is.

The best thing to do imo to save your life if an emergency arises and save your dog's life is to train your dogs, proof them to distraction, and have a quick location to lock them up if the need arises like a kennel and train them to go there by voice command or gesture.

Excellent advice here, really need to get them to go to the kennel on command and then proof it. I know how to get it on command, but how do I correct when they do not do it immediately when doing distance control? Any suggestions?

 

[Shakou]

I've known people in the same situation, mainly with shepherds, who have trained them with a call off command. In the event something like this should happen, they give a command and the dogs retreat and stay that way until "released" with another command.

 

[Specsy]

How does one teach a call off? We don't even get so much as a bark if we let the person into the house ourselves and nobody is about to be my test subject to jump over the fence :/ I really also don't actually want someone standing at the gate, dogs barking and then me telling them to stop it, as I don't want them to think they are doing something wrong because the greater evil here in my area really is robberies/attacks/etc and I would really like my dogs to look scary and bark at the gate as a deterrent (only one of my dogs would actually bite).

It is UNLIKELY I will be alone in an emergency situation as my dad is unemployed and stays at home with me. However what scares me is IF something happens. The fire was a huge scare and I had everything to do with the dogs under control because I was at home. My biggest concern is what happens if there is a fire and nobody is at home and emergency services needs to jump my fence to put out the fire? There are a lot of "what-ifs" but the one certainty is if I didn't have my dogs barking quite fiercely at the gate when we first moved in here we would have probably been easy targets for a robbery (not knowing the area/people, not having an alarm system etc.). The previous owners of THIS house we are staying in now sold this house because they were brutally attacked and left for dead.

 

[Romy]

How are they with people they know approaching the house? And how big is your emergency services department?

One thing you might try is see if some of the local officers, firefighters, and paramedics might be willing to make friends with your dogs. When Strider was a puppy I took him to the local fire department when they weren't out on a call and asked if they would help me socialize him since he was training to be a service dog and I didn't want him to freak out if emergency personnel ever got called over.

They were pretty happy to. Some of them put on their gear, they turned on the sirens for a bit. Then I laid on the floor and pretended to be "dead" so they could poke and prod at me a bit and he would know that's normal. They gave him treats and he left thinking that they were a pretty cool bunch. He still likes officers, firefighters, etc. It has not affected his judgement as far as people touching me. If anything it made him a better judge, because he knows what is and isn't acceptable. One time a doctor lifted up the back of my shirt to listen to my lungs. I was anxious, and when the doctor lifted it Strider jumped to his feet and gave him the whale eye. I just told him to lay down and leave it, it was okay. He did it fine. I'm pretty darn sure that if someone broke in and tried to attack us, he'd NOT be okay with that happening.

 

[Kat09Tails]

Excellent advice here, really need to get them to go to the kennel on command and then proof it. I know how to get it on command, but how do I correct when they do not do it immediately when doing distance control? Any suggestions?

You build it in stages with a HERE! command first. Then slowly start adding distractions, then greater distractions, then really big distractions. Reward each time the dog responds to the first command. If you clicker train I usually mark once the dog stops what it's doing and heads in my direction.

Then you add the go to the kennel with a word or phrase that you're comfortable with using. I use "Get in there" with the lab, and usually just toss a few pieces of bait into it when I open the kennel door. She loves that game but she is a total chow hound.

 

[AliciaD]

Other people have great ideas. My initial thought was to train a room command. Bathroom, laundry room, whatever. I would train them to enter the room on command, and to only leave on command. Build up in duration, distance, and distraction. Always reward/praise for entering the room, but never let them leave without the release command. Training this sort of thing is especially easy when you are consistent right in the beginning.

 

[Shakou]

How does one teach a call off? We don't even get so much as a bark if we let the person into the house ourselves and nobody is about to be my test subject to jump over the fence :/ I really also don't actually want someone standing at the gate, dogs barking and then me telling them to stop it, as I don't want them to think they are doing something wrong because the greater evil here in my area really is robberies/attacks/etc and I would really like my dogs to look scary and bark at the gate as a deterrent (only one of my dogs would actually bite).

It is UNLIKELY I will be alone in an emergency situation as my dad is unemployed and stays at home with me. However what scares me is IF something happens. The fire was a huge scare and I had everything to do with the dogs under control because I was at home. My biggest concern is what happens if there is a fire and nobody is at home and emergency services needs to jump my fence to put out the fire? There are a lot of "what-ifs" but the one certainty is if I didn't have my dogs barking quite fiercely at the gate when we first moved in here we would have probably been easy targets for a robbery (not knowing the area/people, not having an alarm system etc.). The previous owners of THIS house we are staying in now sold this house because they were brutally attacked and left for dead.

I honestly don't know how it was done, I'm not a dog trainer lol. What I do know is these were guard dogs and extremely human aggressive to the point where they WOULD kill a person if given the chance, but were trained in such a way where they were very intuned with their handler and would sit and not move when given a command and would stay that way until the handler "released" them from that. Again though, these were also German Shepherds. I think they work a little different then Rotties.