Rhodesian Ridgeback vs German Shepherd

[Rikao4]

A strong NO or whatever word you use to correct her would work.
She's talking ...your grand-daughter being young just doesn't understand the msg. Growling however low, as they say..nip it. She sounds like a fine girl, just let her know the Big dog does not like growls in the house or at house guest.
Rika

[speeder]

Train the child, while you are at it. Some dogs are incredibly patient about taking abuse from kids, (like trying to climb on the dog's back), but if the kid doesn't learn fast they will do it to the wrong dog somewhere and get mauled. An angry dog vs. a small child is an ugly thing.

The Sheepdog sounds like a good dog, she is simply trying to communicate her displeasure w/ the kid. Nothing wrong w/ correcting the dog anytime she growls around children, but mostly you can never let small kids play w/ a dog unsupervised. It will be a matter of minutes, if not sooner, before they cross the line of abuse on the animal. It is the kids who need training.

[pwd72s]

Aye, that is the rub...I read once that until they reach a certain age, (wish I could remember what that was) children don't recognize animals as sentient beings. They tend to think of them as the same as a stuffed toy.

[scottmandue]

Speaking of shorthair's and intimidation factor I had a Doberman that was the sweetest dog I ever met.

Also with all this talk of barking... it can be taken over board very easily. If not kept reasonable a few calls to animal control by irate neighbors and your doggy will go bye bye.

[JavaBrewer]

Originally posted by Z-man
That, IMHO, the the best kinda guard dog - one that is only friendly with your immediate family.

When I was growing up, we used to live in Passaic, NJ. Rough and tough urban town. We had TWO guard dogs - one for outside, and one from the inside. The outside dog was a German Shepard. Both did not trust anyone except the immediate family - my parents, my sister, and me. The Shepard was known to bite. And it kept the bad people away. The inside dog, a Hungarian Puli, was even more viscious than the Shepard. With either dog, all that was necessary was to give the command, "Fogd meg." In Hungarian, that's catch him. They would be ready and willing to tear after anyone at that point.

Oh, they were also fun to rough-house with.

But the bottom line - if you want a guard dog, you only want that dog to be trusted only with your immediate family. Otherwise, he won't do a thing if there's a breakin.

-Z

Remember that Steve's original post was asking for a pet/guard dog combo. I don't think such a thing exists unless you really prioritize the 'pet' aspect over the 'guard' aspect. We loved our GSD, Ryker, but came to realize that he did not possess the correct temperment to be a pet. He was very very loyal and I was certain would die protecting anyone of our immediate family. He was the perfect 'guard' dog who never barked at stupid stuff like most neighborhood dogs do. Our neighbors never knew he was around to be honest.

To Ryker's defense he was perfectly social with dogs as a young pup all the way through 1 yr. After that he and I twice encountered aggressive (unleashed) dogs on our nightly run that tried to pick a fight with Ryker. The second occasion was especially bad as it was two dogs who attacked. I had to engage one with a soccer style kick in the ribs where they both then bolted. I hope I killed that damn dog. From that day Ryker changed. We took him to training classes with large expense of time and money but the damage was done.

The last straws for Ryker were his near fatal attack of a neighbor dog where he ignored my verbal commands and decidedly went after it. Finally, one day at home I saw him quietly stalking the young neighbor kids from the solid wood fenceline separating our homes. I had enough.

Our experience is by no means the average as I have encountered many GSD's who appear very gentle and loving pets. I'm just saying there is great risk in owning a large dog who can, very easily, kill or maim a person without warning or provocation. In today's climate of quick lawsuits and nervous neighbors you will find that there will be little to no tolerance for 'problem' dogs even if that means they crap in the neighbors yard. Look up the laws in your state reguarding your liability should an intruder enter your property (even jumping the fence to gain access) and be attacked by your pet/guard dog.

Edit - we all still miss Ryker, especially the kids, but my wife and I decided we could not deal with the stress. He really was a magnificent animal. Wish I had pictures of him on my work computer as I'd post them here.

[Rikao4]

Good point, don't know how current..most dog bites recorded by breed..Cocker Spaniels.
Large Breeds/and some of the small ones in the wrong hands // is like giving a 16 year old a Turbo.
I believe most dogs are good when born, there are lots of dangerous /lazy owners.
Rika

[JavaBrewer]

I don't want to keep harping on this but as you can probably tell it's a sore subject for me.

Another example of what if...

I was at work and we had a contractor, here as known as dumbass, over to repair some shoddy stucco work on our house. Wife is home and has Ryker in the house with her to let dumbass do his work. He notices Ryker watching intently through the glass door and then proceeds to run to the window yelling and moving wildly to *scare* Ryker. As dumbass is laughing Ryker is in full attack mode ready to go through the door. My wife screams at the guy through the door "Get the F**K off our property" where he runs away like the dumbass he is.

So the point, can you imagine what would have happened if my wife was upstairs and Ryker made it through the door to eat Mr. Dumbass. Guess who would be legally responsible and probably sued for every ****** penny...

[Rikao4]

Understand your anger,
Neighbor has one of those squeaky things (dog) runs into my house a bites my lady..Pascha was couch Rottie until that day. She is fine with all & everyone ,including other dogs big or small. One day I will have to post that she ate it. Cause that girl just won't forget.
Rika

[dogtrainer]

I don't know about ridgebacks but GSD's are good dogs just make sure you get one from a good breeder and then take the time to train it, a dog is what you make of it.

[Taz's Master]

I heartily endorse David's sentiment: there is great responsibility in owning a dog that is powerful enough to hurt or kill an adult. I believe a dog can be both a pet and a guard dog, but be very aware of the dangers such a powerful animal can pose.

[jimpennnn]

Anecdotal considerations from personal experience with both:

Although this doesn't speak well towards the s**tty neighborhoods I've lived in, i have experience with both dogs in terms of break-in response.

First break-in was with Sam, a GSD we owned when I was a child.

Family in the rear of house, crashing glass in front room, Sam the GSD runs to deter intruder. Gnashing of teeth, snarling, sam latches onto intruder's thigh and shakes violently. Father, fresh from Vietnam grabs rifle, runs to greet intruder who slightly-too-late recognizes he chose wrong house.
Intruder shoots and fatally wounds dog, father repeatedly shoots and fatally wounds intruder.

In this case, the dog clearly subdued threat and literally gave his life to protect his family. Still sad to think of it. Sam was a great dog and put up with all sorts of hair pulling from three small boys. Let me ride on his back like a horse. (note:i was small)

20 years later:
Rhodesian Ridgeback family pet. Because of my upbringing, we were taught that dogs are to be useful as well as pet...so I'm not a big fan of advice to buy small yappy dog as stated earlier in this thread.
In unfortunate event dog is necessary, a small dog will be completely useless after the first kick.

Wife and I were sleeping upstairs in a large home we were renovating and appeared vacant from outside. Loud crash downstairs (door kicked in), dog wakes, sprints barking towards stairs which lead directly to front door. Apparently intruder didn't try or didn't make it out front door before trapped by 119 pound ridgeback. Ridgebacks are bred to TRAP lions, not necessarily attack them. In packs this works as each dog lunges in, jumps away snarling and pressing game into corner while avoiding attack.

This trait was displayed with our intruder. By the time I made it downstairs with large caliber rifle, intruder was backed into furthest corner of downstairs. Ridgeback jumping in, quick grabbing bites, never grabbing and shaking like a Shepherd is known to do. Our dog seemed to be enjoying herself and in no apparent danger so I did nothing to stop the altercation. Yelled to wife to call 911, aimed large barrel towards unfortunate intruder and waited patiently for police to arrive. Dog attacked constantly in same manner for several minutes before police arrived.

So in terms of personal safety, both dogs are excellent visual crime deterrent while walking/jogging outside. It would take a complete moron to attack someone with either dog.

Attack styles: shepherd is vicious, violent attack. Ridgeback is incessant biting, jumping, trapping, cornering but not extremely violent mauling. It certainly looked painful and completely broke the will of intruder. He ended up bloody, crying on the floor begging for me to make it stop. (the ridgeback seemed happy, so I let her enjoy her moment, much to the dismay of unwelcome house guest)


Insurance rates in some states discriminate against shepherds, but not ridgebacks.

Trainability: GSD wants to please owner. Ridgeback wants to please owner when it's convenient to ridgeback. Both highly intelligent. Ridgeback uses intelligence to her advantage. GSD uses intelligence to owner's advantage.

Our ridgeback recently died of cancer and we're choosing a new dog. Currently trying to decide between breeds. Found this thread. Still can't decide.

Trainability of GSD is enormous plus. They chase and return a frisbee all day.

Ridgeback will return a frisbee twice before looking at you exasperated, seemingly thinking, "a**hole, I just got that thing for you twice and you threw it away again. You get it this time."

I like that spirit in a ridgeback.

I guess I should get one of each. You should too.

[backerbabe]

There is nothing like a RR. I tell folks once you've had a RR, anything else is just a dog. It is unfair to expect any other canine to follow in the pawprints of a RR. In my life I've had GSD, lab, pitbull, & Irish setter (if you can find the old fashioned field type they are very good dogs, honest). There is no comparison in intelligence, devotion, athletic ability, I could go on, but I'll spare you
The greatest problem I've seen over the years is trainability. It's really hard to train a dog when the dog is smarter than you are. This is not a breed I can recommend for an inexperienced owner, unless they're willing to invest in classes w/ an experienced trainer. Socialization & training are mandatory from an early age. A RR doesn't take well to repetition. They get bored & tune you right out. Just like the fetch story in a previous thread. Keep them interested. Make it fun. Change things up by repeating the lesson in a different environment.
These dogs are not going to turn out well if you push them around. Look for a trainer who emphasizes positive reinforcement, think clicker training for example. The RR is a sight hound, a scent tracker & will also air scent. With this in mind, let me say that this is the only breed of dog I've know to actually learn by observation of it's human. All dogs will learn from observing other dogs, but your RR will learn from watching you. The sight hound trait also makes it very easy to train using hand signals. Honestly. I've found that using a hand signal combined w/ a voice command works better than a voice command alone when introducing a new command. The voice is secondary.
Since it's easier to train smart dogs than stupid people, I teach my cute puppies -that will become 100lb dogs that tapping on your chest is a signal to sit. That way my dog never learns to jump on folks, just because some misguided human thought that it was cute to get a hug. Point being you can invent your own signals, you don't have to go by the book. The RR is a discriminating companion, capable of learning multiple signals for the same behavior. I'll stop preaching now, I guess it's blatantly obvious that the RR is the only dog I'll feed, vet & rearrange my life for.

[backerbabe]

I do want to make the point that while it is true the RR will hold off an intruder in it's territory as stated in another post, make no mistake about it, if your RR perceives a threat to it's human, all bets are off. Ferocious fury is a serious understatement. They will attack a threat to you so viciously, your GSD will retire to it's crate in shame.
That being said, the 2 commands a RR must learn are No & Come. The rest they learn naturally. It's best they never really get in the habit of doing their own thinking-something they REALLY excel at- but rather learn to look to you for guidance & permission. If you think you're up for a RR, get ready for the most rewarding relationship you can have with another species